BULDING ACADEMIC SUCCESS ON
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING
By
Joseph Zins, et, al
Publishers: Teachers College Press,
Time have
changed. Young people are now more exposed to problems of depression, social
isolation, and drug abuse, They need to build social and emotional resources to
cope with these risks. Children also spend many more years in school, which
requires that they develop concentration, impulse control and emotional
regulation.
Work settings
now require teamwork, participating leadership, informal networking and quality
performance. Young people no longer learn a trade for life. They must
constantly learn new skills and adapt to changing technology and market
demands. The freedom they enjoy to make
career and lifestyle decisions also requires that they plan ahead and actively
manage their lives. All this puts a premium on self-esteem, initiative,
motivation, adaptability, and self-management. Critical thinking is replacing
rote learning.
We want to
develop well-adjusted individuals who experience joy, excitement, peace and
contentment, self-acceptance, satisfaction with life, fulfillment, meaningful
engagement or enjoyment of daily pursuits.
The National
Advisory Mental Health Council estimates that one in ten children and
adolescents suffers from mental health problems.
When a child
trying to learn is caught up in a distressing emotion, the centers for learning
are temporarily hampered. The child’s
attention becomes preoccupied with whatever may be the source of the trouble.
The child has that much less ability to hear, understand, or remember what a
teacher or a book is saying.
Schools will
be most successful in their educational mission when they integrate efforts to
promote children’s academic, social, and emotional learning. Researchers have
found that social and emotional behavior in the classroom is linked with
positive intellectual outcomes.
SEL (Social
and emotional learning) is the process through which we learn to recognize and
manage emotions, care about others, make good decisions, behave ethically and
responsibly, develop positive relationships, and avoid negative behaviors.
So many
separate programs have been introduced to promote health, prevent violence and
delinquency, encourage school bonding, prevent dropping out, and decrease teen
pregnancy, but it has been as mistake to address these problems in isolation.
SEL
Competencies
Self-Awarenesss
Social Awareness
Responsible Decision Making
Self-Management
Relationship Management
Our Building
Self-Esteem program is a comprehensive program that encompasses and develops
all these competencies.
There is a
growing body of scientifically based research supporting the strong impact that
enhanced social and emotional behaviors can have on success on school and
ultimately in life.
The primary
purpose of schools is seen as preparing students to become knowledgeable,
responsible, and caring citizens. They need to discover “What is my meaning and
purpose?” What are my greatest gifts?” “How can I maintain hope?” We need to
project hope—convincing students of their worth and ability to achieve in a
difficult world.
Caring is
central to the shaping of meaningful, supportive, rewarding, and productive
relationships. Caring occurs when children believe that adults unconditionally
accept and respect them, and the community believes everyone is important and
has something to contribute. Systems that foster quality by fear-based or
punitive measures, engender fear, withdrawal, and half-hearted compliance.
The “inner edge”
is a deep self-knowledge and strong connection to one’s purpose for living; it
also requires an awareness of spiritual influences and conditions that support
or erode a sense of self and the difference one is making in the mission to
support learning.
According to a
UCLA survey, 40% of freshman are disengaged from educational values and
pursuits. Students are inattentive,
easily bored and unwilling work hard, especially on difficult material outside
their interests.
Interpersonal
relationship provide students with a sense of belonging that becomes a powerful
motivation for school success. School dropouts demonstrate the most extreme for
of disengagement, poor attendance, low motivation to succeed, low aspirations
for educational attainment, poor self-concept, an external locus of control and
alienation from school.
Student
engagement requires psychological connections within the academic environment,
that sense of belonging that enables students to feel accepted, valued,
included and encouraged by others, and a feeling an important part of life and
activity of the class.
PARENTS—Motivational
support for learning, specifically structuring the home environment and
emphasizing children’s efforts to succeed, appears to be more important to
academic achievement that direct assistance and monitoring of homework.
Six factors
that reflect the complementary nature of family for children’s success:
Standards
and expectations—Set specific goals and standards for
desired behavior and performance, discuss
expectations with children,
emphasize effort when completing tasks, and define the consequences for not meeting expectations
Structure—Setting
routines and schedule of daily activities, directions
for schoolwork, rules for behavior.
Variety
of learning options—Reading materials available, time to practice, options for completing tasks
Support—Frequent praise and encouragement,
focus on improve- ment, teach problem
solving and negotiation skills, provide feedback
Climate/Relationships—Warmth,
caring, praise and recognition.
Modeling—Demonstrating
desired behaviors, explicit instructions, orderly
environment, set long term goals, defined objectives.
Students who
received more motivational support for learning—encouragement, messages about
importance of effort and value of education, help regulating time to complete
tasks, focus on effort, schooling and long term goals, performed best
academically. Messages should stress the power of diligence, practice,
persistence in the face of challenge, and ability to delay gratification.
Implications
for Policy
1. You need a management information
system to monitor classroom implementation of program.
2. There should be at least a 70%
support of the program by the
staff before
implementation to make it worthwhile.
3. Principal support is critical and
there should be discussion and clarification of principal’s role as a school
leader and problem solving on issues that arise in implementing the program.
4. Develop implementation strategies
that account for difference in teaching
interests and strengths at promoting social and emotional learning. In this
model they trained 5 teachers in Year 1, five more in year 2, and then
additional staff members as they were ready.
5. Emphasize that the program to
promote social and emotional learning can improve academic achievement. It’s
not a choice of one or the other.