Nurturing Social and Emotional Learning Across the Globe

Spain

The Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) is an international survey designed by the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation to improve understanding of social and emotional skills of school-aged children. The survey aims to understand how levels of these skills differ among students with different characteristics; how these skills matter for important student outcomes; and how students’ school and home environments influence skill development.

Spain participated for the first time in the SSES in 2023, assessing the skills and learning environments of students aged 15.

This site note provides an overview of findings of Volume II of the SSES 2023 (OECD, forthcoming[1]) for Spain. Volume II points to significant differences between and within participating countries and subnational entities (hereafter, “sites”) in how social and emotional skills are promoted in school, at home and by society, as well as how this relates to differences in skills.

The site note provides key results for ensuring students’ social and emotional growth in Spain in three areas:

• the promotion of social and emotional learning inside and outside of school

• support and safety at school

• gender equity among students

Results for Spain are compared to the international average across participating sites (reported as “average” within this note). By comparing results internationally, policy makers and educators in Spain can learn from policies and practices in the other sites. Further information about the calculation of these averages can be found at the end of this note and in the Reader’s Guide within Volume II of the SSES 2023 (OECD, forthcoming[1]).

The OECD collaborated with the National Institute for Educational Assessment (INEE), Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, and Sports of Spain as the national project partner to implement the SSES in Spain.

How is social and emotional learning promoted inside and outside of school?

Teacher feedback

• Students aged 15 who received more teacher feedback reported higher social and emotional skills. However, the strength of these relationships varies depending on the specific skill and site. In Spain, receiving more frequent teacher feedback is most strongly associated with trust, sociability, optimism, energy and tolerance at age 15.

• In 2023, 34% of 15-year-olds in Spain reported that their teachers provide them with feedback on ways to improve performance (average: 42%) and 35% on areas in which they could improve in many lessons or every lesson (average: 39%). Moreover, 18% of 15-year-olds reported frequently receiving feedback on their strengths (average: 27%).

Figure 1. Type of teacher feedback, by site

Percentage of students who reported receiving the following types of feedback in many lessons or every or almost every lesson

Note: Sites are listed in descending order of the percentage of students who reported that their teachers provided feedback on their strengths in every or almost every lesson.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Table A2.1.

Social and emotional teaching online and remotely

• Most teachers perceived online and remote teaching as a challenge rather than an opportunity for social and emotional learning, especially for developing social skills. Of the 17% of teachers who had taught students on line or remotely during the previous year in Spain (average: 40%), 76% felt that the development of skills such as being assertive, sociable and enthusiastic around other people were hindered a bit or a lot by online or remote teaching (average: 65%). Some 10% of teachers with recent online or remote teaching experience perceived online and remote teaching as able to foster these skills (average: 23%).

Teacher preparedness

• Many teachers of 15-year-olds felt not capable of and lacked training in social and emotional teaching. In Spain, 87% of 15-year-olds’ teachers reported feeling not at all or only to a small extent capable of understanding students’ feelings and emotions (average: 27%) and 80% of teachers felt this way about helping students develop social and emotional skills (average: 30%). Moreover, 44% of teachers of 15-year-olds lacked training in incorporating social and emotional learning in the classroom (average: 29%) and 52% of teachers had no training in monitoring social and emotional learning (average: 40%).

Organisation of social and emotional education and mindset at school

• The formal integration of teaching social and emotional skills into general practices and teaching across subjects is very common across schools. In Spain, social and emotional education is integrated across all subjects for 97% of 15-year-olds (average: 83%), while 55% of 15-year-olds attended schools where social and emotional education is taught as a separate subject (average: 38%).

• Despite the wide integration of social and emotional education across subjects, 77% of students aged 15 in Spain were in schools where not all teachers and the principal agreed that teachers should be responsible for social and emotional learning (average: 58%). Some 15% of students were in schools lacking a shared mindset among school staff that these skills could be taught (average: 42%).

• A joint acknowledgement of the wide-ranging impact of social and emotional skills was even less common: 93% of 15-year-olds were in schools without a shared mindset on the impact of social and emotional skills on social equality (average: 81%), and 97% attended a school where staff did not agree about their impact on youth employment and economic success (average: 79%).

