What is SEL — Social and Emotional Learning?
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
Beginning early in life, SEL is highly important for helping preschool children to understand and manage their emotions, feel and show empathy for others, establish healthy relationships, set positive goals, and make responsible decisions. Effective SEL programming, from preschool through college, will promote the successful development of social and emotional skills that will lead to future healthy interpersonal relationships, association with nonviolent peers, and improved academic achievement.
When integrated efforts are used to develop students’ social and emotional skills, there are many positive outcomes, including prevention of risky behaviors (e.g., drug use, violence, bullying, and dropping out). To effectively promote early childhood SEL, schools and community agencies/organizations should provide professional development on implementing evidence-based SEL programs to staff who can incorporate these programs into their lessons. Lastly, it is important for all child-serving entities to incorporate SEL components into all of their programs and services.
5 Components of CASEL’s Framework
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is a trusted source for knowledge about high-quality, evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL). CASEL supports educators and policy leaders and enhances the experiences and outcomes for all PreK-12 students.
Self-awareness: The ability to accurately recognize one’s emotions and thoughts and their influence on behavior. This includes accurately assessing one’s strengths and limitations and possessing a well-grounded sense of confidence and optimism.
Self-management: The ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations. This includes managing stress, controlling impulses, motivating oneself, and setting and working toward achieving personal and academic goals.
Social awareness: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.
Relationship skills: The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. This includes communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking and offering help when needed.
Responsible decision-making: The ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, the realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and the well-being of self and others
Social and Emotional Learning Programs
Houseman Institute – Begin to ECSEL
Developed by clinical psychologist Dr. Donna Housman, begin to ECSEL early childhood training and curriculum program is based on the emotional foundations of learning and cognition and informed by research in neuroscience, child development, and education. The program has been scientifically proven to promote the building blocks of emotional intelligence and its associated skills and competencies.
Begin to ECSEL® is a promotion, prevention, and intervention program. Our globally recognized program provides training with accompanying stand alone and/or integrative curriculum with supporting tools and materials, setting the stage for lifelong learning, mental health, well-being, and success. We train and support educators, mental health professionals, parents, and caregivers in the effective promotion of our evidence-based program, ensuring integration and success in the classroom and at home for the development of emotional competence, self-regulation, empathy, and critical prosocial and executive function skills in young children from birth.
The Houseman’s Institute’s evidence-based begin to ECSEL program is informed by neuroscientific advances and child development studies showing that 0-6 years is a sensitive and critical period for the development of the building blocks of emotional intelligence which include emotional competencies, self-regulation, empathy and other key foundational emotional, cognitive and social skills. “Findings suggest that the earlier we can help children connect their emotions to their behaviors and thoughts, the more we can help them develop their own emotional, cognitive, and social capabilities; be empathic; and develop a strong and positive sense of self.” Dr. Donna Housman, Ed.D.
Second Step
Second Step is a program rooted in SEL that helps transform schools into supportive, successful learning environments uniquely equipped to encourage children to thrive. More than just a classroom curriculum, Second Step’s holistic approach helps create a more empathetic society by providing education professionals, families, and the larger community with tools to enable them to take an active role in the social-emotional growth and safety of today’s children.
Second Step provides skills for everyday success. Children need social-emotional skills to thrive both in the classroom and in life. Social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula teach children techniques to Gain confidence, set goals, make better decisions, collaborate with others in work and play, and navigate the world more effectively. Committee for Children’s research-based Second Step SEL gives teachers an easy-to-implement, engaging way to teach social-emotional skills and concepts. Second Step SEL is designed to help children thrive and be more successful in school—ultimately setting them up to be thoughtful and productive adults.
Social-emotional learning isn’t just a feel-good activity. It’s not psychotherapy or an attempt to parent kids. Nor is it a substitute for core academic subjects such as math, science, or literacy. Instead, SEL concepts provide an extra dimension to education, focusing on improving cooperation, communication, and decision making. In a world where emotional intelligence is critical for lifelong happiness, successful careers, and healthier relationships, SEL gives students a framework for developing these skills.
Second Step also provides documentation of decades of research have demonstrated the benefits of SEL. A short list of research findings includes the items below.
In a meta-analysis of 213 school-based SEL programs, participants demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, and behavior, as well as an 11-percentile-point gain in academic performance.
Children who are socially and emotionally competent have more friends and more connections with positive peers, and are less likely to be rejected, isolated, or bullied. Children with friends are happier and more successful in school.
Empathetic children with good perspective-taking skills are less likely to be physically, verbally, or indirectly aggressive toward peers.
Children’s social relations affect their feeling of connectedness at school, which affects their sense of academic competence.
The social-emotional competence of students is an important component of effective bullying prevention.
SEL interventions show an average return on investment of $11 for every dollar spent.
Peekapak
Peekapak is a story-based SEL learning curriculum for students in Pre-Kindergarten through grade 5 and Available in 4 guided reading levels, in English and Spanish, and with recorded narration. Peekapak books explore topics like empathy, respect, and teamwork and are perfect for read-alouds, or independent reading in-class or at home.
Peekapak was designed to support educators and parents in developing the social, emotional and literacy skills of children in early childhood and elementary school. By building these critical skills, children are better prepared to learn in a classroom setting and are more likely to graduate from college and gain meaningful employment later in life. To ensure the effectiveness of Peekapak in reaching these aims, research has been incorporated into each step and element of Peekapak’s program design. The following describes the research behind Peekapak’s program design as well as the research underway to assess the efficacy of the Peekapak program.
Based on extensive interviews with teachers and education experts (n=300), Peekapak identified 10 core topics educators and experts agree are critical to a young child’s character and social-emotional development, and which should be taught beginning in the pre-kindergarten years. The 10 core topics are: Self-Regulation, Respect, Gratitude, Kindness, Perseverance, Teamwork, Empathy, Honesty, Optimism, and Courage. Peekapak explores each of these topics in depth using stories and lessons for the classroom and the home, and backed by external research studies.