Displaying 1 - 14 of 14
Social and emotional learning (SEL) has as its goals to strengthen a person's ability to understand, manage, and express the social and emotional aspects of life. The authors, all of whom have worked in training teachers in the promotion of students' social and emotional skills, have found that educators often view efforts at building such skills as standing in opposition to the academic focus of their state curriculum standards. This view hinders many well-intentioned teachers from implementing SEL in their classrooms. Thus, it is a valuable consultative tool to be able to demonstrate the overlap of SEL, academics, and curriculum standards. The authors set out a rationale for this overlap and provide examples of how they incorporate this overlap into their training and consultation.
Educators have come to recognize the importance of their efforts in building students' social and emotional skills. However, the creation of lasting programming often fails to keep pace with educators' best intentions. In this article, the authors suggest guidelines for ways in which school counselors can be involved in implementing sustained social and emotional learning interventions in a manner that is consistent with the values and goals of such programs. (Contains 2 tables.)
The majority of students with learning disabilities have difficulties with social relationships. In this article, three key skill areas in social-emotional learning are identified as the main source of these difficulties: recognizing emotions in self and others, regulating and managing strong emotions (positive and negative), and recognizing strengths and areas of need. Research supporting their connection with learning disabilities is reviewed. In addition, three examples of interventions that are comprehensive and link academic and social-emotional learning are presented. The first is from language arts. The others are pedagogical procedures that draw upon the multiple intelligences to assist students with tasks such as projects or reports and working through academic and social challenges.
Many schools attempt to implement multiple programs to promote positive young adolescent development; however, these programs are often fragmented and lack coordination. The authors describe an initiative designed to help schools coordinate their social-emotional and character development (SECD) efforts to improve school climate and help students build character increase academic performance. They provide a specific example of how one urban middle school coordinated its SECD programs and discuss outcomes related to student performance and school climate. (Contains 3 figures.)
Developments in American policy, research and professional development to promote social and emotional learning in schools have drawn on work carried out by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), encouraged by the popular and political catalyst of Daniel Goleman's work on emotional intelligence. Based on CASEL's exploration and articulation of the implications of emotional intelligence for schools, this article defines "social and emotional learning" as part of character development and draws on empirical studies of successful implementation to outline principles of effective intervention. In a context where, despite political rhetoric about a flourishing and progressive education system, a seemingly intractable achievement gap affects particular social and ethnic groups, the article evaluates key influences and ongoing barriers to successful realisation of the goals of social and emotional learning in American schools. (Contains 1 table.)
A number of studies have documented a normative decline in academic achievement across the transition from elementary school to middle or junior high school. The current study examined the effectiveness of varying levels of a social-emotional learning intervention, "Talking with TJ," in limiting achievement loss across transition. Data were gathered on 154 students during their fifth and sixth grade years in an urban, low socio-economic school district. Students participated in the "Talking with TJ" program over their fifth grade years, and curriculum fidelity in individual classrooms was evaluated. Changes in grade point average were assessed across the middle school transition. Overall, students showed a significant decline in GPA across the transition. Students in classrooms where higher dosages of intervention were delivered showed significantly smaller drops in GPA across transition than did students in lower dosage classrooms. Data on differential program effectiveness among demographic groups and along varying levels of baseline emotional intelligence also are presented. Editors' Strategic Implications: The authors present promising findings for a school transition program, link dosage to effects, and raise interesting theoretical questions about the relationships between social-emotional learning and academic growth and achievement.
Reviews a broad range of evidence indicating that school-based prevention and youth development interventions are most beneficial when they simultaneously enhance students' personal and social assets and improve the quality of the environments in which students are educated. Asserts that school-based prevention programming--based on coordinated social, emotional, and academic learning--should be fundamental to preK-12 education. (Contains references.) (SM)
In an era of change, preparing our youth for an uncertain future is akin to building the airplane while it is in flight. Since we do not have the luxury of putting development on hold until we figure out the destination and the kind of plane we need to get there, we must fly anyway. This article employs an airplane analogy to illustrate the fact that whatever part we would like to assign to school-based character education--pilot, navigator, wings, flaps, seating, material that makes up the fuselage--it is clear that character education is not the plane. It is part of the plane, and it can only function in the context of the rest of that plane. So, the larger question, within which the fate of school-based character education is contained, is: what can and should schools be doing to make positive contributions toward the future direction of our youth and society?
Addresses attitudinal and logistical roadblocks to launching social and emotional learning programs. Debunks ideas that such programs are either faddish, ineffective, "New-Age," or detractions from academic learning. Stresses conceptual origins in the work of Daniel Goleman, Howard Gardner, and Robert Sylwester. Notes educators must work to overcome time constraints, coordinate and fund programs, and train teachers. (MLH)
Many attempts at bringing successful educational programs and products "to scale" as part of school reform, particularly in urban districts, have been disappointing. Based on the experiences of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and reviews of literature addressing implementation failures, observations about failures to "scale up" are presented. These include persistent structural features in educational settings that are too often unrecognized, the perpetuation of a narrow and decontextualized "programs and packages" perspective, poor management of time and other resources, and inadequate attention to characteristics of the adults who must carry out planned reforms. Several assumptions essential for success are identified, including the need to incorporate social and emotional learning as an integral part of academics and the ways in which diversity provides an ever-changing context for implementation. Concluding thoughts center around three points: the need to prepare professionals with the array of skills needed to lead efforts at scaling up school reform, the importance of an action-research perspective, and the need to better document the stories of educational innovation and scaling up efforts so that contextual details can enrich an understanding of what is required for success. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)
Reviews the literature on school-based social and emotional skill development and examines the relevance of this area to the work of the school psychologist. Suggestions are made for ways in which school psychologists can improve the social and emotional climates of their schools in areas such as prevention and health promotion, professional development, and collaboration with other professionals and organizations. (Contains 28 references.) (GCP)
There is a missing piece to America's education agenda, and children will continue to be left behind until that piece is addressed. Furthermore, children are not being systematically prepared for their complex roles as citizens in our democracy. A growing body of evidence from research and practice suggests reconceptualizing education as an integration of social-emotional and character development (SECD) and academic learning. This article reviews skills children need for effective social and academic participation, characteristics of schools that effectively integrate these forms of learning, and key reasons to adopt this integration. It concludes with examples of, and suggestions for, bringing SECD to prominence in educational policy making.