Importance of Social and Emotional Learning

Social-Emotional Learning or SEL is the term used to refer to key skills that affect students’ success in academic and personal life. It is a broad framework that is being used in K-12 classrooms for more than two decades now and has yielded results in the form of better academic performance and fewer disruptions.

SEL has proven itself to be extremely useful in modern setups where classrooms have increasingly become multicultural and multi-lingual. It has presented itself as an efficient framework that helps students to accept diverse social and economic backgrounds and enables them to behave in a way that is both productive and positive for everyone.

Importance of Social-Emotional Learning

For years now, social and emotional learning has provided a strong foundation for positive learning, safer classrooms, improved academics, and excellent personal and professional lives. Research on SEL has shown time and again that it can improve classroom achievements by 11 percentile points while taking care of personal behaviors such as empathy, kindness, and sharing.

Experts have now identified 5 competencies that make up for SEL. They are:

1. Self-Awareness

2. Self-Management

3. Social Awareness

4. Relationship Skills

5. Responsible Decision-Making

Schools and teachers have to work on these 5 skills to create a successful SEL framework at their premises. These competencies have to be included in the regular curriculum so that they can result in maximum benefits of SEL.

Let’s first understand the key benefits that come from SEL and then we will understand the role of school in making it possible.

Benefits of Social and Emotional Learning

Following are the key benefits of social and emotional learning. These can be observed in children and youngsters in varying degrees. It is also not necessary that a child will experience all of these at once.

1. Academic Progress

Social and Emotional learning is directly linked to academic progress and success. This is because when students develop social and emotional skills, they in turn develop several soft skills that improve their attitude towards learning and school in general. This kind of change in the attitude then transforms into better academic scores and good performance.

2. Improved Relationships

SEL gradually creates confident individuals who can make and maintain positive relationships both at home and school. Students who are nurtured with a tight student-teacher bonding benefit from the teacher’s knowledge and experience. They develop long-term productive relationships and challenge themselves in school and even beyond it. Students who develop social and emotional skills do well at college and even at work and are known to have wonderful personal relationships in the future.

3. Better Emotional Control

Emotional control is one of the hallmark lessons of SEL. Students who are trained with SEL experience lesser depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal. There is key research on the topic that indicates that social and emotional learning affects the cognitive functions of individuals and improves their planning abilities, inhibitory control, and the capability to efficiently switch from one task to another. They also handle social stress better and come out as friendly individuals who perform well in different social setups.

4. Lesser Behavior Issues

Social and Emotional learning results in less aggressive and stable individuals. This benefit is long-term and showcases fewer behavioral and psychological problems. SEL helps children and youngsters find their voice and helps them express themselves appropriately and productively. When they know that communication can solve their problems, they avoid aggressive vent-outs such as tantrums, hunger strikes, and even serious problems like drug/alcohol abuse.

Supporting SEL at Class and School Level

The responsibility of developing SEL learning comes down to the school. It also has to implement it with experienced teachers who can take the SEL lessons to the classroom and the students who need it. A study conducted by CASEL has reported that students who attended at least two years of SEL, showed substantial behavioral improvements. This study was conducted on students in kindergarten to K12.

Several other studies support this finding and re-affirm that when students are exposed to SEL at the school level, they go on to graduate and become responsible adults who are well in control of their emotions and lives.

One of the most popular approaches of bringing SEL to school involves teacher training in SEL. They are taught to deliver explicit SEL lessons and to motivate students to use those lessons in their daily routine. Another common approach used across US schools is to embed SEL instructions in content areas such as ELA (English Language Arts), math and social studies.

Schools can make SEL a success by creating SEL focused policies, practices and support services. The school level efforts involve building a positive environment, adult modeling of positive social behavior and establishing clear values and expectations for both adults (teachers and support staff) and students.

Conclusion

As a society, we have always been obsessed with technology, math, and science and ofcourse good grades. Add a pandemic to the mix and our youngsters are set for emotional burnout in the near future. To create emotionally balanced individuals who can positively process their emotions and become well-rounded adults, we need SEL.

It won’t be wrong to conclude that SEL is needed across all grades to help students make the most of their academic years. While it is easy to take it as a framework for troubled students, it is not impossible to see that SEL can work wonders for every student. It is capable of creating emotionally stable individuals who are aware of themselves and their surroundings, despite and inspite of their backgrounds.

Right now, educators are using it as a tool against bullying, drug abuse, poor academic performance and other issues but it can become much more. It can transform our education system and it can bring about the much-needed changes in our society by simply changing a few things at the grass-roots level, at our schools.