Social and Emotional Learning
Social and emotional learning programs develop critical competencies in children. Emotionally competent children are happier and more productive. Schools offer a wonderful opportunity to provide social and emotional education. And schools themselves may benefit from doing so as Jonathan Cohen suggests (2000, p. 5):
In recent years, there has been growing concern that more and more children are distressed, disturbed, and not motivated to learn. We all know that psychological and, too often, physical violence complicate and often derail educators and children's capacity to teach and to learn. . . On a typical school day, over 135,000 students bring weapons to school (Hamburg, 1992; Mott Foundation, 1994). Today, 25% of American 10 to 17 year old children suffer from school adjustment problems, problems that are predictive of later, more serious problems (Dryfoos, 1990). As students move into the adolescence (14 to 17 year olds), recent studies show that 35% of our children engage in high-risk behavior. Between 15 and 22% of our nations youth experience social, emotional and other problems that necessitate mental health treatment. And, approximately 80% of them are not receiving needed services (Dryfoos, 1997). These and related findings about the distressing state of children nationally and internationally have intensified our search for more effective ways by which that we can help our children develop into responsible, caring and healthy individuals.
The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning has put forth guidelines for SEL programs (Elias & Weissberg, 2000) that explain the best ways to implement programs at the classroom, school and district levels. They begin by detailing the skills that are the focus of SEL efforts.
CASEL's Key Skills in Social and Emotional Learning
- Self-Awareness
- Recognizing and naming one's emotions.
- Understanding the reasons and circumstances for feeling as one does.
- Self-Regulation of Emotion
- Verbalizing and coping with anxiety, anger, and depression.
- Controlling impulses, aggression and self-destructive, anti-social behavior.
- Recognizing strengths in and mobilizing positive feelings about self, school, family and support networks.
- Self-Monitoring and Performance
- Focusing on tasks at hand.
- Setting short- and long-term goals.
- Modifying performance in light of feedback.
- Mobilizing positive motivation.
- Activating hope and optimism.
- Working toward optimal performance states, learning how to achieve flow.
- Empathy and Perspective Taking
- Becoming a good listener.
- Increasing empathy and sensitivity to others' feelings.
- Understanding others' perspectives, points of view and feelings.
- Social Skills in Handling Relationships
- Managing emotions in relationships, harmonizing diverse feelings & viewpoints.
- Expressing emotions effectively.
- Exercising assertiveness, leadership, and persuasion.
- Working as part of a team/cooperative learning groups.
- Showing sensitivity to social cues.
- Exercising social decision-making and problem-solving skills.
- Responding constructively to interpersonal conflict.
Related Resources
Below you'll find a randomized listing of up to 20 related items (we may have more...) drawn from our Resource Catalog.
| Resource Title | Description | Links |
|---|---|---|
| Needham School District comprehensive SEL plan | Powerpoint presentation introducing the Needham School District's comprehensive social and emotional learning program. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Positions and interests | Pdf document that describes an exercise in negotiation and problem solving to be used with children in grades 5-8, with a worksheet at end of document. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Children at risk, violence in our home | Two diagrams, one outlining the ways in which children may be at risk, such as physical, sexual and emotional abuse, the second diagram shows ways in which at risk children have problems in school, such as acting out, falling asleep, and no respect for authority. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| School conflict management resource guide for grades K-8, 3rd ed., Fall 2002 | Pdf document of 1107 pages exploring school conflict management resources for K-8 graders, with introduction, table of contents, a for teachers section, eight academic subject sections containing hundreds of age-appropriate lessons, a section-specific table of contents within each academic subject section and a references section. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Verbal active listening skills | Document which outlines the five verbal listening skills (Acknowledging, paraphrasing, reflecting, questioning and crediting), the rest of the document examines non-verbal listening skills. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Role play for nonverbal involvement activity | Word document presenting a role play exercise in nonverbal communication. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Conflict resolution education: models, relationships to other fields | Powerpoint presentation examining conflict resolution education and its relationship to fields such as peace studies, law related education and social and emotional learning. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Orgs | A manual in pdf format providing an overview of various models for conflict resolution education program implementation. The first chapter defines conflict as a natural condition and examines the origins of conflict, responses to conflict, and the outcomes of those responses. It introduces four approaches to implementing conflict resolution education. Each of the next four chapters discusses one of these approaches and presents examples of programs that use the approach. One chapter describes an approach to conflict resolution education characterized by devoting a specific time to teaching the foundation abilities, principles, and one or more of the problemsolving processes in a separate course or distinct curriculum. Another chapter describes an approach in which selected, trained individuals provide neutral third-party facilitation in conflict resolution. A chapter presents an approach that incorporates conflict resolution education into the core subject areas of the curriculum and into classroom management strategies, and another chapter presents a comprehensive whole-school methodology that builds on the previous approach. The next two chapters address conflict resolution education in settings other than traditional schools. The final three chapters address more overarching topics: conflict resolution research and evaluation; a developmental sequence of behavioral expectations in conflict resolution; and the process of developing, implementing, and sustaining a conflict resolution program. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| How to talk so kids will listen & listen so kids will talk | Document summarizing Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish's work of the same title, with instructions to increase listening skills, help children deal with feelings, provide praise and use alternatives to punishment, with role playing exercises. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Communication for competency | Word document exploring nonverbal and verbal communication with emphasis on direct and indirect language, with exercises. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Using encouragement | Document which discusses discouraging verbal messages, encouragement and how to teach problem solving skills adapted from Robert J. Mackenzie's book, "Setting limits in the classroom: How to move beyond the classroom dance of discipline." | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Social and emotional competencies -- grades K-12 | Word document in table format which lists social and emotional skills and the behaviors manifested at particular grade levels. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Spatial invasion | Word document with role play to emphasize personal space and boundaries. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Needham experience: a district's commitment to social and emotional learning | Powerpoint presentation of the Needham School District's experience with a comprehensive social and emotional learning program. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Conflict resolution education and Social emotional learning programs: A critical comparison | Pdf document that compares and contrasts Social and emotional learning programs to Conflict resolution education, with bibliography. Written above title on document: NCIP (National Curriculum Integration Project). | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Social and emotional learning | Powerpoint presentation examining social and emotional learning, with definitions, goals and skills. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Integrated lessons: Collection from the National Curriculum Integration Project | Pdf document presenting a series of lessons for both language arts and social studies classes which examine conflict, explore positive solutions and examine how issues of culture and bias, social and emotional learning and law related education impact conflict and its resolution. Written above title on document: NCIP (National Curriculum Integration Project). | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Guidelines for personal disclosure (for teachers) | Pdf document that sets forward guidelines (for teachers) for disclosing personal information within the bounds of social and emotional learning programs. Written above title on document: NCIP (National Curriculum Integration Project). | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Non-verbal active listening skills | Word document which describes active listening and outlines five body language postures that mediators should use when listening. | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
| Iconic communication activity | Word document which presents iconic communication activity taken from M. Remland's, "Gesture and Movement as Iconic Communication Activity." | Catalog Listing Direct Link to Resource |
