Social-emotional learning

Overview

Social-emotional learning focuses on helping students develop social-emotional skills that are essential for:

working with others
building resiliency
achieving goals
reducing bullying and risk behaviours (substance use)

Social-emotional skills are foundational for success in school and in life.

The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has identified 5 connected sets of competencies:

Self-awareness: Recognizing emotions and assessing ones’ strengths and challenges.
Self-management: Controlling emotions and impulses, managing stress, self-motivation and setting and achieving goals.
Social awareness: Identifying others’ emotions, showing empathy and understanding other perspectives.
Relationship skills: Building healthy relationships, communication skills, conflict resolution, working, playing and learning with others.
Responsible decision-making: Making wise choices and evaluating potential consequences.

Foundational ideas

Placing value on the following ideas is important for effective social-emotional learning practices. Social-emotional learning is fundamental to building the following traits:

positive social behaviour
health and well-being
ethical development and citizenship
motivation
academic learning

Social-emotional skills need to be taught and can improve with opportunities to practice in different contexts.

Social-emotional learning requires a long-term, whole-school approach that involves families and community partners.

Research-based evidence

Research shows that students receiving quality social-emotional learning instruction showed:

better academic performance
- achievement scores were an average of 11 percentile points higher than students who did not receive social-emotional learning instruction
improved attitudes and behaviours
- greater motivation to learn
- increased time devoted to schoolwork
- better classroom behaviour
fewer disruptive behaviours
- less noncompliance, aggression and disciplinary referrals
reduced emotional distress
- fewer reports of student depression, anxiety, stress and social withdrawal

Examples

Social-emotional practices will vary depending on the needs of the students and the resources and priorities of the school community. A whole school approach builds on the instruction of social-emotional outcomes in Alberta’s Wellness Programs of Study.

The following fictional examples show what social-emotional learning could look like in practice.

Elementary school

Teachers work together across grade levels to include social-emotional learning into daily instruction. Activities include:

read-aloud stories on related topics
guided discussion
role playing and problem-solving
opportunities to reflect on and demonstrate learning through writing, art and presentations

Students can take home materials that reinforce social-emotional learning with families.

Monthly school events highlight specific social-emotional skills, reinforce new learning and introduce ideas for using skills across different contexts.

Middle school/Junior high school

At the beginning of the school year, school staff work together to create a shared understanding of social-emotional learning. They use this to develop strategies for using social-emotional competencies in academic and extra-curricular activities. School wide events use the language of social-emotional learning and focus on positive relationships and responsible decision-making.

High school

School staff develop learning modules that reinforce social-emotional competencies. English teachers work together to plan literature projects that explore social-emotional learning at each grade-level. School publications, signage and events use the language of social-emotional learning.