What is Social-Emotional Learning?
Social-Emotional Learning
What Is Social-Emotional Learning?
SEL helps students acquire the skills to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
SEL is usually divided into five core competencies:
Self-awareness
Self-management
Social awareness
Relationship skills
Responsible decision-making
Why Social-Emotional Learning Matters for Schools:
SEL improves achievement by an average of 11 percentile points.
SEL decreases depression and stress and improves student attitudes toward school.
SEL boosts prosocial behaviors like sharing, empathy, and kindness.
Schools with effective SEL programs experience decreased discipline referrals and increased test scores.
Students develop skills to manage themselves, leading to increased teaching time.
Teachers, students, and their parents are happier and healthier.
How to Foster Social-Emotional Learning
Start by putting the following into place:
A safe, positive school culture
An emphasis on safety (e.g., faculty and staff are here to keep students safe)
Adult modeling of social-emotional competence
Fair, equitable discipline policies
Anti-bullying policies
Morning meetings that provide opportunities for students to connect
An emphasis on positive relationships (student-teacher and student-student)
Family engagement and community partnerships
In addition, teachers need professional development to learn how to foster SEL.
What the research shows:
Students were 42 percent less likely to say they were involved in physical aggression
20% less bullying by students with disabilities
$11 returned for each $1 invested in social-emotional learning in schools
5–12% decrease in school dropout rates associated with SEL
13% increase in academic achievement with SEL
79% of employers say SEL skills are the most important qualities for job success