Effectiveness of group treatment to reduce social-emotional problems in the classroom

In the theoretical and empirical part of the master's thesis, we focus on developing social and emotional skills in children. In relationships with peers, they may find themselves in situations that they cannot manage on their own. There are different reasons for this, and in the context of school, emotional, behavioral and social problems can also result in less supportive classroom climate. If we include some children from the class, where such problems occur, in a group form of social and emotional learning, they can develop more appropriate behaviour, communication, and self-expression in a safe environment. This can be achieved through social games, creative media and conversation, with emphasis on relationships. By developing social and emotional skills in children, we can also have a beneficial impact on the classroom climate. Our research approach is an action-evaluation research, the main goal of which is to determine the positive effects of group work on the overall well-being of children in a group, and furthermore, in the class. With the questionnaire, we assess the well-being of fourth-graders in their class in one of Maribor regular primary schools, before starting the process of group work and afterwards. In the experimental group, there are children from the class with more significant emotional, behavioral and social problems, and in the control group there are children from the parallel class. On the voluntary basis, 14 of 22 children from the experimental group are included in a three-month group treatment. Meetings are regularly evaluated and planned accordingly. Results are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, and are interpreted and compared descriptively afterwards. With this research, we want to offer guidelines directly from practice, in order to help school workers identifying and helping groups or classes of children, where emotional, behavioral and social problems may occur