Self-Awareness in the Context of Social Emotional Learning Theory: A Literature Review for Tool Development

Abstract ―​

The construct of Self-Awareness is described as the ability to accurately recognize one’s emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior. It also emphasizes one's strengths to assess limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence, optimism, and “growth mindset”. It is also considered as a skill that allows individuals to continually develop as they learn more about themselves, their abilities, and their values. Strengthening self-awareness early in life can help students succeed socially, emotionally, and academically. Using SEL as a framework can help in developing and establishing items that will measure on the different sub-competencies of self-awareness: self-confidence, accurate self-perception, recognizing strength, self-efficacy, and identifying emotions. Developing a tool for this psychological construct will be of great help to universities in identifying areas of strength and limitations among students in the university that can be utilized in initiating intervention programs that further develop their skills for them to be able to navigate university life in a more productive and efficient manner. The purpose of this study is to gather in-depth research information about self-awareness to establish well defined constructs prior to the development of items and the tool itself.