Now that the pandemic has slowed and students are going back to the classroom, some words have gained more weight and importance. Some of the most common terms are “Social & Emotional Learning,” or “SEL.” So, what does “SEL” mean?
Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) is defined as “the process through which children and adults apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary 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.”
Schools and communities must adopt an SEL standard to foster beneficial outcomes related to social and emotional skills like attitudes about self, school, and civic engagement, social behaviors, Problem-solving, emotional responses, and academic performance.
At BRAVE UP!, we help schools and communities improve their SEL curriculum with our resources, activities, and webinars. We have noticed that a positive approach to SEL leads to improved academic outcomes and behaviors. Learning becomes more efficient when students have supportive relationships and opportunities to develop and practice social, emotional, and cognitive skills across many different contexts. Also, hundreds of studies offer consistent evidence that SEL boosts academic performance.
Results from a landmark meta-analysis that looked across 213 studies involving more than 270,000 students found that:
- SEL interventions that address the five core competencies increased students’ academic performance by 11 percent compared to students who did not participate.
- Students participating in SEL programs showed improved classroom behavior, an increased ability to manage stress and depression, and better attitudes towards themselves, others, and school.
- Additional meta-analyses echoed these findings. Consistency across independent research teams offers strong support that well-implemented SEL programs are beneficial.
What do these results mean? About 27% more students would improve their academic performance at the end of the program, and 24% more would have improved social behaviors and lower levels of distress.
A positive SEL approach also benefits your community in the long term. Subsequent analyses spoke to the long-term effects of SEL implementation and its effectiveness in diverse cultural contexts. “An SEL approach was consistently effective among all demographic groups both inside and outside the United States. This supports the idea that social and emotional assets promoted in SEL can support the positive development of students from diverse family backgrounds and geographic contexts. (Taylor et al., 2017).”
When you plan and implement technological initiatives for the classroom, it’s important to maintain a broad view of education; knowledge is power because it is empowered with personal and social responsibility. Educational resources, likewise, should be empowered with resources that promote social and emotional learning.
