"I Trust You". Fostering Social-Emotional Skills of Pre-Service Teachers Through Cooperative Games

Transformative education requires the participation of teachers with social-emotional skills. Examining the central role of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and the educational value of cooperative games (following the holistic approach of the Find-horn Foundation), the present contribution explores the emotions experienced and described by 157 second-year students from the Primary Education Master's programme at the Free University of Bozen (Italy). The students engaged in one or more sessions of cooperative games, involving body and non-verbal communication. The main categories relating to SEL which emerged from the Grounded Theory (GT ) data analysis will be presented, namely: \u0022experiencing relational well-being\u0022, \u0022discovering self-other\u0022, \u0022opening up to diversity\u0022, and \u0022growing professionally\u0022. Finally, the educational relevance of cooperative games within a holistic approach to promoting social-emotional skills in initial teacher training will be discussed

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