Assessing social, emotional, and intercultural competences of students and school staff. A systematic literature review

Abstract

The inclusion of social, emotional, and intercultural competences (SEI) in academic contexts has been supported by international organizations, such as the European Union, the United Nations, and the OECD, since the early 2000s. However, little information is yet available regarding the assessment of these competences. This paper shares the findings of a systematic literature review that produced an inventory of existing tools for the assessment of SEI competences of students and school staff. This is the first time assessment tools for these three competences have been concurrently reviewed. An interdisciplinary and international research team conducted this systematic literature review in the databases of ERIC, PsycInfo, PSYNDEX, Scopus, and Web of Science. Out of 13,963 articles, 149 assessment tools were examined and processed. In addition to the instrument analysis and a detailed description of the procedure, this article shows the basic theoretical concepts, as well as the limitations, of such a review. It was found that 1) the majority of the discovered instruments rely on self-reported survey and inventory data, 2) of the three competences, intercultural competence had the fewest relevant instruments, and 3) very few tools have been created to assess all three competences together. From this review, it is apparent that a wider variety of assessment tools (other than self-reports), as well as more comprehensive tools (e.g. qualitative analysis of vignettes) for the assessment of all three SEI competences, should be developed to meet international demand. The results of the literature review are available and freely accessible in the form of an assessment catalogue. (DIPF/Orig.