Social-Emotional Literacy

Definition & Importance

What is Social Emotional Learning (SEL)?

Social-emotional learning, or SEL, is a method that helps students of all ages understand their feelings, feel them fully, and show empathy for others. Then, these learned behaviors are used to help students make good, responsible decisions, make plans for how to achieve their goals, and get along well with others.

Educators' Approach to SEL

Even though SEL isn't a subject like math or history, it can be woven into a school's curriculum. When teachers make academic lessons more personal and relevant to students, students may be more likely to participate and less likely to mentally check out during their subjects. SEL can have a positive effect that lasts a lifetime by encouraging empathy, self-awareness, and feelings of safety and belonging in the classroom.

The Five Social Emotional Learning Competencies

According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), an organization dedicated to helping PreK-12 children achieve positive results, SEL is comprised of five key abilities that can be utilized in the classroom, at home, and in students' communities. The five core competencies are:

  • Self-awareness – To recognize your emotions and how they influence your conduct; to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses in order to increase your self-confidence.

  • Self-management – To take control of your ideas, emotions, and actions in a variety of situations, as well as formulating and pursuing goals.

  • Social awareness – The ability to see things from another person's point of view, even if they come from a different background or culture than you did. To show empathy and do the right thing at home, school, and in your community.

  • Relationship skills – The ability to make and keep good relationships with people from different backgrounds. This competency is about being able to listen to and talk to other people, resolving conflicts peacefully, and knowing when to ask for or give help.

  • Making responsible decisions – Choosing how to behave or respond to a circumstance based on acquired habits such as ethics, safety, assessing repercussions, and thinking about the well-being of others as well as oneself.

Importance of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

Social-emotional learning is important for students because it teaches them important life skills, like how to understand themselves, build a positive image of themselves, take responsibility for their actions, and get along with other people. It can also be very important for students to feel good about themselves and gain confidence.

Social-emotional learning gives students the tools they need to set goals for themselves: how to solve problems, keep going when things get hard, fight for social justice, understand other people's feelings, take responsibility, lead by example, and develop the habits that most predict long-term success in modern life.

Social-emotional learning is also helpful for educators. In general, it is much easier to teach a classroom filled with learners who are conscientious, empathetic, self-aware, prepared to make intelligent judgments, and able to reason and weigh the advantages and consequences of their actions.

What's good about social and emotional learning?

CASEL put together research from all over the world that shows how social-emotional learning can help students do better in school, behave better in class, feel less depressed, and handle stress better. As students go through school and become adults, it can also help reduce poverty, reduce crime, and improve social mobility. Reading, writing, and math skills have all gotten better, according to other studies.