What is social-emotional learning (SEL) and why is it important to educators? Some of the worst things a student might say to you as an educator are, "This is stupid," or "I don't see the point in learning this."

It's possible that you and your students would have some things in common: you both wish you had been given clear explanations for why things are essential and how mastering a skill or subject will help you both now and in the future. Among the fundamental ideas of social emotional learning, or SEL, are dealing with frustration, developing healthy coping mechanisms, and polite interpersonal interactions.

In today's ever-more diverse world, the classroom is frequently the first setting in which kids interact with individuals with a variety of backgrounds, opinions, and skills. Social and emotional learning (SEL) attempts to help pupils better understand their feelings and ideas, to become more aware of themselves, and to develop greater compassion for others in their community and the wider world. This helps account for these differences and puts all students on an equal footing to succeed.

In the years to follow, cultivating these traits in the classroom can help kids become better, more productive, self-conscious, and socially aware citizens outside of it. Find out more about the value of social-emotional learning and its advantages outside of the classroom.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL): What is it?

A system known as social-emotional learning (SEL) assists students of all ages in better understanding their emotions, experiencing them to the fullest, and exhibiting empathy for others. Following their instruction, students apply these new behaviors to make wise judgments, set up plans for achieving their objectives, and cultivate wholesome connections with others.

The Five Competencies of Social and Emotional Learning

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a group that works with educators and students to support positive outcomes for PreK–12 students, states that SEL entails five fundamental competencies that can be used in the community, at home, and in the classroom.

These are the five fundamental skills:

1. Self-awareness

To become more confident by recognizing your emotions and how they affect your actions, as well as your strengths and shortcomings.

2. Self-management
To establish and pursue goals, as well as to accept responsibility for your feelings, ideas, and behavior in a variety of contexts.

3. Social consciousness

The capacity to imagine oneself in the position of someone who might come from a different background or culture than your own. to behave morally and empathetically in your society, family, and place of education.

4. Making accurate judgments
A situation's action or reaction should be determined by acquired habits, including safety, ethics, assessing the pros and cons, and considering the welfare of others as well as yourself.

5. Relationship skills

The capacity to establish and preserve wholesome connections with individuals from a variety of backgrounds. This ability focuses on having effective communication skills, listening to others, resolving disputes amicably, and understanding when to offer or accept assistance.

How Educators Approach SEL
Although SEL isn't a formal topic like math or history, it can be incorporated into a school's curriculum. Students are more likely to participate in class and are less likely to mentally tune out when teachers make academic lectures more relatable and personal for them. SEL can have a lifelong positive effect by encouraging empathy, self-awareness, and feelings of safety and inclusivity in the classroom.

There are numerous methods for approaching SEL. SEL is occasionally taught in the homeroom and is a more formally designated part of the school day for some teachers. For the remainder of the school day, these teachings serve as a recurring topic to help students better understand the fundamental SEL competencies.

To foster relationships and help students of different ages find common ground, teachers might choose to assign journaling or writing assignments where students can express their feelings and ideas about a specific SEL topic. Younger students might even be paired with an older class in a "buddy classroom" (or vice versa).

Some educators include SEL courses in more traditional topics like reading, arithmetic, and history. Assigning a group project where students self-delegate roles to collaborate for the benefit of the group, having students role-play historical figures to comprehend the motivations behind their actions, or having students conduct formal interviews with one another to gauge current events are a few examples of SEL-in-action.

In order to give students a quantifiable means of demonstrating their progress and fostering a sense of accomplishment, teachers can also assist students in setting goals in areas where they may require improvement and in tracking their progress.

The Benefits of SEL

SEL improves academic achievement, positive behaviors in and out of the classroom, and self-awareness in both children and adults. Academically, SEL program participants had superior attendance rates and overall grades that increased by 11 percentiles. Individually, it has been demonstrated that the SEL abilities students acquire improve their ability to manage emotional stress, solve issues, and resist peer pressure to partake in risky behaviors.

Pupils who are capable of handling issues that personally impact them will be better prepared to handle the demands of adulthood. In recent decades, educational and social reforms have primarily focused on academic outcomes, neglecting the critical role of socio-emotional factors in fostering successful learning, employment, and family life. This oversight has hindered the development of holistic educational approaches that address the multifaceted needs of students.

A study in the American Journal of Public Health used data from the longitudinal, nonintervention subsample of the Fast Track Project. The Fast Track Project is an intervention program for kids who are at high risk for long-term behavioral problems and conduct disorders that aims to reduce aggression.

Teachers can more effectively engage with pupils who struggle with the fundamentals of self-regulation, empathy, and other desirable traits at a young age when they are able to identify which students lack these skills. These pupils can benefit from learning good behaviors that go beyond achieving academic success in order to acquire the "soft skills" needed for many jobs, like problem-solving, cooperation, and empathy. By doing this, you can help these youngsters succeed in school and beyond.

What makes SEL important?

Although SEL has been more formally established as a program in preschools throughout all 50 states, very few of them have included SEL as a required component of the elementary, middle, and high school curricula. According to the AEI/Brookings report, only three states now have a completely developed set of standards for SEL programs, including benchmarks for students at every grade level from K–12. Illinois, Kansas, and Pennsylvania are these states.

The statistical evidence supporting the benefits of SEL has been anecdotal, as so few states have included it in their K–12 curricula. However, the predicted advantages were realized by preschool-aged kids who had the opportunity to take part in SEL programs and grasp these concepts early in their academic careers. There may be more statistically significant proof of SEL's beneficial effects on teachers when more states and educational institutions think about incorporating the program into their curricula.