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Social Emotional Learning is Essential
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) “is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions” (CASEL).
SEL develops five interrelated skill sets:
Self-Awareness
Self-Management
Social Awareness
Relationship Skills
Responsible Decision-Making
There are four key settings in which SEL takes place:
Classrooms
Schools
Families
Communities
Looking at the circular SEL framework (the image to the left), notice the skills in orange (self-management and self-awareness) are skills practiced internally or individually, those in green (social awareness and relationship skills) are practiced externally or interpersonally. Responsible decision-making is in yellow to indicate that it is practiced both internally and interpersonally. SEL works to enhance the lives of individuals and grow healthy communities.
For more information on the breadth & beauty of schoolwide SEL, please click the image to the left to visit the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
The benefits of SEL are many and decades of research shows:
Improvement in students’ social and emotional skills, attitudes, relationships, academic performance, and perceptions of classroom and school climate
Decline in students’ anxiety, behavior problems, and substance use
Long-term improvements in students’ skills, attitudes, prosocial behavior, and academic performance
Wise financial investment according to cost-benefit analysis (CASEL).
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