What is Social Emotional Learning?

What is social emotional learning and why is it in the talks nowadays?

Education is important for cognitive development. It is necessary to go beyond the curriculum to help in the holistic development of a child. Classroom dynamics are changing, and it’s a call for more. It’s the perfect time to ask yourself what is social emotional learning?

Social emotional learning or SEL is not a new concept. It’s been here for almost 20 years. Many educational institutions are incorporating social emotional learning in their curriculum.

Social emotional learning helps in building emotional intelligence. It is a skill set that proves to be helpful in creating emotional awareness among children. It has benefits in the overall growth of a child. This article will guide you through complete information about what is social-emotional learning.

What is Social Emotional Learning:  5 Fundamentals For Development

You must be thinking what is social emotional learning?

Well social emotional learning is an attribute through which a child and even adults learn how to respond to various situations. Social-emotional learning helps adolescents to cope with their feelings. It helps in identifying new emotions such as anger, jealousy, etc.

Once you recognize your feelings, dealing with them becomes easy for maintaining healthy relationships. By learning what is social emotional learning, they learn how to react emphatically towards various people and situations around them.

It has proved to bring change in the overall personality of a child. It perfectly fits in today’s dynamic classroom with students from diverse cultures. It creates a positive understanding of one’s own culture and also helps in respecting diversity with empathy.
It has a various positive impacts on several serious issues like school bullying, deteriorating grades, increasing class attendance, etc.

What is Social emotional learning? How did it start?

Social emotional learning started in the 1960s when professor James Comer started a development school. Professor implemented a development program for African low-income students to improve their failing grades. He used social-emotional development to improve academic performance.

Who Gave Social Emotional Learning?

SEL ¹is a concept given by CASEL ( collaborative for academic social and emotional learning).CASEL ²has been the pioneer in this field for more than two decades. This concept works for the benefit of adolescents through collaborating social emotional learning skill sets at school, home, and society as a whole.CASEL was formed in 1994 to make social-emotional learning a part of the school curriculum from preschool to high school.

CASEL has identified 5 fundamental skills that help adolescents to identify their feelings and environment better:

1. Self Awareness This is the process of knowing yourself first. It helps in identifying own capabilities and shortcomings. Self-awareness makes you aware of your feelings and how they control your behavior in various situations. It helps to create a positive self-image. It helps in identifying positive aspects of own culture.

Self-awareness is a tool to deal with stress. It helps to maintain good mental health³.

2. Self-Management Is a tool used to check and control own emotions and behavior. Self-management helps to behave in a controlled manner. It leads to more sensitive behavior toward others.

Self-management is used to teach self-discipline and controlling emotions like anxiety through various anger management techniques. Monitored attitude managed emotions help in achieving the predetermined goals.

It helps in managing emotions and regulates behavior for the growth and achievement of targets.

3. Social Awareness means being aware of people around you. It focuses on others’ emotions, respecting diversities, and monitoring dynamics to be a group player. Social awareness is a way to empathize with others.

It promotes empathy towards others and their conditions. Social awareness helps in creating more healthy relationships around.

Once a child is more aware of the emotional status of people around him, he can make and maintain good friendships.

4. Relationship Skills is a tool that aids in maintaining positive relationships. The classroom becomes the first area where relationships are build and groups are made.

Relationship skills are a great way to learn group dynamics. It mandates respect for other’s perspectives around us. Relationship skills help students. It teaches empathy in relations to make them go long way.

To cherish healthy relationships passive listening and articulating ideas correctly are important. Knowledge of group dynamics and how to regard them to keep relationships healthy. It also stresses how to avoid verbal spats and conflicts. It mandates to say No to any unhealthy relationships in a constructive way.

5. Responsible Decision-Making It makes children aware of various healthy choices in social and personal life. How various choices have different effects. It imbibes ethical conduct, group cohesiveness, and appropriate social language.

Students learn positive behavior and controlled reactions make them better decision-makers. It is seen that responsible decision-making becomes a habit and such children excel in life.

Social emotional learning a way of teaching decision-making skills in different everyday situations sensibly through controlled emotions. It also focuses on problem-solving helps a child in managing solutions himself.

What Are The Benefits Of Social emotional learning?

Social emotional learning works for the overall development of adolescents. It upgrades youngsters’ emotional intelligence. It subsists adolescents throughout life by helping in making better decisions.

There are miscellaneous benefits of social emotional learning few are listed below:

1. Improves Report Card Grades

Yes it is proven it helps in improving grades. It is noticed that grades become better up to 11 percentile. It helps in identifying abilities, and setting short-term and long-term goals. Achievement of goals becomes easier.

2. Creates A Prudent Environment
The environment with empathy is the paves the way to a comfortable environment. Diversities are respected nobody feels out of the place. A sense of belonging creates a comforting domain for children. It helps in making children regular to class.

3.Better Problem-Solving Skills

Social emotional learning inculcate problem-solving skills. Children learn how to tackle day-to-day problems with compassion.
Problem-solving skills allow children to initiate to find the cause and solution of the problem.
Adolescents practicing social emotional fundamentals have been more successful in their personal and professional lives.

4. Boost Self-Composure

The main aim of social emotional learning is to make adolescents feel good about their culture, ethics, and taking positive aspects of them.

It builds confidence in children at early ages so they don’t hesitate in interacting. Self confidence is  necessary to be successful and overall growth of child.

Self-confidence improves interaction in the group and also improves grades. Confident adolescents take up challenges positively.

5.For Group Players

Respecting diversities and showing empathy towards others’ emotions makes children a good team player. Adolescents learn group dynamics and how to cherish them. Such children are seen to maintain positive relationships within the class, office, and society.

