Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy最新文献

We used a cluster-randomized controlled trial to examine the impacts of a technology- and game-based social-emotional program, the Adventures Aboard the S.S. GRIN (Adventures), on students’ social skills development. Eighty-eight third-grade classrooms (N = 1645 third-grade students) across four California public school districts were randomized to treatment or control. Analysis of student demographic data indicated that 49 % were male, 51 % were female, approximately one-third were Latinx, and about 50 % qualified for free and reduced lunch. Two-level hierarchical linear model analysis results indicated that Adventures had significant and meaningful impacts on students’ social-emotional learning (SEL) skills. The findings of Adventures shine new lights on a growing effort to support all students, including those identified by their teachers as having social-emotional challenges. It also expands our knowledge about the potential role of technology in addressing SEL competencies.

In recent decades, social and emotional learning (SEL) has become widespread in classrooms across the United States and around the globe, as an ever-growing body of research links the development of social emotional skills to positive outcomes in school, work, and life. In practice, SEL in schools has also encountered challenges related to definition, implementation, and equity. In this paper, we present a model that integrates the core principles of successful SEL practice from developmental and prevention science with culturally sustaining and asset-based pedagogies. We propose that culturally sustaining SEL in the classroom rests on three core adult competencies: 1) engaging in critical reflection; 2) building caring, authentic, and reciprocal relationships; and 3) shifting the balance of power toward the developing students. These competencies are both strengthened by and enacted through the facilitative processes of co-regulation and co-construction, and are the foundation upon which culturally sustaining classroom norms, structures, and SEL practices are built. As SEL arrives at a crossroads of practice, policy, and politics, a flexible, adaptable, responsive, and co-constructed model of culturally sustaining SEL in the classroom offers a path forward that honors and sustains the diversity of our classrooms and deepens our commitment to equity in practice.

Amidst growing concerns about the prolonged youth mental health crisis, many schools across the United States provide social and emotional supports for students through both universal social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and practices and through more targeted and intensive mental health supports. However, all too often, these supports are implemented in a way that is not coordinated to ensure that students benefit in a systematic and equitable manner. This article provides a case study example from a statewide initiative to address this issue: the Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Academy (SEB Academy) operated by Education Development Center (EDC) as part of the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) Academies funded by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The SEB Academy supports schools in assessing and improving their MTSS for SEL and mental health. Schools improve their systems for identifying students needing SEL and mental health support at each tier, providing appropriate support, monitoring student progress, and adjusting supports as appropriate while ensuring cultural responsiveness and equity. Key strategies, tools, and approaches in implementing this MTSS approach to SEL and mental health in schools and districts are described. Implications for the field of SEL and mental health are discussed, including how states and other education stakeholders can support an MTSS approach to SEL and mental health at scale.

Implementing school-based social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions requires consideration of both evidence-based practices as well as contextual fit based on student needs. One key approach to adapting SEL interventions is through research-practice partnerships between researchers, practitioners, and school district leaders. The current paper explores the ways a research-practice partnership supports an inclusive education intervention, called the Path Program, designed to support elementary students with emotional disabilities through both structural elements and evidence-based practices. Using the research-practice exchange in the Path Program to support a continuous improvement approach to adaptation, the Path Program uses a Plan Do Study Act cycle to continually infuse SEL activities with a trauma-informed approach to meet student needs. The paper offers crucial information for SEL interventions on the strengths of leveraging research-practice partnerships for program adaptation as well as implementation.

Impact statement

The current paper importantly sheds light on ways to leverage a research-practice partnership to support intervention adaptation and implementation to better meet student needs while maintaining evidence-based practices. Specifically, the paper details the importance of infusing SEL activities with trauma-informed practices to meet students with emotional disabilities’ needs and the ways a research-practice partnership supports that process. The paper informs researchers, practitioners, and school leaders on ways to use partnerships to develop stronger SEL interventions.

The success of social and emotional learning (SEL) in the classroom hinges on the buy-in of teachers, as they serve as the principal implementers of SEL initiatives. This is particularly relevant in contexts where SEL is nascent and emerging. In response to this need, we developed a scale to measure teachers’ beliefs about factors that promote classroom social and emotional learning (CSEL). We validated the scale in India, where SEL has recently gained attention, on a large sample of teachers (N = 2097). Factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure comprising beliefs about healthy classroom management, inclusive classroom culture and supportive student relationships. The scale demonstrated good psychometric properties: strong internal consistency, predictive validity (with mental well-being), convergent validity (with emotional intelligence), discriminant validity (with perceived stress) and measurement invariance across males and females. We hope that understanding teachers' beliefs on these factors can help inform successful program implementation, and thus offer crucial insights for mainstreaming SEL.

