By: Asal Mohammadi
Social-emotional learning, or SEL for short, is education in a form that provides learners with proper skills and knowledge, while also helping them establish a healthy mindset and attitude. SEL not only empowers individual minds, but also creates positive communities and spaces for others to grow and share passions in. In SEL, learners develop skills that are crucial to success while maintaining a positive environment and mentality. SEL aims to create supportive environments and foster deeper connections within communities, in a way which creates confidence and a greater work ethic. Promoting SEL in schools and extracurriculars helps create life-long learners who explore various opportunities and relationships in order to develop healthy cognitive abilities. In its structure, SEL explores learners’ self awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision making (“5 Keys to Successful Social and Emotional Learning”).
Exploring these topics in education has benefits ranging in terms of academics and social ability. The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) asserts this claim by analyzing the results of implementing SEL in learning environments. In these studies, CASEL has found that implementing SEL increases academic performance, improved behavior, better attitudes, the ability to manage stress, and more. SEL holds global possibility as it can be targeted at the needs of various demographics and their respective cultures. Early implementation of SEL shows that children can grow up to be socially-aware and successful adults. The benefits outweigh the cost of implementation as SEL develops essential skills and habits in learners of all ages, creating communities and better learning experiences (“What Does the Research Say?”).
JuSTEMagine aims to create curriculums that implement social-emotional learning in their experience, with the goal of inspiring passion and teamwork in learning environments. In partnership with SPARKPositivity, volunteers create videos teaching the principles of SEL. The spread of SEL in schools is evident as new curriculums get adopted with the goal of healthy learning and social habits in mind. Through implementation, learning becomes more effective, engaging, and accessible to people!
Works Cited
“5 Keys to Successful Social and Emotional Learning.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 14 May 2013, www.edutopia.org/video/5-keys-successful-social-and-emotional-learning.
“What Does the Research Say?” CASEL, casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-does-the-research-say/.
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