Social and emotional learning (SEL) is “the process of acquiring the skills to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish positive relationships, and handle challenging situations effectively.” This definition is used by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). CASEL has also defined SEL skill clusters (and the skills within each cluster). These include the following:
- self-awareness: identifying emotions and recognizing strengths
- self-management: managing emotions and goal-setting
- social awareness: perspective-taking and appreciating diversity
- relationship skills: communication, building relationships, negotiation, and refusal
- responsible decision-making: analyzing situations, assuming personal responsibility, respecting others, and problem-solving
Further information about these concepts can be found on our SEL Prevention Brief (http://www.promoteprevent.org/Publications/center-briefs/Social%20and%20Emotional%20Learning2.pdf) as well as CASEL’s Web site (see below). Other definitions of SEL can be found in the resources listed on this page.
To see how Social Emotional Learning in relates to the six elements of SS/HS please visit http://www.promoteprevent.org/resources/briefs/SSHS_SEL_TABLE.pdf.
Web sites
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) (http://www.casel.org) promotes coordinated, evidence-based social, emotional, and academic learning as an essential part of education from preschool though high school. CASEL works to advance the science of social and emotional learning (SEL), expand coordinated, evidence-based SEL practice, and build a sustainable and collaborative organization to promote SEL. Resources that can be accessed through the CASEL Web site include the following:
- CASEL Connections, an electronic newsletter that describes important educational and prevention-science research, effective classroom, school-wide, and district SEL practices, SEL-related Federal and state legislation and funding opportunities, and new CASEL initiatives and projects.
- the largest compilation of publications on the research base for SEL and its link to improvements in student academic performance.
- publications on SEL and school success, implementing SEL in schools, SEL and prevention, SEL in early childhood, and other topics.
- tools, including an SEL Self-Assessment Guide for schools.
- state standards for the state of Illinois which recognized SEL as essential to edcuation. The standards specify the content and skills for students in grades K-12 for social and emotional learning. For additional information about the new SEL state standards, go to http://www.isbe.net/ils/social_emotional/standards.htm
The Center for Social and Emotional Education (CSEE) (http://www.csee.net/) works with educators, parents, schools, and communities to promote academic achievement and prevent youth violence and other at-risk behaviors by fostering effective social and emotional education and character education for children and adolescents. CSEE’s goals are to 1) help children develop the social-emotional skills, knowledge, and beliefs needed to make healthy decisions and enhance their resiliency, and 2) develop coordinated systemic interventions that promote safe, caring, and responsive schools, homes, and communities and increase the capacity of these systems to support children. CSEE provides the following services:
- training on social and emotional learning (SEL)
- speakers
- training on violence prevention
- consultation services to schools and districts
Resources found on the CSEE Web site include the following:
- Interpersonal Violence Prevention Guidelines that detail how SEL help create safer, more caring, and more responsive schools and homes and how SEL can provide the foundation for school-based violence prevention efforts
- materials that help parents promote their children’s social-emotional competencies
- a research database containing studies that evaluate SEL programs, showed the effects of SEL on children, and evaluate previous SEL-related research
Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) (http://www.csefel.uiuc.edu/) is a national center focused on strengthening the capacity of child care and Head Start programs to improve the social and emotional outcomes of young children. Resources available on the CSEFEL Web site include training modules, What Works briefs, and a collection of classroom tools and resources. Most of these resources are available in English and Spanish.
Publications Available Online
Academic and Social Emotional Learning (http://www.casel.org/downloads
/BIE_Practices_11.pdf) is a booklet by Dr. Maurice Elias of CASEL, published by the International Bureau of Education, UNESCO, which provides a basic introduction to Social-Emotional Learning and its relation to academic success for parents and teachers.
Building Services and Systems to Support the Healthy Emotional Development of Young Children–An Action Guide for Policymakers (http://www.nccp.org/pub
_pew02a.html) is a publication by the National Center for Children in Poverty. It summarized the research findings that support investments in social and emotional health for young children, a framework for effective services, and ten steps to forwarding the agenda of providing these services to children and families.
