What is Social Emotional Learning and Why Is It Important?

Inside: What is social emotional learning and why is it important? SEL includes these 5 essential components every kid needs to learn.

When I first taught kindergarten, I was overwhelmed with all the things I had to teach in a very short time frame. Our half day kindergarten program didn’t have time for playing or coloring for more than 5 minutes.

And then they told us we needed to add in a new program: Character Education.

As a brand new teacher, I was annoyed. One more thing to figure out. Posters to hang up in my already carefully decorated classroom.

Since I was annoyed I hung those trustworthy and respect and fairness posters as high as I could get them, out of the way, where my tiny kinders wouldn’t see them.

But hindsight is 20/20, and the more I taught, the more I learned just how crucial character education is to a classroom.

Yes, I taught those kindergartners their alphabet and numbers and how to form a sentence. But I also had to teach them how to work together, how to work independently, how to line up without pushing each other, and how to manage disagreements over the coveted red handball at recess.

And each year I taught, the more I intentionally spent on character education because if we’re teaching the whole child to be a valued member of society who can think for themselves, we have to do more than teach reading, writing and math.

We have to teach them how to deal with big emotions and how to stand up for themselves and how to share ideas and hear others’ ideas without putting them down. All components of what educators now call social emotional learning or SEL.

Social Emotional Learning covers everything a person needs to know in order to successfully and properly use the academic skills and knowledge they learn in school.

But it can be confusing to understand. So what is social emotional learning and why is it so important?

Why is Social Emotional Learning Important?

Before we dive deep into what social-emotional learning includes, it’s helpful to know why you should care about it and why you should want it taught in your kids’ schools.

Research has shown that social emotional learning curriculum and concepts:

help reduce bullying behaviors in schools
create a safe learning environment for all students
improves academic success and even test scores
increases students’ emotional intelligence which decreases outbursts, meltdowns/tantrums, etc.
improves school attendance
reduces behavior issues
builds a positive classroom environment and school culture
encourages kindness, empathy, compassion and helpfulness

And social emotional learning teaches essential concepts like:

-problem-solving skills

-conflict resolution skills (dealing with tricky social situations, meanness, rudeness, and bullying behaviors)

-teamwork and collaboration skills

-responsibility

-decision-making skills

-perseverance and resilience (not giving up)

-confidence and advocacy skills (standing up for themselves)

-self-regulation skills (not losing control)

-social skills, manners, and positive peer relationship skills

We can intentionally teach kindness in our classrooms, but we can also dive deeper and intentionally focus on all aspects of social emotional learning.

What is Social Emotional Learning?

Social Emotional Learning or SEL can be broken down into 5 major components:

1. Self-Awareness

Are kids in tune with their bodies and emotions so they keep getting better at handling setbacks and new challenges?

This includes things like knowing what you need and want, labeling your emotions, recognizing your strengths and areas of improvement, increasing self-confidence, and building a growth mindset.

2. Self Management

Can kids manage or handle themselves without adult intervention?

This includes managing and controlling your emotions without losing control (teaching kids to be mad without being mean), controlling impulses, dealing with stress, creating the internal motivation to set and reach big and small goals, and creating organizational skills to reach those goals.

3. Social Awareness

Do kids know how to interact with peers around them in socially acceptable and positive ways?

This includes celebrating and appreciating diversity and differences, respecting other people’s thoughts/beliefs/values, belongings, and personal space, showing empathy and compassion towards others, and seeing things from different perspectives.

4. Relationship Skills

Can kids interact with, work with, and deal with other people in positive ways?

This includes communicating with others effectively, dealing with conflicts or issues in appropriate ways, learning how to be a good friend and a good teammate, standing up to bullying behaviors, and cooperating and using teamwork.

5. Decision-Making Skills

Do kids understand the consequences of their actions and make decisions accordingly?

This includes understanding cause and effect when making big and small decisions and understanding that their decisions will have a positive or negative outcome/consequence, problem-solving, and reflecting on their decisions to evaluate their behavior/decisions.

How to Teach Social Emotional Learning:

We can cross our fingers and hope our children learn these skills. Or, we can set them up for a lifetime of success by intentionally teaching them these social emotional learning skills.

And while these SEL skills may not seem essential in a kindergarten or in a 5th grade classroom, think forward to when they’re adults:

Can an adult function in a healthy emotional relationship without these skills?

Can an adult function in their career without these skills?

Can an adult parent effectively without these skills?

If we are raising children to become functioning members of our society, these social emotional skills are extremely essential to their overall well-being and for when they’re interacting with other people.

To teach Social Emotional Learning in Classrooms there is done-for-you, ready-to-go lessons that you can fit into your already busy lesson plans that cover these 5 components in fun, hands-on ways that also connect to other academic skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking, math, gross motor skills).