by Katharine Ragozzino, Hank Resnik, Mary Utne-O’Brien, and Roger P. Weissberg
In this day of high-stakes testing, educators are eager and even anxious to find new policies, instructional methods, and educational practices to improve academic performance. In their search they have reexamined such policies as teacher certification, school choice, grade retention, summer school, and the latest pedagogies for teaching particular academic subjects. Increasingly, however, educators and policymakers are also discovering the importance of social and emotional variables for academic performance and achievement. Consequently, they are turning their attention to methods and practices that foster students’ social and emotional development.
Acknowledging the importance of social and emotional variables is one thing. Really understanding their critical role and developing social and emotional skills among students are different matters. What teacher has not felt the frustration of working with a capable student who has neither the motivation nor the perseverance to perform to capacity? What teacher has not felt that he or she could teach better, and his or her students learn better, in caring, supportive school and classroom environments? Teachers have long recognized, and a body of research now corroborates, that facilitating student achievement means addressing barriers to learning. Many of these barriers are social and emotional.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Defined
Social and emotional competence refers to the capacity to recognize and manage emotions, solve problems effectively, and establish and maintain positive relationships with others. Social and emotional competence and the learning environments that support their development have been shown to
enhance academic performance in various direct and indirect ways. SEL programming in schools, when carried out systematically and comprehensively, supports caring classroom environments and helps develop positive relationships. SEL programming also provides students with varied skills that positively affect academic achievement. They include:
•managing emotions that interfere with learn-ing
and concentration
•developing motivation and the ability to persevere
even in the face of academic setbacks
and challenges
•working cooperatively and effectively in the
classroom and in peer learning groups
• setting and working toward academic goals
For example, learning in a history class
improves markedly when students are taught to
use problem solving to understand and analyze a
historic event. Teaching students social and emotional
skills also makes them less likely to behave
in ways that interfere with learning.
What the Research Says
A substantial body of research supports the notion that social and emotional variables are integral rather than incidental to learning. Wilson, Gottfredson, and Najaka’s meta-analysis (2001) of 165 studies examined the effectiveness of various school-based prevention activities. Their study revealed that social and emotional learning programs increased attendance and decreased the dropout rate. Zins et al. (in press) found that SEL programs improved student attitudes, behaviors, and academic performance.
Rather than diverting schools from their primary academic mission, improving students’ social and emotional competence advances the academic mission of schools, while also ensuring that they meet their broader mission to produce
caring, responsible, and knowledgeable students. Social and emotional learning provides students with basic skills for success not just in school but ultimately in their personal, professional, and
civic lives.
Such findings should not be surprising. The nature of learning, certainly in school settings, is fundamentally social. In the classroom the most
successful children are likely to be actively and prosocially engaged with their peers and teachers. Such students communicate ideas effectively; listen to, evaluate, and integrate the ideas of others; elicit ideas and input from others;
and ask teachers and peers for help whennecessary.
Students emotionally connected to peers and teachers who value learning and high academic performance often adopt similar values. Student perceptions of teacher warmth and supportiveness can accurately predict student engagement. Similarly, students who benefit from positive rela-tionships
and interactions tend to achieve above the average academically.
In short, educators who want children to care about learning must first ensure they feel supported and offer them frequent opportunities to
use SEL skills in meaningful ways.
