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School-Based Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Programming: Current Perspectives
Abstract
In 1994, the Fetzer Institute hosted a conference to address concerns about the various, disjointed school-based efforts that
had surfaced over the years. In attendance were a range of researchers, educators, and advocates with diverse interests related
to meeting the developmental, psychological, educational, and general health needs of children. These issues were discussed,
and the term social and emotional learning (SEL) was introduced. SEL described a framework for providing opportunities for young people to acquire the skills necessary
for attaining and maintaining personal well-being and positive relationships across the lifespan. Out of this 1994 meeting,
the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) was formed with the goal of “establishing high-quality,
evidence-based SEL as an essential part of preschool through high school education” (Elias et al., 1997; Greenberg et al.,
2003; Kress & Elias, 2006).
... Thus, to implement effective measures in Japan, adopting a universal approach that will not limit the target to high-risk families is crucial. The concept of social and emotional learning (SEL) involves the development of social-emotional skills [8,9]. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a nonprofit organization based in the United States, was established in 1994 to define SEL [8,9]. ...
... The concept of social and emotional learning (SEL) involves the development of social-emotional skills [8,9]. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a nonprofit organization based in the United States, was established in 1994 to define SEL [8,9]. CASEL identified five competencies that children acquire through SEL: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making [8,9]. ...
... The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a nonprofit organization based in the United States, was established in 1994 to define SEL [8,9]. CASEL identified five competencies that children acquire through SEL: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making [8,9]. Several universal programs have been developed for use as part of SEL, and their effectiveness have been reported primarily in countries other than Japan [10][11][12]. ...
Background
Research on school maladjustment has increasingly focused on social skills, such as the ability to control emotions, collaborate with others, and achieve goals. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is one approach to nurturing social skills. However, few preventive interventions to promote SEL have been conducted among young children, particularly in Asian countries, including Japan. Therefore, this study examined the effectiveness of an SEL program—Fun FRIENDS—among children in Japan.
Methods
In mid-2022, the Fun FRIENDS program was administered to 115 children aged 4–5 years, who were enrolled in two kindergartens. The program was administered to the entire class as part of their kindergarten activities. The control group included 93 children in three kindergartens. This study included 94 participants (81.7%) in the intervention group and 66 (71.0%) in the control group, whose parents agreed with the assessment of their skills. Fun FRIENDS is a support program based on a cognitive–behavioral approach. The program aims to teach children how to cope with anxiety and stress and develop resilience and confidence to face difficulties. The program includes 10 sessions, each lasting approximately 1 h and conducted once per week. To examine the program’s effectiveness, teachers evaluated these children’s social skills before and after program implementation using the Social Skill Scale.
Results
Results showed significant post-intervention improvements in self-control and cooperation scores among children in the intervention group, compared with pre-intervention. Further, post-intervention self-control and cooperation scores were significantly higher among children in the intervention group than the control group.
Conclusions
SEL implemented on a class-wide basis could be effective in early childhood. An early approach targeting preschool-aged children is necessary to prevent school maladjustment. A universal approach implemented on a whole-class basis could contribute to improving children’s social skills.
... CASEL provided the first SEL framework, prioritizing the learning of skills necessary for young people to acquire and sustain personal wellbeing and positive relationships throughout their lives (Elbertson et al., 2010;Elias et al., 1997). The initial focus of SEL as promoted by CASEL was on meeting the needs of students and ensuring their personal well-being, school success, health, peer and family relationships, and countering substance abuse (Collaborative for the Advancement of Social and Emotional Learning CASEL, 2003). ...
... Without this commitment, even well-planned and relevant initiatives could not be implemented appropriately due to teachers/implementersí lack of confidence, unwillingness, or even resistance. Teachers have to be considered as one of the most important factors predicating student outcomes, both academic (e.g., Hattie, 2008) and social-emotional (Elbertson et al., 2010). ...
There is a common understanding among researchers and practitioners that the learning environment is a key aspect of the adjustment and well-being of students and teachers. There is a necessity to translate the findings of individual studies on building positive learning environments to a comprehensive and integral framework to sustain and promote a positive school climate using a holistic approach. Sustainability in this theoretical paper is approached as a dynamic, continuous, and long-term process of consciously and consistently implementing actions, strategies, and values at all levels and in all environments to facilitate and maintain a positive climate in educational settings. This conceptual approach, based on action research in the fields of education and psychology, will help to broaden perspectives on both positive school climates and sustainability to improve the understanding and practices of all stakeholders in education. As such, this article presents a conceptual framework as well as guidelines for the assessment of sustainably promoting a positive school climate.
... As more schools are moving towards universal and standardized SEL programming, considerations for selecting a program include not just evidence of program effectiveness with the population of focus, but also instructional procedures and activities, the targeting of specific SEL skills, and the potential for purposeful integration and generalization into other content areas, frameworks (e.g., Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports or PBIS; Lewis & Sugai, 1999), and throughout the school day (Elbertson et al., 2009;Lawson et al., 2019;Murano et al., 2020). Examination of SEL programs also highlights the importance of valid and reliable SEL assessment tools to monitor and evaluate the success of SEL programs, which is associated with meeting students' academic and social needs and improving their well-being (Haggerty et al., 2011;Jones & Doolittle, 2017). ...
