Embedded Files
What Is Social-Emotional Learning?
What Is Social-Emotional Learning?
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing students’ social-emotional competencies.
Those are the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that individuals need to make successful choices (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2003).
SEL promotes activities that develop children’s ability to recognize and manage emotions, build relationships, solve interpersonal problems, and make effective and ethical decisions. Developing social and emotional skills is even more critical for students living in under resourced areas, both urban and rural. Students in urban areas and/or areas that are under resourced are surrounded by added stressors that make it difficult for them to learn. When students develop social-emotional competencies, they are more capable of seeking help when needed, managing their own emotions, and problem-solving difficult situations (Romasz, Kantor, & Elias, 2004). According to CASEL (http://www.casel.org/social -and-emotional-learning/core-competencies), there are five core social-emotional competencies, each addressing multiple skills that students need to be successful in school and their future careers.
The Five Overarching Competencies are as follows:
- Self-awareness is the ability to recognize one’s own feelings, interests, and strengths, in addition to maintaining an accurate level of self-efficacy. Students who are self-aware are capable of describing and understanding their own emotions. In addition, they are capable of recognizing their own strengths and weaknesses (Payton et al., 2000). Students’ beliefs about their own strengths and weaknesses influence the academic choices they make, how long they will persist on tasks (Zimmerman, 2000), and whether or not they will ask for help on academic tasks (Ryan, Gheen, & Midgley, 1998).
- Self-management skills allow individuals to handle daily stresses and control their emotions under difficult situations. Students’ capacities to regulate their emotions impact student memory and the cognitive resources they use on academic tasks (Gross, 2002). Self-management skills include the ability to monitor and reflect on personal and academic goal-setting. Academic self regulation has important implications for student motivation in the classroom, as well as the learning strategies students use to master material (Clearly & Zimmerman, 2004).
- Social awareness allows individuals to take others’ perspectives into account and to empathize with others. Socially aware students are more likely to recognize and appreciate the similarities and differences of others. Social awareness is particularly important for students as they participate in new instructional shifts. Students need to take the perspectives of their classmates during classroom discussions and attempt to empathize and relate with characters during analysis of texts.
- Relationship management allows students to develop and maintain healthy relationships with others, including the ability to resist negative social pressures, resolve interpersonal conflict, and seek help when needed. Students need to be able to work well with their classmates in order to participate in collaborative groups.
- Responsible decision making enables students to keep in mind multiple factors—such as ethics, standards, respect, and safety concerns—when making their decisions. This competency includes students’ capacity to identify problems and develop appropriate solutions to those problems, whether they are social or academic problems (Payton et al., 2000).
Sources: CASEL, 2003; Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011; Elias, 2006; Kress & Elias, 2006; Zins, Payton, Weisberg, & O’Brien, 2007.
SEL & the College and Career Readiness Standards
SEL & the College and Career Readiness Standards
Learning social-emotional competencies is particularly important with the introduction of college and career readiness standards such as the Common Core State Standards. To master the new academic standards, students will need to build the necessary SEL skills all students need to be successful.
For example, the Common Core State Standards for mathematics entail a new level of focus, coherence, and rigor. When students become frustrated or confused by the content, they must learn how to persevere in meeting the new standards. If they do not know how to manage or regulate the emotions they have during school, students' mental resources will not be used for academic learning.
Similarly, in the Common Core State Standards for English language arts, students must gather evidence from and interact with more complex texts. Social-emotional competencies are critical to successfully navigate more complex texts. Students need to be aware of what they do and do not understand about the text (self-awareness) and be able to ask for help when they do not comprehend the text (self-management). In addition, classroom discussions about these texts require students to have good communication skills as they interact with their teachers and classmates.
Google Sites
Report abuse