There is an urgent need to support the social and emotional well-being of adolescents with experiences of adversity and trauma. Adolescence is a critical period of development for promoting social and emotional competencies, which can prevent poor mental health and problematic substance use and promote thriving during challenging teenage years and beyond. Both transformative social and emotional learning (TSEL) and trauma-informed programs for schools (TIPS) have been identified as promising practices for supporting social and emotional well-being among young people with experiences of adversity. We propose a pragmatic theory of action for schools for implementing and evaluating initiatives that integrate TSEL and TIPS made up of three iterative components: awareness, assessment, and action. The TSEL + TIPS Theory of Action is illustrated by a case study of a cross-sectoral collaboration of government, schools, researchers, healthcare, and adolescents to implement TSEL and TIPS initiatives in British Columbia, Canada. The case study provides evidence for the feasibility of TSEL + TIPS Theory of Action and may serve as an example for other regions as experiences of adversity and poor mental health continue to rise among adolescents globally.

In this conceptual article, we envision a future in which collaboration among social emotional learning (SEL) researchers and special education researchers strengthens inclusive policies and practices within our schools, fostering the meaningful participation of all students with respect to their academic, social, and emotional strengths and needs. We make a case for the value and urgency of interdisciplinary research among SEL scholars and special education scholars, explaining how scholarship within each field would benefit from greater integration of the evidence and scholarly discourse of the other. Then, to catalyze our vision for increased collaboration, we present four assertions about inclusion that we believe are foundational to future, collaborative efforts toward more inclusive schools and educational systems. We assert that inclusion 1) is an active stance against exclusion, 2) requires clarity in roles and responsibilities, 3) benefits everyone, and 4) is a long-term investment. In presenting these assertions, we surface both current barriers to inclusion and the potential of interdisciplinary research to productively address these challenges. We conclude with an invitation for researchers to engage in increased interdisciplinary collaboration in service of advancing a vision of inclusive schools.

Impact Statement

We argue that through increased collaboration, special education researchers and social and emotional learning researchers have opportunities to increase inclusion and meaningful belonging within schools. We offer four action steps to move both fields forward in their research and promotion of meaningful participation of all students.

Anxiety disorders are common among adolescents. To avert long-term adverse consequences, several school-based prevention programs have been created, yet few have explored the influence of emotional and social self-efficacy as a psychosocial competence on anxiety symptoms. In the context of the implementation of a school-situated anxiety prevention program named HORS-PISTE, the present study examines descriptions of anxiety symptoms associated with social anxiety, generalized anxiety, separation anxiety and panic anxiety, and two domains of self-efficacy (social and emotional), as well as an exploration of the association between these two elements, and the predictive effect of self-efficacy on anxiety symptoms. The present study included 1705 adolescents from 15 different schools in 4 different regions of Québec, Canada. Participants completed questionnaires assessing their anxiety symptoms and self-efficacy levels before and after completing the HORS-PISTE program. Our findings suggest that: emotional/social self-efficacy and anxiety symptoms differ according to certain characteristics in adolescents; self-efficacy and anxiety symptoms present a strong association in the context of the implementation of a school-based anxiety prevention program; self-efficacy has a predictive effect on anxiety symptoms; and self-efficacy presents a moderate interaction effect on anxiety symptoms change over time.

School staff implementing social and emotional learning (SEL) programs continue to face significant barriers, one of which includes limited confidence in delivering SEL. This paper describes how schools and school systems can mitigate some of these barriers by actively incorporating educator expertise into SEL programming. Elevating educator expertise in SEL can increase confidence, wellbeing, and willingness to flexibly utilize programming, factors that improve effective SEL implementation and impact students, staff, and learning environments. Using the example of TRAILS (Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students) Tier 1 SEL, a school- and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)-based SEL program that offers K-12 programming, this paper describes how leveraging educator expertise before, during, and after content delivery through programmatic features and adaptations can increase educators’ confidence, reduce salient barriers, and enhance positive impacts for students. This paper also offers several practical strategies for schools and school systems for prioritizing and elevating teacher voice in SEL programming.

In this article, we introduce a research-practice partnership (RPP) between the University of California San Diego and the non-governmental organization (NGO), Africa Education and Leadership Initiative (Africa ELI), and we share the lessons we learned as we adapted and facilitated The Wellbeing Club, a trauma-informed social and emotional learning (TI-SEL) curriculum, for refugee youth in Uganda. First, we describe our RPP and the goals of our work together. Then, we describe The Wellbeing Club, including its theoretical foundations and curriculum. In the sections that follow, we reflect on lessons learned for effective TI-SEL implementation from the facilitation of The Wellbeing Club with 48 primarily South Sudanese refugee youth: adapting the curriculum to the cultural context, sharing stories of resilience, developing environmental and contextual awareness, developing self-awareness, modeling caring practice, involving youth in changemaking processes, identifying and addressing underlying trauma, and supporting one another in research and practice. In each section, we provide specific examples from practice to illustrate the themes. We conclude with key takeaways and next steps.