This article provides a preliminary report on the construct validity and internal consistency of the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Skills Class Assessment (SELS-CA), which is the accompanying measurement tool of the SEL curriculum Open Circle. This validation was part of a larger implementation and evaluation study using Open Circle programming to evaluate its effect on the SEL skill acquisition of elementary students enrolled in a large public urban school in the Southeastern U.S. (McDaniel et al., 2022). We examined the reliability and validity of the SELS-CA based on 247 teacher ratings of students in the second through fifth grade. Factor analytic procedures revealed a robust three-factor structure, resulting in three subscales, subsequently titled Strategies for Emotional/Behavioral Regulation, Cooperative Behaviors, and Prosocial Skills. SELS-CA total scores revealed strong internal consistency, with adequate internal consistency noted for the three resultant subscales. Limitations and future research needs are discussed, as are implications for research and practice in school settings.
... As more schools are moving towards universal and standardized SEL programming, considerations for selecting a program include not just evidence of program effectiveness with the population of focus, but also instructional procedures and activities, the targeting of specific SEL skills, and the potential for purposeful integration and generalization into other content areas, frameworks (e.g., Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports or PBIS; , and throughout the school day (Elbertson et al., 2009;Lawson et al., 2019;Murano et al., 2020). Examination of SEL programs also highlights the importance of valid and reliable SEL assessment tools to monitor and evaluate the success of SEL programs, which is associated with meeting students' academic and social needs and improving their well-being (Haggerty et al., 2011;Jones & Doolittle, 2017). ...
School improvement plans (SIPs) have become a central feature of schooling. Educational leaders experience tension between balancing compliance with accountability demands and continuous improvement, and neither of these lenses is centered in the social justice necessary for closing opportunity gaps. We propose a new rubric for assessing the extent to which SIPs focus on policy compliance, students, organizations, or community.
The deep influence of affectivity on learning is now widely acknowledged (Keefer et al., 2018; Sánchez-Álvarez et al., 2021). For instance, it has been shown that affect influences key learning-relevant processes, such as motivation, perception, behavior, and critical thinking (Izard, 2002; Mayer & Salovey, 1997). Evidence also shows that emotion and mood strongly influence attention, which in turn drives learning and memory (Elbertson et al., 2010; Elias et al., 1997). Intersubjective phenomena, such as the degree of affection and respect between child and teacher, also affect the child’s learning processes, academic outcomes, and brain development (Kusché & Greenberg, 2006; Ryan & Patrick, 2001). However, the relevant literature is not paying attention to increasing evidence showing that affective phenomena are rooted in interoceptive and homeostatic self- and co-regulatory processes within and between people’s living bodies (Barrett, 2017; Carvalho & Damasio, 2021; Craig, 2015, 2018; Fotopoulou et al., 2022; Fotopoulou & Tsakiris, 2017; Seth & Friston, 2016). In this theoretical chapter, we explore this connection and its importance for learning. We argue that affective experience plays a fundamental role in learning, and that affective experience is rooted in the homeostatic self-/co-regulation of living bodies. Therefore, the homeostatic self-/co-regulation of living bodies plays a fundamental role in learning. In other words, there is an intra- and interpersonal somatic dimension of learning that demands explicit consideration in educational contexts. In this way, we aim to contribute to an understanding of learning and education that moves away from an individualistic, brain-centered information-processing conception toward one centered on sentient, interdependent living bodies.KeywordsInteroceptionHomeostasisAffective consciousnessLearningEmotions
A reziliencia és a szociális-érzelmi tanulás segítése óvodás és általános iskolás korban A reziliencia és a szociális, érzelmi készségek meghatározó szerepet játszanak a mentális problémák megelőzésében, illetve súlyosságuk csökkentésében. Ha támogatjuk a gyermekek lelki ellenálló készségének fejlődését, azzal elősegítjük, hogy képesek legyenek pozitívan reagálni a változásokra, kihívásokra és az életük során felmerülő nehézségekre. A szociális és érzelmi készségek fejlesztése hozzájárul, hogy a tanulók sikereket érjenek el az iskolában és a magánéletben egyaránt, képesek legyenek egészséges kapcsolatok kialakítására, és felkészüljenek a társadalom által elfogadott felnőtt szerepek betöltésére (Cefai és mtsai, 2015; Fenwick-Smith, 2018; Zolkoski és Bullock, 2012; WHO, 2022). Bevezetés A z Európai Bizottság kisgyermekkori nevelésről és gondozásról szóló közleménye a hatékony koragyermekkori neveléshez és gondozáshoz való hozzáférés bizto-sítását és fokozását ajánlja annak érdekében, hogy a gyermekek olyan készsé-gekkel és képességekkel felruházva kezdhessék meg tanulmányaikat, melyek protektív tényezőként működnek a korai iskolaelhagyás tekintetében, megalapozzák a sikeres társadalmi integráció, a személyes fejlődés és a későbbi hatékony munkavégzés alap-jait (European Commission, 2011). A gyermek-és serdülőkor kulcsfontosságú időszak a mentális egészség kialakulásában, mivel ekkor olyan kognitív, szociális és érzelmi készségek elsajátítása zajlik, melyek elengedhetetlenek a lelki egészség eléréséhez és a társadalom által elfogadott felnőtt szerepek betöltéséhez (WHO, 2022). Az Európában kialakult társadalmi, gazdasági válság a családok és a közösségek számára olyan rizikó-faktorokat