There has been a lot of talk in the media recently about the value of social-emotional learning (SEL) and its role in child development and classroom management. Social-emotional learning is a tool for supporting students, improving equity, and improving classroom management and academic achievement. So let’s look at how students and teachers benefit from social-emotional learning in the classroom and how those benefits reach well beyond the classroom to help students become happier, more productive citizens.
Social-emotional learning helps students gain a sense of self-awareness and self-management
When you engage in social-emotional learning activities with your students, they learn how to identify their own strengths and weaknesses. Social-emotional learning programs also allow students to learn how to manage their emotions, reactions, and self-control. Students will learn how to take responsibility for their actions and their choices.
What’s more, students who are aware of their emotions can better regulate them. It sounds simple, but how often do we as adults stop and ask ourselves where a particular emotion is coming from? When you understand why you are feeling a certain way, it makes self-regulation much easier to achieve. For example, if you can pinpoint that a student is acting out because they are hungry, you can help them identify the feeling as hunger rather than anger. Then you’re able to address the issue calmly.
Helping students understand their emotions helps them communicate well with others. When they understand the cause of their own emotions and behaviors, they have the power to express themselves without offending others or making them feel misunderstood or attacked.
Additionally, self-awareness enables one of the most powerful emotional skills for responsible decision-making: knowing yourself well enough to recognize when something doesn’t “feel” right for you, and trusting that instinct even when it goes against the flow of popular opinion.
Social-emotional learning helps students manage emotions
Managing emotions is key to solving problems and understanding the world around us. Emotions help you understand the world around you. They are a form of information processing, much like your other senses. When you see something that’s beautiful or ugly or feel something that’s soft or rough, those are interpretations of data coming in from your eyes or fingertips. Your emotional response to life events works in much the same way. If you feel afraid when it starts to rain and then relieved after you get inside, these feelings help you make sense of what happened and inform your decision to head back home next time it looks like rain.
In fact, emotions evolved because they helped our hunter-gatherer ancestors survive and thrive at a time when human brains were so focused on survival that there were few cognitive resources left over for complex problem-solving. While modern humans have moved beyond the daily challenges faced by prehistoric peoples — dangers from predators, limited food supplies, and natural disasters — emotions still play an integral role in navigating the world around us.
Social-emotional learning helps students understand how to interact with those around them
Developing self-awareness through social-emotional learning provides students with a few major benefits. First, understanding their own emotions (anger, sadness, joy, frustration) will help them understand the emotions of others. When you’re aware of your feelings and can communicate about them clearly and calmly, you’re less likely to show frustration or anger toward those around you.
A student’s ability to recognize when they feel happy or excited, sad or disappointed, will be an important skill as they grow older. In addition, it will influence how they approach friendships and relationships further down the road.
Social-emotional learning helps students know what they can and can’t do
Knowing what they can and can’t do allows students to take on appropriate challenges and set realistic goals for themselves. This means that students can take on appropriate challenges for their skill level, which sets them up for success. For example, if a student knows how strong a writer they are and what kind of writing they struggle with (poetry vs. creative essays), they can choose to enroll in writing courses at their school that will challenge them while playing to their strengths. As a result, the student will be better able to work through obstacles and not become overwhelmed.
In addition, knowing what your strengths are also means knowing what your weaknesses are. This self-awareness allows students to improve upon those skills they aren’t as good at more quickly than if they weren’t aware of them in the first place.
Social-emotional learning helps students develop self-awareness
Self-awareness helps students grow as individuals and as a community. Self-aware students are better able to understand how their actions impact others. When students can view a situation from multiple perspectives, they become more open-minded and less likely to be judgmental of people who have different opinions or values. With the skills gained through SEL lessons, students will be able to work more effectively with each other because they understand that different people have different needs, strengths, and weaknesses. In this way, creating communities of empathy allows for a greater diversity of thought in the classroom and society at large.
Social-emotional learning helps students develop empathy for others
Students must develop empathy because it shapes how they interact with their peers. Empathetic students understand where other people are coming from, which can help them identify when someone is struggling or needs support. In turn, struggling students will seek out these supportive classmates for guidance or encouragement. This strong sense of community fosters positive relationships between students, leading to fewer instances of bullying. The benefits of empathy go beyond the classroom as well — empathetic individuals tend to be more successful in their future careers than those without this skill set, as employers value workers who treat each other kindly.
Luckily, empathy is a skill that can be taught! Not only do we want our students to embrace this mindset while they’re at school, but we also want them to carry it with them into adulthood.
Social-emotional learning leads to better classroom management
Incorporating social-emotional learning into your classroom will help you manage your classroom. When students develop social-emotional skills, they will be better able to regulate their behaviors, follow directions, and persevere through difficult tasks.
Social-emotional learning activities can help you promote positive behaviors. For example, if you are trying to encourage your students to share materials with one another, you could have them practice sharing different objects during a social-emotional learning activity. Likewise, if your goal is for students to raise their hands before speaking in class, then you could have them practice asking questions in a social-emotional learning activity.
If some of your students struggle with self-regulation, it may be because they haven’t learned the right skills yet. Social-emotional learning activities can provide an opportunity for teachers to explicitly teach these skills so that students can improve on regulating their behavior.
Teaching social relationship skills is also important for classroom management and improving student relationships. For example, when students practice conflict resolution or respond appropriately when someone does something hurtful, there will be fewer behavioral problems in class for teachers to manage.
Social-emotional learning improves academic achievement
These social-emotional learning activities also have a positive impact on academic achievement. In a study by Durlak, Weissberg, and Pachan, SEL programs increased student achievement by 11 percentile points. Other researchers cite improved test scores and reduced problem behaviors in the classroom — such as misbehavior and aggression — for students who participate in SEL activities.
When a learning platform such as Classcraft is used to track progress towards SEL goals in concert with academic goals, teachers can better recognize success and opportunities for growth.
Social-emotional learning helps students improve their relationships with others
Social-emotional learning helps students better understand their fellow human beings and how to interact with them in a productive, positive way. That’s because SEL helps students develop empathy for others by teaching them to look inward and seek to understand themselves. With a better understanding of their own emotions, students can see the world from others’ perspectives with more clarity and empathy.
Incorporating social-emotional learning into everyday learning is important for students’ success in school and life
Humans are social creatures, and our interactions with those around us can define and shape our present circumstances and futures. Therefore, students need to develop socially and emotionally because it affects every area of their lives.
Knowing how to build and maintain healthy relationships is an important life skill. In order to be successful in school, at home, in the workplace, and in life, students need to learn how to recognize healthy and unhealthy relationships and understand how to establish and maintain boundaries.
Maintaining healthy boundaries isn’t always easy. You have to be assertive and have challenging conversations. Learning how to share feelings and thoughts in a safe environment helps students be more confident as they take on new challenges.
Conclusion
Social-emotional learning isn’t just based on feelings — it’s based on science that has studied human development from birth to adulthood. In part, this research has evolved from our understanding of human social needs and the desire to improve our ability to manage our emotions and build healthy relationships with others. These principles support students’ development, yielding personal and behavioral benefits that extend well beyond the classroom. By infusing values such as empathy, self-respect, responsibility, and self-regulation into everyday learning environments, we show students how developing these characteristics helps them learn and grow. That’s why social-emotional learning matters.
Photo Credit: Google Education
Social Emotional Learning