What is Social-Emotional Learning

In the 1990’s I was a junior in high school and a very mediocre student, of my friend group, I was at the bottom of the pack… chemistry was a beast for me… I hated it and at the end of the year, I had a state competency exam I needed to pass.  I didn’t have much confidence in myself but I had a teacher who went out of her way to connect with me and this made the difference for me.  I got through it and even remember what entropy is today!  I often wonder how my own school experience could have been if we had something like social-emotional learning when I was in school.

Working in the public education system for the past 8 years, I have seen the many levels of challenge encountered by schools, administration, and teachers around psychological and emotional struggles in the classroom.  As was true for me in the example above, student engagement will yield student achievement, regardless of whether or not the student likes the subject matter.  Student engagement for the majority of our students will come from the relationships they have with their teachers and social-emotional learning could be part of the answer to this problem.  This article will focus on the problem of integrating social-emotional learning in remote and hybrid classrooms with strategies to address this challenge.

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) can be defined as, classroom learning that strives to build student capacity around these 5 competencies; self-awareness, social awareness, responsible decision making, self-management, and relationship building as defined by CASEL.   In recent years, CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) has become the “go-to” body of information around social-emotional learning.  They have a ton of helpful research on this topic as well as helpful approaches for schools to think about implementing SEL strategies in their classrooms.

You could say that SEL is the missing piece to the puzzle when it comes to learning and academic performance.  CASEL research has found that students (grades K-8) who receive consistent SEL instruction have seen on average, an 11 to 17 percentile point increase in academic testing.   

Learning is an Emotional Process

Social-emotional learning is an essential part of classroom learning that needs to happen concurrently with academics.

Think about your own learning experiences in school, what stands out to you?  Rarely do we connect with the material being taught, it is rather the conduit to the learning, which is the teacher or the emotional connection to the school and the learning environment.

As an adult, the experiences that stand out for me when I think about my own school experience are the teachers who I felt saw me and heard me.  They cared about me, as a person regardless of the content and how I performed in the class, and ironically, I tried harder when I felt that connection to a teacher.  This is not very different from many of our students today.  It is part of the human condition to desire appreciation and to be recognized by peers or, for kids, by adults.

We know that learning is an emotional process, and not a new concept.  I linked in an old article here which was published in 1994, I know, ancient!  But it just goes to show that social science has been on to the idea that learning is more than just cognitive ability.  And yet still, almost 30 years later we are grappling with the need to integrate social-emotional competency with the same vigor that we do in the academic arena.

Granted this is a system-wide issue and there is a lot of progress, but it is a big system, and when something is so big, it is slow-moving, an inherent challenge in the world of education.  Fortunately/unfortunately our modern world, the information age, is throwing more and more information at us every day.  Not only do we need to innovate but we need to think about how we can quicken the pace.  The time is now and the COVID pandemic has made this abundantly clear!  Despite the challenges, I am encouraged that more and more school leaders are embracing the social-emotional needs of our kids, and we need those school leaders if we stand a chance at adapting to the needs of the dynamic landscape in public education.

The Jargon

Every domain has its own language, the same is true for education.  It’s true, I can get a little hung up on words, it’s a little bit of a running joke among my friends and family, but words are important.  Interpretation of a word or expression is subjective, each has its own significance and that carries some weight that is unique to the person hearing it.  As we often say, it doesn’t matter what is said, just what is heard.  So, it’s important to make sure that we have a baseline understanding of what means what and that we are mindful of how and when different terms are used.

I like to think about social-emotional learning as the umbrella term for all things related to learning about the interpersonal and social issues that connect to our emotional selves.  Many people are not comfortable with this kind of association which is in part, the challenge around teaching it in the classroom.  It is impossible to get through life without experiencing hurt and disappointment, and that occurs on varying levels.  Teachers are people who have real-life experiences and can’t always just “turn it off” when they enter a classroom.  And therein lies a chunk of the challenge.

Another popular term for this work is Trauma-Informed Practices which we could classify as a subsection of the larger social-emotional learning umbrella.  However, as the term implies, with more of a focus on the origins of the challenges students may face.  More times than not, we don’t know the backgrounds of our students or even what their weekend might have been.  If we practice good SEL then from a teacher’s perspective we are also doing what we need to support students who might have experienced trauma.  You can certainly say that if you are implementing trauma-informed practices then you are also implementing social-emotional learning.

Trauma sensitive schools is another term that is used somewhat interchangeably with SEL and Trauma-Informed Practices.  However, having taken three post-graduate-level classes on safe and supportive schools/trauma-sensitive schools, I can say with some authority that there is a degree of difference, though many of the principles are the same.  The idea around trauma-sensitive schools is that the school as a whole is working towards building that safe and supportive environment, which involves a commitment to school reform to achieve this goal.  The first part of this last sentence is naturally what I think all schools want for their kids, I think the difference here is how this is achieved.  In our social work speak this would be considered a macro-level intervention whereas SEL and trauma-informed practices are a mezzo (group) level of intervention.

5 Strategies for the virtual classroom

Given the challenges of this past year and COVID-19, classroom learning has been turned on its head.  Schools have had to adapt and innovate very quickly.  The situation is changing constantly and therefore schools and classrooms have too.

The most common classroom setup at this point is what is referred to as the hybrid model.  The hybrid model refers to about half the students in a class being remote and the other half being in person, most of you are probably familiar with this model.  It has been effective in mitigating the risk of transmission of the COVID virus, however, it does present an array of other challenges for the teacher, as well as the students, as they manage the complications of in-person and remote students at the same time.  I have outlined a few strategies below to help manage some of those challenges while also giving students the social-emotional support they need.