rejt, melyek szociális, gazdasági, kulturális és oktatási egyenlőtlenségekhez vezethetnek (Cefai és mtsai, 2014; Promberger és mtsai, 2020). A szociális-gazdasági lemaradás a civilizált országokban meghatározó egészségügyi veszélyeztető tényező, igen szoros kapcsolatban áll a mentális betegségek (például a depressziós tünetegyüttes) kialakulásával (Kopp és mtsai, 1999). Egyre nagyobb aggodalomra ad okot a háborús helyzet, a világjárványok, az éghajlatváltozás, a természeti katasztrófák és az ezekhez a jelenségekhez kapcsolódó lakóhelyelhagyási kényszernek a gyermekek jóllétére gyako-rolt hatása (Masten és Barnes, 2018). A WHO által közölt adatok szerint a gyermekeket és serdülőket érintő lelki eredetű zavarok száma világszerte nőtt (WHO, 2021), a mentá-lis egészség elősegítése és támogatása, a lelki ellenálló képesség, a reziliencia növelése tehát ezekben az életszakaszokban elengedhetetlen. Az európai gyermekek helyzetére reagálva az EU több tagállamában egy olyan, rezilienciát fokozó tanterv (RESCUR: Resilience Curriculum for Early Years and Primary Schools) bevezetése valósult meg,
Used meta‐analysis to review 177 primary prevention programs designed to prevent behavioral and social problems in children and adolescents. Findings provide empirical support for further research and practice in primary prevention. Most categories of programs produced outcomes similar to or higher in magnitude than those obtained by many other established preventive and treatment interventions in the social sciences and medicine. Programs modifying the school environment, individually focused mental health promotion efforts, and attempts to help children negotiate stressful transitions yield significant mean effects ranging from 0.24 to 0.93. In practical terms, the average participant in a primary prevention program surpasses the performance of between 59% to 82% of those in a control group, and outcomes reflect an 8% to 46% difference in success rates favoring prevention groups. Most categories of programs had the dual benefit of significantly reducing problems and significantly increasing competencies. Priorities for future research include clearer specification of intervention procedures and program goals, assessment of program implementation, more follow‐up studies, and determining how characteristics of the intervention and participants relate to different outcomes.
This article summarizes a much lengthier one that appeared in Prevention and Treatment. The earlier article grew out of a project initiated by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. The Positive Youth Development Evaluation project described why policy makers, practitioners, and prevention scientists advocated a shift in approach for how youth issues are addressed in this country. The Positive Youth Development Evaluation project sought to define how youth development programs have been defined in the literature and then to locate, through a structured search, strong evaluations of these programs and summarize the outcomes of these evaluations. In the current article, we explain why prevention has shifted from a single problem focus to a focus on factors that affect both positive and problem youth development, describe what is meant by positive youth development, and summarize what we know about the effectiveness of positive youth develop...
In recent years, innovative schools have developed courses in what has been termed emotional literacy, emotional intelligence, or emotional competence. This volume evaluates these developments scientifically, pairing the perspectives of psychologists with those of educators who offer valuable commentary on the latest research. It is an authoritative study that describes the scientific basis for our knowledge about emotion as it relates specifically to children, the classroom environment, and emotional literacy. Key topics include: historical perspectives on emotional intelligence neurological bases for emotional development the development of social skills and childhood socialization of emotion. Experts in psychology and education have long viewed thinking and feeling as polar opposites reason on the one hand, and passion on the other. And emotion, often labeled as chaotic, haphazard, and immature, has not traditionally been seen as assisting reason. All that changed in 1990, when Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer coined the term emotional intelligence as a challenge to the belief that intelligence is not based on processing emotion-laden information. Salovey and Mayer defined emotional intelligence as the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use motivated scientists, educators, parents, and many others to consider the ways in which emotions themselves comprise an intelligent system. With this groundbreaking volume, invited contributors present cutting-edge research on emotions and emotional development in a manner useful to educators, psychologists, and anyone interested in the unfolding of emotions during childhood. In recent years, innovative schools have developed courses in “emotional literacy” that making; these classes teach children how to understand and manage their feelings and how to get along with one another. Many such programs have achieved national prominence, and preliminary scientific evaluations have shown promising results. Until recently, however, there has been little contact between educators developing these types of programs and psychologists studying the neurological underpinnings and development of human emotions. This unique book links theory and practice by juxtaposing scientific explanations of emotion with short commentaries from educators who elaborate on how these advances can be put to use in the classroom. Accessible and enlightening, Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence provides ample evidence about emotional intelligence as well as sound information on the potential efficacy of educational programs based on this idea.