"<< Background >>In today's world where technology has penetrated into almost all spheres of our lives, automation systems and robots have become alternative to humans in many business sectors from agriculture to industry. Many factories have already automatised, started to employ a minimum number of people and for example, about 1.7 million manufacturing jobs have already been lost to robots since 2000, including 400,000 in Europe (https://teamstage.io/jobs-lost-to-automation-statistics/). This has also led to the emergence of new jobs in the labour market such as product owners, customer success specialists, and sales development representatives, behaviour health technicians, etc., highlighting both cognitive and affective skills of humans in business interactions. Therefore, social and emotional learning skills have become prominent in terms of increasing employability and facilitating social relations, but in reality, these skills are always needed to maintain strong and healthy relations with others, provide resilience in difficult conditions and deal with challenges in real-life situations.Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) refers to the concept of developing social-emotional skills in order to make students more effective in learning (Guerra & Bradshaw, 2008). Therefore, SEL is the ability to be aware of one's own emotions, manage emotions, solve problems, build relationships and empathize (Waltz, 2013) and it is of great importance in students' ability to function in school settings as well as in real life. A structural approach to fostering SEL skills can facilitate teachers to help students attain these skills more effectively.Thus, the integration of computational thinking comes in view promisingly, referring to “the thought processes involved in formulating problems and their solutions so that the solutions are represented in a form that can be effectively carried out by an information-processing agent” (Wing 2011). It involves a set of skills in which students can leverage to tackle hard problems of all kinds. These skills are named decomposition, abstraction, pattern recognition and algorithmic thinking.Computational thinking, as a problem-solving process, can be used in any discipline (Yadav, Mayfield, Zhou, Hambrusch & Korb, 2014). Supportingly, Bundy (2007) states that the use of computational thinking concepts in other disciplines via problem-solving techniques was a success and that the ability to think computationally is essential to ""every discipline"". Thus, fostering social-emotional learning skills by employing computational thinking skills step-by-step will facilitate students to make progress more consciously.Since education must cultivate the student as a whole, it is crucial to improve students' SEL skills so students are not only equipped with the knowledge they need to achieve their goals but also discover the ways of accomplishment and pull others along with them. It is literally what it means to be future-ready. By bringing computational thinking and social and emotional learning into instruction and course delivery we will humanise data and 21st-century problems by employing essential social and emotional skills. This will enable us to ensure a holistic future that becomes more accessible to students.<< Objectives >>School is a learning environment where learning acquisitions and activities affecting learning, are planned and framed carefully. Therefore school is the only perfect place that may help an individual grow as a person who can comprehend and describe his/her own emotions, realize others' feelings and establish healthy relationships. In this regard, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), as a key competence, becomes prominent not only for healthy social interactions but also for academic achievement, since success comes from having a meaning in our lives, doing what we have passionate in and being aware of why and how we learn, that is all of these depend on our emotional conditions while doing something.In literature, one of the descriptions of SEL (SEL, 2003) is given as the ability to understand, manage, and express the social and emotional aspects of one's life in ways that enable the successful management of life tasks such as learning, forming relationships, solving problems, and adapting to the complex demands of growth and development (Cherniss, 2000).COMPUSEL aims to improve the SEL Skills of primary students and training primary school teachers for this purpose. We will develop a curriculum and digital stories including examples of different social and emotional challenges that we will discuss and seek solutions together with primary school teachers to foster self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship or responsible decision-making.When it comes to purposeful learning and student achievement, teachers always matter most (RAND, 2012). Teachers’ competencies and performances have powerful effects on student achievement: up to three-quarters of school effects on the student, outcomes can be explained by teacher effects (Rivkin, Hanushek & Kain, 2005). Teachers' efficiency during teaching activities is directly proportional to the continuous development of their professional skills and competencies.Therefore, it is essential to equip students with the necessary skills for their future. In this project, through computational thinking, students will find an opportunity to navigate complex problems regarding SEL. Besides, the roles of teachers and schools are also changing, and so are expectations about them: teachers have been required to implement innovative teaching methods in their classrooms. Computational thinking to be administered in this project is not just a foundation for technology skills like coding, but it is instead a vehicle to generate social and emotional attitudes needed for students to be future-ready. Accordingly, this project will support teachers to use innovative approaches (such as the use of computational thinking as well as digital stories)OBJECTIVESTherefore, with this project, through integrating computational thinking skills and digital stories in teaching SEL, we aim to teach children to structure problems so they can be solved. Accordingly, this will help students to master an art of thinking that will enable them to tackle complex challenges in all aspects of their lives. To actualise this, we will train primary school teachers about how to employ computational thinking skills to strengthen SEL skills.The other objectives pursued by the project practicea- to support teachers to help their students regarding full social inclusionb- to support teachers to help their students strive for success by developing their SEL skillsTARGET GROUPSThe first main target group of the project practice will be a total of 100 primary school teachers in the partner countries. These teachers will be involved in the project practice actively through seminars, workshops and training activities (piloting). The second main target group of the project consists of 100 primary school students attending public schools (associatedpartners) in the partner countries and will be trained during the piloting. 17 teacher educators (lecturers/trainers) are another target group of the project.