1. Classroom set up

So the first thing to think about for the virtual classroom is the structure of the class.  As mentioned, there will most likely be students who are remote as well as in person, and on top of that, probably managing synchronous and asynchronous work as well, which really just means independent learning vs. learning with the class and the teacher in the traditional sense.  Managing this for a teacher can be hugely overwhelming.

In my research for this article, I connected with my colleague and friend @MsMSHSScienceS1 who talked to me about the concurrent model with station rotations which is straight from the desk of Dr. Catlin Tucker.    I included a graphic from Dr. Tucker’s website that should help to illustrate the idea behind the station rotation model.

I’ll be honest as a “nonteacher”, looking at this model does look a little complex, but after reading it over, several times (!), I can begin to see how this works.  The article I linked in is helpful as Dr. Tucker speaks to a number of the challenges that teachers face with remote students and in-person students, the in-person students will naturally have more attention from the teacher, just being human.  To mitigate this natural disadvantage that remote students have, Dr. Tucker, devised the station rotation model which from a social-emotional perspective can be effective, allowing teachers to make more individual connections to their students.  I would definitely encourage teachers who are interested in exploring this model to click on the link above.

2. Pear Deck, A Social-Emotional Application

Google came out with a Google Slide Deck add-on that can be used to check in with students individually.  It even has several social-emotional templates to choose from which can be helpful when checking in on your student’s stress levels or any other concern that might arise.  Some of the templates are geared towards coping skills or self-assessment (ie active listening), which can be a helpful way to incorporate some SEL within your classroom content.  Check out this link here which also has a tutorial to help you get it set up.

I would also like to add that with school comes stress, of course for many students this stress is heightened by the pandemic and possibly some home life challenges.  Homelife challenges are another level of stress that students might feel which is where a referral for counseling might be helpful.  However, when it comes to supporting students with their stress related to academics, teachers are in a perfect position to integrate social-emotional skill-building.   Tieing in social-emotional coping skills can benefit students in a variety of ways, it might even help them with their home life stressors and help to establish rapport with students, which touch on the SEL competency “building relationships.”

3. A Virtual Check-in

One of the best SEL strategies might be the ever simple morning check-in.  This is a little more challenging in the virtual world.  Additionally, there is a challenge in making sure that responses are kept confidential.  A recent discovery of mine, again thank you @MsMSHSScienceS1, is the pop-up emoji chart.  This might vary across computers; on a mac, when you hit control+Command +spacebar the emoji chart comes up, a student can then choose their emoji and enter it into a private chat.  On a PC it’s the window button+(.) or (;) until the window pops up.

It might also be worth googling other types of charts that could be included in a slide deck and from where a student could write in their choice.  I saw a fun example using the Muppet faces, which for kids who know who the Muppets are, would be a fun way to do this kind of check-in.  Depending on the age of the students there will be a variety of options, while also giving consideration to teacher preference.

Just a note on confidentiality, always ensure that the chat is private.  If it is not, make sure that this is discussed with students so they are aware that their responses will be public.  When looking to engage students around more personal topics or issues, something that connects to their emotional state, it is always advised that there is an option to make this private, otherwise, responses may be altered for the sake of privacy and not feeling safe to put certain information out for the class to see.

4. Games!

Gaming is the way of the world, at least it is for the majority of our students, why not tap into this valuable resource to help teach about collaboration, problem-solving, and how to be a team player.  You can do this virtually while tapping into an area of student’s strengths.  We Are Teachers posted a list of 20 zoom games, you can find the article here.

5. Reflective Writing

Reflective writing can be done in any format, virtual or in person.  Writing is one of the best tools to unlock hidden potential in your students and help them with the SEL competency of developing self-awareness or any of the others depending on what the writing prompt is.  And this can be connected to a variety of content areas.

For example, if you teach chemistry, could you ask your students to write about entropy with examples of this playing out in their personal lives or their community?

If you aren’t familiar with the Google application Jamboard, this is a great Google tool to collect the thoughts of a group and could be a great way for in-person and virtual students to collaborate.

Closing Thoughts

There are a ton of applications out there that can make learning and teaching fun, but it can also be hugely overwhelming.  It’s important to chip away at this a little at a time, perhaps introducing a new application or technique to your class one week at a time.  We don’t need to do everything all at once, sometimes it can feel this way and I am here to remind you that we need to pace ourselves.

When building lessons, think about the small connections you can make to the 5 competencies, does any of the material relate to self-assessment, self-awareness, relationship building, self-management, or social awareness?  If it does, make the connection for students and be intentional, say it out loud, and how this can help not just with the class material but in life.  This is one of the biggest complaints I hear from students, “I will never use this information”.  If we can make the material relevant to their lives, we are helping to bridge that gap between school and real life.

Thank you

This article was written with the collaboration of my friend and colleague Danielle who is a Digital Learning Coach at a local Public High School, follow her on Twitter @MsMSHSScienceS1.  I must also say the ideas I write about here are my interpretation of the work I have been doing over the course of my career in the public education system coupled with my knowledge base from social work.  Many people have influenced my thinking on these topics, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that these are not original ideas, but ideas that I have collected and wanted to give some air time in another format.

If this article was helpful, please share with friends and colleagues and sign up for my newsletter where there will be lots more free tools and helpful information related to social-emotional learning as well as the many ups and downs we face in life.  Also, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or question.  Hope you have a great day!