The Impact of Second Step on First Grader Self-Regulation

Many studies have been conducted to identify the correlation between self-regulation and learning. What has proven to be certain is that higher levels of self-regulation yield results of higher levels of learning. The question that remains for many teachers is how do we increase self-regulation in children? This study examines the impact of Second Step on first grader self-regulation. Second Step is a social and emotional learning curriculum that teaches students self-regulation through focusing on working memory, attention, and inhibitory control. The first graders in this study were taught one Second Step lesson a week for 6 weeks. A pre and post assessment was given to measure their understanding of self-regulation strategies, while behavior observations were recorded once per week. The results of this study showed that the more that Second Step strategies were taught to first graders, the less off-task behaviors they displayed. This indicates that there could be a correlation between the Second Step curriculum and first graders effectively identifying and implementing self-regulation strategies for learning. This study took place during the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore was impacted by the effects of the pandemic which is further discussed in the conclusion. Keywords: Second Step, self-regulatio