What is SEL and Why Should Every Parent Support It?
Most parents of teenagers have probably heard the term Social Emotional Learning (SEL) at some point in your journey with your son and daughter through school. Though not a new theory, not originally called SEL, but was the topic of an extensive medical study at Yale University in the 1960’s researching "the contrast between a child's experiences at home and those in school deeply affects the child's psychosocial development and that this in turn shapes academic achievement."
The concept of SEL was propelled into the popular culture in 1995 with a book by New York Times science reporter Daniel Goleman. With support from Fetzer, Goleman published Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, in which he argued that character matters and, more significantly, the skills that build character can be taught.
"Until the release of Emotional Intelligence, which was quickly translated into many languages, there was little contact between educators like me, who were developing school programs to cultivate social and emotional competence in children, and the psychologists and research scientists studying the neurological underpinnings and development of human emotion," Linda Lantieri, cofounder of the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program
Today's schools are increasingly multicultural and multilingual with students from diverse social and economic backgrounds. Educators and community agencies serve students with different motivation for engaging in learning, behaving positively, and performing academically. Social and emotional learning (SEL) provides a foundation for safe and positive learning, and enhances students' ability to succeed in school, careers, and life.
Research shows that SEL not only improves achievement by an average of 11%, but it also increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy), improves student attitudes toward school, and reduces depression and stress among students (Durlak et al., 2011). Effective social and emotional learning programming involves coordinated classroom, schoolwide, family, and community practices that help students develop the following five key skills:
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness involves understanding one's own emotions, personal goals, and values. This includes accurately assessing one's strengths and limitations, having positive mindsets, and possessing a well-grounded sense of self-efficacy and optimism. High levels of self-awareness require the ability to recognize how thoughts, feelings, and actions are interconnected.
Self-Management
Self-management requires skills and attitudes that facilitate the ability to regulate one's own emotions and behaviors. This includes the ability to delay gratification, manage stress, control impulses, and persevere through challenges in order to achieve personal and educational goals.
Social Awareness
Social awareness involves the ability to understand, empathize, and feel compassion for those with different backgrounds or cultures. It also involves understanding social norms for behavior and recognizing family, school, and community resources and supports.
Relationship Skills
Relationship skills help students establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships, and to act in accordance with social norms. These skills involve communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking help when it is needed.
Responsible Decision Making
Responsible decision making involves learning how to make constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse settings. It requires the ability to consider ethical standards, safety concerns, accurate behavioral norms for risky behaviors, the health and well-being of self and others, and to make realistic evaluation of various actions' consequences.
School is one of the primary places where students learn social and emotional skills.
Most schools that initiate effective SEL programs incorporate four elements represented by the acronym SAFE (Durlak et al., 2010, 2011):
Sequenced:
Connected and coordinated sets of activities to foster skills development
Active:
Active forms of learning to help students master new skills
Focused:
Emphasis on developing personal and social skills
Explicit:
Targeting specific social and emotional skills
The Short- and Long-Term Benefits of SEL
Students are more successful in school and daily life when they:
Know and can manage themselves
Understand the perspectives of others and relate effectively with them
Make sound choices about personal and social decisions
These social and emotional skills are some of several short-term student outcomes that SEL programs promote (Durlak et al., 2011; Farrington et al., 2012; Sklad et al., 2012).
In the long run, greater social and emotional competence can increase the likelihood of high school graduation, readiness for postsecondary education, career success, positive family and work relationships, better mental health, reduced criminal behavior, and engaged citizenship (e.g., Hawkins, Kosterman, Catalano, Hill, & Abbott, 2008; Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley, 2015).
Please like and share with your community of parents and friends. Information is powerful and being able to support your student and their teachers with these strategies can propel them into greater success in school, community and life.