6. Curtails Misconduct

Children often indulge in misconduct due to an absence of self-control, and social awareness and social emotional learning  improves the emotional quotient of children. It makes them respect group dynamics. Many issues such as bullying are resolved through social emotional learning education. Anger issues are sorted through various anger management habits.

Often misconduct arises because adolescents are not able to understand their emotions. They may misunderstand other emotions as well. So fundamentals like self and social awareness help in curtailing misconduct. Acknowledging emotions, identifying them correctly , helps in curbing any menace at ground level.

7. Improves Attendance

Children often hesitate to attend school regularly due to various issues like peer pressure or because of feeling isolated. All these feelings are curbed at the root level as social emotional learning created more stable, compassionate, and composite classrooms where every child blossoms.

It is proved social emotional learning motivates pupils to attend school. Improved attendance means better understanding and hence improved grades.

8. A Way To Check  Mental Health

Holistic development of students includes mental health too. Through this adolescents freely spoke and accept mental health. It has shown a better mental state among students practicing social emotional learning. Students accept their mental health and freely discuss it.

9. Teaches Managing Skills

Children learn adequately managing their own emotions honoring group norms. Managing crises and daily matters with empathy, Managing skills are add ons for the bright future of pupils.

Managing emotions in situations through better decision-making becomes an attribute of students’ character.

Steps To Introduce Social Emotional Learning In Classroom

The teacher plays a pivotal role in establishing social emotional learning norms in class for the benefit of students. Empathy is the foundation that sets the domain for other fundamentals. Before our students start their cognitive development it is better to work on emotional and social development on students.

You can make your classroom friendly. Below are few ways of setting social emotional learning norms in your classroom:

1. Start your day with a bright smile. Greet students and spend some time asking how are they feeling today.
2. Use emoji to identify their emotions better. You can put an emoji chart in the classroom. Every child can point out a particular emoji to tell how is he feeling today.
3. If any child is feeling low, ask the reason, and tell them to introspect how to improve the mood.
4. Let the child himself acknowledge the emotion, its root cause, and remedy. This is self-awareness
5. Once the child knows what’s wrong with them, give them time to know, how this emotion is affecting him.
6. Use small meaningful stories daily to practice life skills.
7. Mention life skills in a quote on the top of the blackboard.
8. Teach empathy through small deeds.
9. At the end of the day, ask students had they practiced skills today.
10. Ask students how they dealt with a particular situation.
11. If any child feels low, ask others to make him feel comfortable and practice empathy.
12. More activities to teach group dynamics can be practiced daily. Problem-solving tasks are done in groups through activities.
13. Use more empathetic words with children.
14. Recognize small social emotional steps taken by the child and appreciate them.

 Create Social Emotional Learning Environment At Home 

Parents frequently ask “what is social emotional learning?”. How it can help my child? How can I practice social emotional learning at home? Here are ways to adopt social emotional learning at your home:

1. Practicing social-emotional learning at home: This ensures overall growth practice at home as well. Social emotional learning  habitat can be created by parents. Make sure to empathy substructures all your actions.

2. Help Your Child To Express: The first thing every parent must do is, encourage children to express their feelings. Most children are afraid of expressing themselves as they are not sure of their parent’s reaction. Make your child believe that you are ready to help him in all situations. Help your child to express and recognize emotions correctly.

3. As Parents Be A Promising Listener: Try to listen to what your child wants to say. The easiest way of teaching empathy is through practice. Be a promising listener, help him to recognize his emotions.

4. Encourage Teamwork at home: To allow your child to spend more time with you and work in a group. You can take up various activities to teach group coherence and importance.
Practice Empathy; the best way to teach is through example. Talk to your house helps and other people around with empathy. Make your child understand various situations and how to deal with them.

5. Teach Your Child Group Dynamics: Do activities or tell stories of various characters with different features and backgrounds. It may help your child understand group dynamics and how to appreciate them.

6. Small Activities For Managing Emotions: Help your child in managing emotions by guiding what to best to do in emotional situations. Anger management like counting backward when angry. Not to reply to anybody whenever angry.

Make Your Child Develop A Positive Self Attitude hard times can leave bad impressions. It is better to teach your child to have a positive self attitude. Try to use positive words even when your child has done something wrong. Use positive affirmations daily.

7. Try To Teach Problem Solving Skills At The Same Time Being Empathetic: children can be molded easily, you can teach problem-solving skills. Try to find solutions that have positive effects on others.

8. Practice Positive Attributes Daily: it is preferable to make a routine of positive self and social awareness.

How Adults Are Benefited From Social Emotional Learning.

What is social emotional learning? How is it beneficial for adults?

Adult social emotional learning education is used to educate mentors. Effectively applying it’s fundamentals in their classroom can help. Outside the classroom also it maintains healthy relationships among staff members and administration.

Teachers can learn how to improve grades and attendance. Also, social and emotional learning enhances the academic result.

Adults can’t implement these benefits if they don’t know what is social emotional learning. Hence, it is important to be aware about it.

Social-Emotional Learning -Takeaways

You must have got the answer to the question “what is social emotional learning?”

Social-emotional learning is just like any other subject which needs daily practice. Social emotional learning has more than just cognitive development. It helps in the overall development of a child for the future and life long.
There are many questions around “What is social emotional learning?” and that is why it is important to be aware of it.

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2. Casel, Mark Anthony, Su Jin Park, and Young Ki Choi. “Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus: emerging novel phlebovirus and their control strategy.” Experimental & molecular medicine 53.5 (2021): 713-722. ↩︎
3. Moreno, Carmen, et al. “How mental health care should change as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The lancet psychiatry 7.9 (2020): 813-824. ↩︎

Last Updated on March 31, 2024 by Suchi