Figure 2. Shared mindset on the impact of social and emotional skills on increasing youth employment, economic success and social equality, by site

Percentage of 15-year-old students in schools where all teachers and the principal (strongly) agree that social and emotional skills have an impact on increasing youth employment, economic success and social equality

Note: Sites are listed in descending order of the percentage of students in schools where all teachers and principals agreed or strongly agreed that social and emotional skills impact youth employment and economic success.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Table A2.14.

Students’ engagement in extra-curricular activities

• Students aged 15 who engaged regularly in extra-curricular activities reported higher social and emotional skills. In Spain, engaging in extra-curricular activities is most strongly linked to higher energy, achievement motivation, persistence, optimism and curiosity at age 15.

• Students in Spain participated in a range of different extra-curricular activities: For example, 12% of 15-year-olds reported participating at least once a month in sports activities (average: 27%) and 65% in art activities (average: 53%). Moreover, 11% engaged regularly in environmental protection activities (average: 29%).

How supportive and safe are schools in Spain?

Sense of belonging and emotions at school

• Students aged 15 who feel a greater sense of belonging, more positive emotions and less negative emotions while at school, report higher levels of all skills in all sites. In Spain, sense of belonging is most strongly associated with sociability, optimism, energy, trust and stress resistance. Positive emotions at school in Spain are most strongly associated with optimism, energy, achievement motivation, stress resistance and trust. Students with less negative emotions at school report higher levels of optimism, emotional control, stress resistance, energy and trust.

Figure 3. Differences in sense of belonging and emotions at school by student characteristics

Differences in students’ sense of belonging, positive emotions and negative emotions at school indices, by gender, socioeconomic status and educational achievement – by site

Note: Significant average differences at a threshold p < 0.05 are coloured, while non-significant average differences are outlined. High and low academic performers are students respectively in the top or bottom quarter of educational achievement in their site. Advantaged and disadvantaged students are students respectively in the top or bottom quarter of the index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) in their site. Sites are listed in alphabetical order.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Tables A3.2, A3.5, A3.11.

• Students’ sense of belonging and emotions at school often differed according to gender, socioeconomic status and academic achievement. In Spain, girls reported significantly less belonging, fewer positive emotions and more negative emotions. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students reported less belonging and fewer positive emotions. Low academic performers reported less belonging, fewer positive emotions and more negative emotions. There were no significant differences in negative emotions by socio-economic background.

• Across sites, students’ emotional experiences varied widely. In Spain, the following percentages of 15-year-olds reported feeling each positive emotion at school more than half of the time: 49% felt confident (average 39%); 27% felt motivated (average of 33%); 31% felt interested (average 40%); and 56% felt happy (average 50%).

• For negative emotions, the following percentages of 15-year-olds in Spain reported these emotions more than half the time while at school: 13% felt anxious (average 20%); 13% felt upset (average 17%); and 10% felt angry (average 15%).

Figure 4. Composition of 15-year-olds’ positive emotions at school, by site

Percentage of students who reported they have felt the following ways more than half the time while at school

Note: See Annex A for information about how the positive emotions index was calculated. Sites are listed in descending order of the positive emotions index.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Table A3.4.

Figure 5. Composition of 15-year-olds’ negative emotions at school, by site

Percentage of students who reported they have felt the following ways more than half the time while at school

Note: See Annex A for information about how the negative emotions index was calculated. Sites are listed in descending order of the negative emotions index.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Table A3.10.

Relationships at school

• Good relationships with teachers and classmates are associated with higher levels of skills in all sites, but each type of relationship promotes different skills. For 15-year-olds in Spain, the skills with the strongest association to teacher-student relationships are strongest for achievement motivation, persistence, trust, curiosity and optimism. For peer-to-peer relationships, the strongest associations are for trust, optimism, sociability, energy and emotional control.

Bullying

• Many students who bully others also report being victims of bullying themselves. In Spain, 7% of students report being both a victim and perpetrator of bullying, 12% report being a victim only and 4% report being a perpetrator only (averages: 11% both victim and perpetrator, 14% victim only and 5% perpetrator only).

• In Spain, being a victim only of bullying is most strongly associated with lower levels of optimism, trust, sociability, emotional control and stress resistance and higher levels of empathy and creativity compared to students not involved in bullying, whereas being a perpetrator only is most strongly associated with lower levels of achievement motivation, trust, responsibility, self-control and emotional control and higher levels of assertiveness. Reporting being both a victim and perpetrator is most strongly associated with lower levels of responsibility, emotional control, self-control, stress resistance and trust.

