Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Development
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is one of the top organizations studying social-emotional learning and has made progress in identifying core competencies learners should develop as they work toward becoming college, career, and life ready. According to their research, "Social and emotional learning (SEL) enhances students’ capacity to integrate skills, attitudes, and behaviors to deal effectively and ethically with daily tasks and challenges. Like many similar frameworks, CASEL’s integrated framework promotes intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive competence. There are five core competencies that can be taught in many ways across many settings. Many educators and researchers are also exploring how best to assess these competencies."
What does it look like to teach the whole learner?
Click on the link below to see videos of social-emotional and metacognitive practices in action.
SelfAssessmentSEL.pdfCenter on Great Teachers and Leaders
The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders and its partners, American Institutes of Research, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Public Impact, created this self-assessment tool "to help educators reflect upon (1) their current teaching practices that impact student SEL, and (2) their own SEL competencies to implement those teaching practices. Essentially, the aims of this tool are as follows:
To enable teachers to reflect and self-assess on SEL as an integral part of high-quality teaching and learning
To provide a broad measure of the teacher’s ability to promote student SEL through instructional practices
To provide a mechanism for teachers to reflect on their own SEL competencies and to consider what impact their capabilities have on the implementation of practices that support SEL
To provide teachers with self-reflective feedback that can be used as part of their professional development plans or educator evaluations"
Looking for some resources to pair with this self-assessment as you plan professional learning for staff? Consider the CCSSO/JFF Educator Competencies for Personalized, Learner-centered Teaching and the CompetencyWorks report Moving Toward Mastery:Growing, Developing and Sustaining Educators for Competency-Based Education.
The Institute for Habits of Mind created this PDF that educators can download from their website and use with learners and teacher teams. The founders of the Institute, Bena Kallick and Art Costa, have researched habits of mind extensively and offer certification for Habits of Mind Learning Communities of Excellence.
This work parallels the Math Best Practices habits of mind and habits of interaction (HOM/HOI) that many Iowa schools are adopting as they stretch to support students in their conceptual understanding of mathematics.
HOM Chart Horizontal.pdfDeveloping and Measuring SEL
This is an emerging field and as such, the research base is growing and the tools to measure SEL range from free self-assessments to more complex suites of tools. Please also see our pages on learner-centered assessment systems to learn more about assessing social-emotional development.
