What is an SEL program?

> What Is Social-Emotional Learning? Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success.

What does SEL mean in school?

Broadly speaking, social and emotional learning (SEL) refers to the process through which individuals learn and apply a set of social, emotional, and related skills, attitudes, behaviors, and values that help direct students. This includes thoughts, feelings, and actions in ways that enable them to succeed in school.

Why are parents against SEL in schools?

Those accusations have surfaced during school board meetings, within parent-teacher associations, and during routine parent-teacher conferences, said Hughes. Parents express fears that SEL is a slippery slope—or even an indoctrination tool—to teach kids about racial inequality, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

What are the 5 social-emotional learning skills?

The following descriptions of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) are from CASEL. They address five broad, interrelated areas of competence and provide examples for each: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

What is the SEL program curriculum?

Approaches and delivery methods for SEL curricula can vary widely. Some programs focus on character development, while others focus on building core competencies such as Social Awareness and Self-Management. Some are game oriented, while others are movement based or project based.

Social-Emotional Learning: What Is SEL and Why SEL Matters

What does SEL look like in schools?

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning defines SEL as “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, ...

How is SEL taught in schools?

In the classroom, SEL lessons can be explicitly taught through curriculum or integrated into other subjects, including through activities like labeling feelings, goal setting, cultivating empathy, and collaborating with peers.

What are the 3 R's of social emotional learning?

Embedded at the core of positive psychology, and emotional learning, are the three R's of emotional literacy: Regulation, Reconstruction, and Resilience. To regulate emotion, students learn the ability to flip a negative emotion to positive emotion like they flip a baseball card.

How do you include SEL in the classroom?

What is SEL in elementary school?

SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring ...

What are the dangers of SEL?

It can perpetuate a victim mentality. Some SEL programs focus heavily on identifying and coping with emotions like anxiety, fear, and sadness. While it's important to address these issues, there's a risk that children could become too focused on their negative emotions and begin to see themselves as victims.

Why do SEL programs fail?

So SEL is rushed, shortened, or even skipped. Note to administrators: you cannot put one more thing on a teacher's plate without at the same time taking something off. The less obvious but perhaps most important reason that SEL programs fail is that they conflict with the SEL program the school already has.

What is the controversy around SEL?

Critics of social-emotional learning, like Parents Defending Education, a group tracking what it says is “liberal indoctrination,” say the programs focus too much on children's identities. It shouldn't matter what a child's race or gender is, these parent groups say.

Is SEL a hidden curriculum?

And, because we can also learn unhealthy social and emotional skills and mindsets—like racism, aggression, and helplessness—from our surroundings, it's especially important for educators to bring awareness and intentionality to the hidden SEL curriculum.

What happens when a child lacks social emotional development?

Social‐emotional delays and behavioral problems at preschool age are associated with increased risk for negative outcomes at school age, including ongoing behavior problems, psychiatric disorders, and poorer academic achievement.⁶, ⁷ The development of social‐emotional competencies has important consequences for young ...

What does SEL look like?

SEL consists of five key skills: Self-awareness – recognition of one's own emotions, personal goals, and values. Self-management – regulation of one's own emotions and behaviors. Social awareness – understanding of and compassion for others' backgrounds or cultures.

How do I create a SEL curriculum?

What is the role of the teacher in SEL?

Teachers are the engine that drives social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and practices in schools and classrooms, and their own social-emotional competence and wellbeing strongly influence their students.

What does SEL do for students?

Students and Schools. Social-emotional learning (SEL) helps improve kids' academic performance, curtail bullying, reduce dropout rates, and build character. Well-implemented SEL programs positively affect students' success in school.

What are the 4 emotions of learning?

Positive learning emotions include interest, curiosity, wonder, passion, creativity, engagement and joy. These activate the reward system of the brain, make the experience desirable, and aid in focus and attention.

What are some social-emotional learning strategies?

What are the four elements of SEL?

High-quality SEL instruction has four elements represented by the acronym SAFE: Sequenced – following a coordinated set of training approaches to foster the development of competencies; Active – emphasizing active forms of learning to help students practice and master new skills; Focused – implementing curriculum that ...

Does SEL teach gender identity?

Through self-reflection and social awareness, SEL helps teach skills needed to connect across race, class, culture, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, learning needs and age.

Does second step teach LGBTQ?

LGBTQIA: Besides race, Second Step also focuses heavily on gay and transgender issues when discussing bullying/harassment. These lessons do not simply list these areas as reasons students are bullied. Rather, these reasons are prioritized over others in the lessons.

What percentage of schools use SEL?

More than 90 percent of schools and districts in the U.S. report a focus on developing students' SEL skills (Duchesneau, 2020). There is growing consensus that implementing SEL programs well by definition includes inclusive, collaborative approaches that value culture and consider context.