Figure 6. Percentage of 15-year-olds who reported being a victim, a perpetrator of both, by site

Note: Sites are listed in descending order of the total involvement in bullying. The percentages of involvement in bullying refer to students who reported being involved in bullying - victim and/or perpetrator - in at least one of the items several times a month or more.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Table A3.34.

What is the state of gender equity among students?

Gender stereotypes

• Boys tend to agree more with gender stereotypes than girls, particularly with those related to women’s access to financial resources and positions of leadership. In Spain, 25% of boys agreed that men make better political leaders, compared to 3% of girls (averages: 33% of boys and 10% of girls). More boys (6%) than girls (2%) also said having a well-paying job is more important for men (averages: 16% of boys and 5% of girls).

Figure 7. Students’ agreement with gender stereotypes, by site

Note: Sites are listed in descending order of the percentage of students agreeing or strongly agreeing that boys are more ambitious than girls. Only differences that are statistically significant with a threshold of p < 0.05 are noted by site names.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Tables A4.2 and A4.4.

• Agreement with gender stereotypes is most strongly associated with lower levels of tolerance, responsibility, emotional control, persistence and curiosity among students in Spain.

Responsibilities for unpaid domestic tasks

• Women tend to take on greater responsibility for unpaid domestic tasks such as cleaning, cooking and childcare than men. For example, in Spain, 31% of students said female relatives were mainly responsible for cleaning the house, while 2% said the same for male relatives (averages: 40% for female relatives and 3% for male relatives).

• Students in homes where domestic tasks were shared between male and female relatives tended to disagree more with gender stereotypes and have greater social and emotional skills. In Spain, greater equity at home was most strongly associated with higher levels of trust, tolerance, responsibility, persistence and achievement motivation.

Key features of SSES 2023

Which social and emotional skills are covered in the Survey?

The 15 skills measured in the Survey were selected to provide a comprehensive coverage of those that are relevant for children’s and adolescents’ success and well-being:

• Task performance skills (persistence, responsibility, self-control and achievement motivation)

• Emotional regulation skills (stress-resistance, emotional control and optimism)

• Engaging with others skills (assertiveness, sociability and energy)

• Open-mindedness skills (curiosity, creativity and tolerance)

• Collaboration skills (empathy and trust)

How were skills and learning environments measured?

All students completed a questionnaire where they indicated the extent to which they agree or disagree with a series of statements. Examples of statements include: ‘I keep working on a task until it is finished’, ‘I stay calm even in tense situations’ and ‘I am able to defend my interests when they are challenged’. Additionally, students answered a background questionnaire on their school and home environment. Information on the promotion of social and emotional skills in school was also collected via questionnaires from teachers and principals of the participating students.

Who participated in the Survey?

Students in sixteen sites – six countries and ten sub-national entities - participated in SSES 2023:

• Bulgaria, Bogotá (Colombia), Chile, Delhi (India), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Emilia-Romagna (Italy), Gunma (Japan), Helsinki (Finland), Jinan (China), Kudus (Indonesia), Mexico, Peru, Sobral (Brazil), Spain, Turin (Italy) and Ukraine. Data from Mexico did not meet the standards, and was therefore not included in the reporting.

Data from six sites who participated only in the first round of SSES in 2019 are included in analyses wherever possible to expand the coverage:

• Daegu (Korea), Houston (United States), Istanbul (Türkiye), Manizales (Colombia), Ottawa (Canada), and Suzhou (China)

Some 52,000 15-year-old students took the SSES survey in 2023 across all 16 participating sites. In Spain, approximately 3,300 15-year-old students completed the survey.

Who does the data represent?

The data represents about 3 million 15-year-olds in the schools of the 16 participating sites. In Spain, the data represents 487,600 15-year-old students.

How were averages built?

Where averages are provided, these correspond to the arithmetic mean of all participating sites except for Sintra (Portugal) and Mexico. Data for Sintra (Portugal) and Mexico did not meet the technical standards. Further information can be found in the Reader’s Guide within Volume II of the SSES 2023 (OECD, forthcoming[1]).