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A Closer Look at Our Secondary Social Emotional Learning Curriculum
A Closer Look at Our Secondary Social Emotional Learning Curriculum
Social Emotional Competencies
Social Emotional Competencies
The Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is a network of people who are committed to, and are passionate about, social emotional learning (SEL).
CASEL have developed a framework for supporting SEL that is used by many international schools around the world (see image). The framework captures five core SEL competencies and reflects the significance of these competencies within school, home and community environments.
The five core SEL competencies;
● Self-awareness;
● Self-management;
● Responsible decision making;
● Relationship skills;
● Social awareness;
are all skills that can be taught, acquired, practised and developed. As an IB curriculum school, all GJS teachers are expected to teach these SEL skills explicitly in their lessons. Consider, for example, the power of a Math teacher guiding their students to practice resilience when trying to solve a challenging Math problem. The Math teacher may set aside time for students to share the strategies that they use in order to be resilient before asking the class to select one strategy for themselves to try. These SEL competencies help our students to grow as people as well as increase the likelihood of the students growing as self-regulated independent learners.
The Secondary advisory curriculum is structured in a way that students receive instruction and practice in how to acquire, practice and develop these skills. Let’s take a closer look at what this might look like, through the lens of one of the SEL competencies, Self-Awareness.
Self-Awareness
For more information about what is meant by self-awareness, check out this brief video, created by the CASEL network.
We teach all of our Secondary students about self-awareness, at varying points in the advisory curriculum. Here are some examples of what this might look like across the year levels:
Year 8
Our ‘Confidence is Key!’ unit helps students to be aware of their strengths and attitudes and aims to give students strategies to help them to build their self-esteem.
Year 9
Our year 9 ‘Values’ unit explores the connections between personal values and understanding what motivates us and why we make the decisions and take the actions that we take. Students work on the skill of being able to accurately perceive oneself.
Year 10
One of the advisory units that year ten will explore is about self-care and mental health. Students will learn about self-efficacy and growth mindset and how these skills can be explored through mindfulness and reflection
Year 11
Even our older students need to continue to develop their self-awareness. This particular unit, focusing on getting organised and prepared for university applications, helps students to not only identify their strengths but also to capture them in CVs and applications.
GJS teachers focus on teaching students the skills of HOW to be a successful independent learner as research shows that this is the key factor that determines future career success.
For more information about our advisory curriculum, contact the Dean of Students at vicki@globaljaya.com
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