Week 3 - Option #1

In my third update, I would like to share my thoughts and knowledge about the academic outcomes of SEL programs.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a general term which hosts social and emotional competency (SEC), well-being of both teachers and students, creating healthy classrooms and schools, bringing joy to learning and teaching and promoting academic success. SEL helps students and teachers to overcome challenges which undermine healthy classroom environment. Supporting positive behavior, teaching character and ensuring positive classroom interaction are among goals of SEL programs.

Teachers and students are facing increasing demands to reach daily, monthly or yearly goals in today’s schools. Moreover, teachers should deal with increasing numbers of students, their changing demographic profiles, their social and emotional needs that vary from student to student, and the curriculum. But from the perspectives of the students, they should deal with the problems which the above-mentioned problems indirectly bring. Inevitably, teaching and learning become monotonous, dehumanized and lose their joy. Teaching and learning lose their meaning and it leads to despair and unwillingness. So many teachers burn out and becomes incapable of reasoning and doing his job properly. Consequently, a good number of teachers quit teaching.

SEL (social and emotional learning) provides three factors to cultivate a healthy classroom. These factors are teacher-student relationship, classroom management and implementation of SEL program. First of all, teachers should face and understand their own feelings in order to understand what students think and how they feel. If a teacher is attentive to his students, he/she can behave in a supportive way and connect students with the school and his/her subject. Authoritarian and punitive approaches in classroom management may backfire, but supportive and cooperative approaches can enable teachers to build supportive and warm learning communities. Implementation of SEL programs vary depending on the school or particular aims. Teachers can implement SEL programs in four ways:

• Implementing SEL skills instruction (free standing lessons for SEC)
• Teacher instructional practices (cooperative learning, project-based learning etc.)
• Integration with academic curriculum areas (integrating SEL)
• Organizational, culture and climate strategies

(Cited from https://casel.org/what-is-sel/approaches/ )

The competencies unite under five terms: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social-Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision Making. CASEL (Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning) demonstrates those competencies in key words:

• Self-Awareness: Identifying emotions, Accurate self-perception, Recognizing strengths, Self-confidence, Self-efficacy.
• Self-Management: Impulse control, Stress management, Self-discipline, Self-motivation, Goal-setting, Organizational skills.
• Social Awareness: Perspective-taking, Empathy, Appreciating diversity, Respect for others
• Relationship Skills: Communication, Social engagement, Relationship-building, Teamwork.
• Responsible Decision-Making: Identifying problems, Analyzing situations, Solving problems, Evaluating, Reflecting, Ethical responsibility.

(Cited from https://casel.org/core-competencies/)

SEL programs are promising in terms of teaching social and emotional competencies and have positive impacts on education. In the short term, SEL enables students to learn core competencies, improve their attitudes, and enhances learning environment. In the long term, SEL decreases numbers of school dropout, teachers’ quitting and saves the state budgets.

Published in 2011, Joseph A. Durlak, Roger P. Weissberg, Allison B. Dymnicki, Rebecca D. Taylor and Kriston B. Schellinger conducted a meta-analysis that present findings from 213 school-based and universal SEL programs involving 270,034 kindergarten through high school students. The meta-analysis documented that not only behavioral improvement but also “improved academic success on achievement test and grades” were observed (Cited from https://casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/meta-analysis-child-development-1.pdf). In another research, published in 2018, Joseph L. Mahoney, Joseph A. Durlak, Roger P. Weissberg compared results from four large-scale meta-analyses. 356 research reports relating to “hundreds of thousands of K-12 students within and outside the U.S. on a range of SEL programs” were examined and the examination indicated positive “behavioral and academic outcomes of SEL programs.” (See https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0031721718815668). The significant researches prove that behavioral and academic improvements were observed in the schools where SEL programs were implemented.

When students and teachers get their well-being, they can exhibit better performances. Acquired social and relationship skills will create a warm, supportive classroom environment where emotional barriers are down. This positive situation ensures joy of learning and teaching. Students will be much more connected to the subject, probably, teachers can effectively attract students to the subject. As expected, better academic test result and grades can be observed.

Of course, the impact of SEL programs on better academic outcome is not superficial. It has biological and neurological sides. Environment and emotions effect human body and brain. In unpleasant environments with negative emotions; adrenalin gland releases stress hormones, cortisol increases appetite, which may lead to put on excessive weight, eating disorders (See Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-t1Z5-oPtU) Child’s growing up may slow down. Reasoning and logical thinking skills are clouded and in the long term, brain’s capacity may shrink. But in pleasant environments with positive emotions, child’s physical and mental capacities flourish. When it comes to the brain, according to neuroscientist Richard Davidson, if we intervene a behavior of a child, we are actually shaping his/her brain. Intervention has the impact like a medication. A child’s brain has much more neuroplasticity and is mostly shaped in the early years of his/her life and these effects persist. SEL programs mold and change the structure of children’s brains (See Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9fVvsR-CqM&t=807s). Barbara Fredrickson’s “broaden and build theory” also claims that positive emotions enhance brain’s capacity. Positive emotions enable us to see the big picture clearly, to make connections between subjects and to be more creative (See Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW7FBndUPe8&t=151s).

What is the most important factor to be successful in schools? Angela Duckworth explains in her TED Talk (See Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8&t=43s ) that the most important factor for success is not the intelligence or talent or family income or safety. It is grit. Grit is having stamina against difficulties. Even in sterile and naive school environments, children confront problems that test their ability to endure. Therefore, it really makes sense to incorporate teaching how to be grit in a SEL program.

Dictating students to do their best in classroom does not promote meaningful learning. Tests and grades should not be the weapons. Instead, strong relationships in schools will engage and motivate students to learn and directly to succeed.

References:

Jennings, P. A. (2011). Promoting teachers’ social and emotional competencies to support performance and reduce burnout. In A. Cohan & A. Honigsfeld (Eds.) Breaking the Mold of Pre-service and In-service Teacher Education: Innovative and Successful Practices for the 21st Century. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. Retrieved from www.shorturl.at/uEGHO (shortened link)

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D. & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1): 405–432. Retrieved from https://casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/meta-analysis-child-development-1.pdf

Mahoney, Joseph L. Durlak, Joseph A. Weissberg, Roger P. (November 2018). Volume: 100 issue: 4, page(s): 18-23 Article first published online: November 26, 2018. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0031721718815668

Noguera, Pedro. (July 2012). Are We failing our Students? (Uploaded by TEDTalentSearch). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSehZPz2NoY

Duckworth, Angela Lee. (May 2013). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. (Uploaded by TED) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8&t=43s

Bergquist, Sharon Horesh. (October 2015). How Stress Affects Your Body? (Uploaded by TED-Ed) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-t1Z5-oPtU

Davidson, Richard. The Heart-Brain Connection: The Neuroscience of Social, Emotional, and Academic Learning (Uploaded by Edutopia) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9fVvsR-CqM&t=807s

Cambridge University Press España. (June 2016). How Emotions Impact Learning. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW7FBndUPe8

Chaffar, Soumaya and Frasson, Claude, The Emotional Conditions of Learning. Retrieved from http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~its/art/chaffar_frasson_2005.pdf

Core SEL Competencies. Retrieved from https://casel.org/core-competencies/

Approaches. Retrieved from https://casel.org/core-competencies/

Impact. Retrieved from https://casel.org/impact/