Social Emotional Learning: Creating a Truly Holistic Educational Experience
By Jaclyn A. Thomas, PhD
An anthropologist sees our experience in this world as a summation of biological, psychological, and cultural factors. You cannot truly understand humanity without understanding that each individual is the product of how their biopsychosocial environment coalesces to create the dynamic ever-changing human experience.
So, if we can see clearly the complexity that molds our experience over the course of a lifetime, why do we still treat our K12 schools as though they serve only one strictly information-based function?
They don’t. We know that.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), learning is situated in multiple social contexts – in other words, learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum of facts and tests. Learning happens in various contexts with various types of social interactions.
And we need to prepare our students for those varying contexts.
Entering the Chat: Social Emotional Learning
Social emotional learning, otherwise known as SEL, is a learning process where people develop crucial emotional awareness and management skills, relationship skills, decision-making skills, and social behavioral skills.
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), there are five core social and emotional competencies:
- Self-Awareness – learning to understand your own emotions, morals, and strengths.
- Self-Management – learning to regulate your emotions, control impulses, and mediate stress.
- Relationship Skills – learning how to have effective communication, cooperation, and conflict resolution.
- Social Awareness – learning how to have and demonstrate empathy, to understand differences in perspective, and appreciating different social norms.
- Responsible Decision-Making – learning to make ethical choices about personal and social behavior.
So really, SEL is all about fostering emotional intelligence, not just academic intelligence.
Why does SEL matter?
It matters because it’s about creating well-rounded, well-adjusted, self-sufficient human beings – a skillset that will remain not only useful for the rest of their life, but critical for long term well-being.
Psychologists have noted that interpersonal relationship skills and communication skills are critical for the social development of children and the learning process as a whole. Emotional intelligence and well-being have documented positive outcomes for educational performance, learning, and development.
For example, research shows that students who participated in SEL programs experienced an 11 percentile increase in overall academic achievement.
Without these skills, the academic side of their learning will be filled with obstacles and challenges. Furthermore, students who are equipped to handle personal or emotional challenges are better at adapting to the pressures of adulthood.
SEL: How are we doing?
Despite the consensus that social emotional learning is crucial, implementation of SEL programs is lagging.
Reports on the educational and social reforms of the K12 education system show that there is still a long way to go. For example, a report by the AEI/Brookings Working Group suggests that many of the reforms undertaken over the last several decades have not sufficiently addressed the social and emotional components of the learning experience.
To be fair, SEL programs can be difficult to implement. Teachers are already stretched thin from teaching core curriculum and helping students bridge achievement gaps. The addition of another educational responsibility can seem daunting at best… unachievable at worst.
According to a survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center, many teachers also feel like they do not have the professional development opportunities to efficiently implement SEL curriculum and that the social and emotional needs of their students are beyond the scope of their abilities.
StrongMind’s Solution
At StrongMind, we understand and value the importance of having a SEL program and have dedicated ourselves to making content that fits in seamlessly with the core educational experience of our K12 schools. We recognize the importance of having this content while also understanding the difficulties around its implementation.
Not only is our curriculum for social emotional learning based on the CASEL framework – the highest standard for SEL programs – but we have also performed our own user-based research on our SEL content to further ensure that our SEL program is engaging, usable, and effective.
To learn more about StrongMind’s SEL offerings, please reach out to us. We would love to speak with you about how our innovative, research-based social emotional learning program could benefit yourself.
