What is Social-Emotional Learning?
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is a process in which individuals are given the education and tools to learn how to understand and navigate their emotions, build and maintain positive relationships, and create a healthy identity.
According to CASEL (Collaborative for Social-Emotional Learning), there are five domains that make up social-emotional learning: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and healthy decision making. Each of these domains can be taught according to the individual’s developmental level, with skills building as the individual ages. These 5 competencies can include skills across all age groups, anywhere from preschool-aged to adulthood.
Why does it matter?
Research suggests that social-emotional learning increases emotional and social skills, including empathy, relationship skills, and self-regulation. Implementing social-emotional programs in schools was shown to cut behavioral concerns (aggression, bullying, and classroom disruptions) between 6% and 10%. In a study involving 22,000 students from over 80 should, 70% of students getting access to SEL programs within their school reported higher levels of both self-esteem and emotional resilience.
In addition to addressing emotional and behavioral concerns, social-emotional learning within school environments is shown to positively impact academic performance as well. In a meta-analysis done by CASEL (2011), it was found that students participating in SEL programs scored 11 percentile points higher on standardized academic achievement tests than students who did not have social-emotional programs implementing. It has also shown to increase student attendance between 10 and 15%, and decrease suspensions by 20%. Students who participate in social-emotional learning programs are 11% more likely to graduate from college (American Journal of Community Psychology). It is also shown to decrease educator burnout.
School-Wide Social Emotional Learning
School-wide social-emotional learning cannot exist in a vacuum; the school social worker should not be the only person implementing it. Best practices would involve schools building a SEL team, who will work together to make a plan on how to roll out social-emotional learning throughout the entire school. Although an important decision is choosing which evidence-based curriculum to choose, there are also important things to consider such as how the information will be delivered to students (for example, will each teacher teach their lesson at the same day/time every week or something different?), who will train the teachers, and how will these skills be supported by each member of the school staff.
While it may feel intensive to navigate building a social-emotional learning team, there are more ways than only curriculum implementation to integrate SEL into the school. This includes things such as building classroom community, beginning each day with a student check-in, or incorporating a “calm down” area into classrooms to support the use of emotional regulation tools.
By providing students access to Social-Emotional Learning in schools, we are able to prepare students not only for academic success, but to be healthy individuals in life beyond the classroom as well.