Easing Transitions With Social-Emotional Learning
(http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/
detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ627840&
ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&accno=EJ627840) is an article by Maurice Elias published in Principal Leadership (March 2001). It focuses on using SEL to help students make the difficult transition from middle school to high school.
Enhancing School-Based Prevention and Youth Development Through Coordinated Social and Emotional and Academic Learning by Mark Greenberg, Roger Weissberg, Mary Utne O'Brien, Joseph Zins, Linda Fredericks, Hank Resnik & Maurice Elias (http://www.casel.org/downloads/AmericanPsychologist2003.pdf) is the leading scholarly research publication summarizing the research on school-based SEL. The authors make a compelling case for school-based prevention, summarize findings of key studies of comprehensive SEL-based prevention programming, and discuss the role of prevention programs in the context of other school-wide and district-wide practices and policies.
The Scientific Base Linking Social and Emotional Learning to School Success by Zins, J.E., Bloodworth, M.R., Weissberg, R.P., and Walberg, H. (http://www.casel.org/downloads/T3053c01.pdf) is the first chapter from the Building Academic Success on Social and Emotional Learning. The chapter summaries the key findings on relationship between SEL and academic performance and the academic outcomes achieved through various SEL interventions.
Safe and Sound: An Education Leader's Guide to Evidence-Based Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Programs (http://www.casel.org/downloads/Safe%20and%20Sound/1A_Safe_&_Sound.pdf), Based on a three-year study funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) in the U.S. Department of Education, Safe and Sound is a comprehensive and inclusive guide to SEL programming. This guide provides a road map for schools and districts that are launching or adding social, emotional, and academic learning programs. The guide reviews 80 multiyear, sequenced SEL programs designed for use in general education classrooms. Safe and Sound also offers guidance to educational leaders on how to integrate normally isolated or fragmented efforts with other school activities and academic instruction by providing a framework for “putting the pieces together.”
Making the Case for Social and Emotional Learning and Service-Learning (http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/44/04/4404.pdf) is a collaboration among CASEL, the Laboratory for Student Success, and the Education Commission of the States. This booklet introduces and explores the relationship between two educational strategies: Social and Emotional Learning and Service-Learning. It also discusses how these strategies can be effectively implemented and offers case studies of states that are using these strategies (including those that are including social-emotional learning competencies into core curriculum or state achievement standards).
Ready to Enter: What Research Tells Policymakers About Strategies to Promote Social and Emotional School Readiness Among Three- and Four-Year-Old Children (http://www.nccp.org/pub_pew02c.html) is a publication by the National Center for Children in Poverty. Ready to Enter focuses on young children at risk for poor social, emotional, and behavioral development, addresses the relationship between early academic learning and emotional development; and explores the research on early interventions targeted to the social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties of young children.
Set for Success: Building a Strong Foundation for School Readiness Based on the Social-Emotional Development of Young Children (http://www.kauffman.org/pdf/eex_brochure.pdf) is a report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Early Education Exchange conference series. This report includes seven papers that present the latest scientific findings on the importance of social and emotional school readiness and provide compelling evidence of how social-emotional development programs help prepare young children for school success. The papers included in this report include the following:
- The Roots of Social-Emotional Development
- The Connections between Social-Emotional Development and Early Literacy
- Culture and Ethnicity in Social, Emotional, and Academic Development
- Promising Social-Emotional Development in Young Children: The Role of Mental Health Consultants in Early Childhood Settings
- Promoting Social-Emotional Development in Young Children: Promising Approaches at the National, State, and Community Levels
- Promoting Social-Emotional Readiness for School: Toward a Policy Agenda
Social and Emotional Learning Past and Present: A Psychoeducational Dialogue
(http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.chapter/menuitem.5d91564f4fe4548
cdeb3ffdb62108a0c/?chapterMgmtId=dc1864597dcaff00VgnVCM1000003d01a8c0RCR
D&printerFriendly=true) by Jonathan Cohen, is the first chapter of Educating Minds and Hearts: Social Emotional Learning and the Passage into Adolescence (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1999). This chapter describes how educators conceptualized Social-Emotional Learning over time and the nature of social and emotional competencies.