<< Implementation >>METHODOLOGYWe will carry out the content development phases through descriptive methods; document analysis, literature reviews, workshops, individual work and teamwork.We will carry out seminars and piloting processes through experimental methods; interview teachers at the beginning and end of the seminars; apply questionnaires to the students and teachers to reveal the effectiveness of the piloting activities.We will carry out COMPUSEL Project in 3 phases and the method we will use is as follows.CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENTA - Knowledge Paper Preparation1- A priory study will be conducted to clarify the focal points of the SEL curriculum. For this reason, a Knowledge Paper will be prepared.2- Literature reviews, small group works and small workshops with the participation of teachers, teacher trainers and other relevant stakeholders will be carried out for the content development. In these activities, students' behavioural problems and the challenges that they face will be handled. SEL skills to be focused on will be clarified.B - Curriculum Development Process1- Curriculum will be in a modular design.2- Module components will be determined.3- Computational thinking will be used as an instructional strategy. Computational thinking consists of four elements that are named ""decomposition, abstraction, pattern recognition and algorithmic skills"". Decomposition requires breaking down a complex problem or system into smaller, more manageable parts. Abstraction requires changing the way data is presented such as visual ways of accessing data. Thus, this stage focuses on the important information only, ignores irrelevant detail. Pattern recognition looks for similarities among and within problems. Algorithmic thinking skills developing a step-by-step solution to the problem, or the rules to follow to solve the problem. These steps will be considered as an instructional strategy during the development of the curriculum.4- Semi-structured interviews will be administered for teachers to understand to what extent they think the curriculum effective to develop primary school students’ SEL skills. Besides, a questionnaire will be developed for students to understand their views of the curriculum.DIGITAL STORIESA- Creation of Digital Stories1- Digital Stories will be prepared based on the objectives and acquisitions indicated in the SEL curriculum.2- 2 stories will be prepared by each partner organisation. Digital stories will consist of problems regarding SEL skills that primary school students meet in their school and/or out of school lives. Then, after students watch the digital stories, they will use the steps in computational thinking stated above to find a solution to these problems. 3- All stories will be gathered in one document, then translations will be made, and 5 different language versions of the document will be sent to Ed-Tech Company for technical operations.B - Development of Digital Stories1- Typesetting, graphic design, embedding, interactive presentations and animations will be developed by Ed-Tech company for the preparation of the digital stories.2- It will be in 6 different language versions.GUIDE FOR TEACHERS1- All partners will prepare the guide for teachers through individual work and teamwork.2- The guide will include suggestions for teachers on how to apply the SEL curriculum and how (when, where, why) to do the developed learning activities.3- Therefore the guidebook will give information about the instructional strategy (how to employ computational thinking skills to foster SEL skills) and also provide learning activities for quality course delivery.4- Partners and external experts will give feedback about the Guide and it will be finalised.<< Results >>Expected results of the project practice as follows.1- Process-oriented resultsa- Transnational Project MeetingsIn this process, partners will work together face-to-face and personal dialogue will be improved. Communication and cooperation will be maintained effectively and any conflicts will be solved immediately. Exchange of know-how will be realised and archiving will be checked regularly. The quality functioning of the project practice will be ensured in this way.b- Preparation Process of Project ResultsResearch, literature reviews, interviews, content development through individual works and teamwork will be carried out. These will increase the capacity of the project team members on SEL in terms of knowledge accumulation and research experience.c- Multiplier Events & Other Activities to Share and Promote the Project ResultsProject Results and project practice will be introduced to nearly 300 stakeholders during the 5 multiplier events and other promotional events. Capacity building through the exchange of know-how will be realised as a result of these events. Participant educators will be more aware of learning activities related to how to foster the social and emotional learning skills of students.d- Seminars (For Teachers)Teachers will be informed related to the teaching practices of SEL during the seminars. This will provide teachers to gain insight into how to create awareness of students related to realising, controlling or managing emotions for more effective social relations and commitment to lifelong learning.e- Piloting5 teachers working in primary schools will apply the curriculum in their schools. They will do the prepared extracurricular activities with students in the allocated hours during the spring semester of 2024. At the end of the piloting, the effectiveness of the project results will be revealed. Teachers' and students' views on their experiences will be questioned through semi-structured interviews. The effect of the practices in terms of students' school connectedness, the increase in their interests and motivations in studying, and their commitment to attend school regularly will be revealed at the end of the interviews. Their satisfaction levels will also be determined. The results of the piloting will lead the partnership either to make new arrangements in the project results or keep them as they are.f- Improvement of SEL skills of primary school studentsToday's children represent the mind and manpower of the future, so we need to have effective means to assist them to grow as people who have integrity, resilience and commitment to make efforts for themselves, their success, their societies and for humanity. The piloting process will reflect the change in the students' attainments. A questionnaire will be administered to understand to what extent primary school students’ social-emotional learning skills are developed throughout the piloting process.2- Product-oriented resultsa- Project ResultsPR1- SEL curriculum/module for primary school students will have been prepared during the project practice.PR2- Digital Stories including challenging situations in terms of improving SEL skills will have been prepared after the preparation of PR1.PR3- Guide for Teachers will have been prepared after the preparation of PR2 to assist teachers to apply the SEL curriculum and affiliated learning activities during the piloting.b- Deliverables- Confidential Deliverables: Main Contract, Partnership Agreements, Quality Assurance Plan, Quality Evaluation Forms, Quality Reports, Sharing and Promotion Reports, Sharing and Promotion Plan, Interim and Final Reports, Budget Reports, Archived Documents for the Provision of Budget- Common Deliverables: Knowledge Paper, Project Website, The Content of the Digital Stories, e-brochures, e-newsletters and Infographics, Newswire Releases, Promotional Materials"