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Social emotional learning in early childhood education

Gail Gustafson

Concordia University

East Providence Early Learning Program

Special Educator

The Issue

Should social emotional learning be taught in preschool?

Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

What is social emotional learning?

Defined by CASEL

  • How children and adults learn, understand, and effectively apply skills to
  • Manage emotions
  • Establish and maintain positive relationships
  • Set and achieve positive goals,
  • Feel and show empathy for others
  • Make responsible decisions.

  • About how and what is taught

  • The goal is for it to become the intrinsic way

that students and adults interact with

others in and out of the classroom.

(CASEL, 2019)

Components of s.e.l.

S.A.F.E.

Sequential -having meaningful activities to encourage skill development

Active - must include learning opportunities that help students master skills and attitudes

Focused - must emphasize the development of social and personal skills

Explicit - target specific goals

S.A.F.E.

(Gulbrandson, 2018)

S.E.L. Framework

CASEL identified 5 core competencies as the framework of S.E.L.

  • Self-awareness
  • Self-management
  • Social Awareness
  • Relationship Skills
  • Responsible decision-making skills

Competencies

(CASEL, 2019)

To teach or not to teach...

  • Many professionals believe in the importance of social emotional learning but academic rigor is still the main focus (Brotto, 2018)
  • Some schools have implemented K-12 programs but PreK has not been included.

  • Those for teaching SEL in early childhood
  • Know the benefits
  • Believe in teaching these skills earlier

  • Those against
  • Concerned it will take away from academics
  • Concerned about budgets and time
  • Feel SEL should be taught by families.

Two Sides

What Is happening

at the

East Providence ELP?

Current Practices

RIELDS

Rhode Island Early Learning and Development Standards (RIELDS)

RIELDS are skills across nine domains that all children ages 9 months-5 years should know and be expected to learn

Domains include:

  • Physical Health & Motor Development
  • Social & Emotional Development
  • Language Development
  • Cognitive Development
  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Creative Arts
  • Science
  • Social Studies

(RIELDS, 2019)

East Providence Early Learning Program

All lessons taught in the East Providence Early Learning Program address the RIELDS.

Social and Emotional Development - teachers integrate into classroom routines and play but do not have an explicit curriculum.

In The classroom

Proposed Change

Zins, Bloodworth, Weissberg, and Walberg stated,

“schools are social places, and learning is a social process”

Formalized Social Emotional Learning

(as cited in Denham & Brown, 2010, p. 652)

Explicit Teaching of skills

Curriculum

The proposal is for all classrooms in the East Providence Early Learning Program to receive and implement a specific social emotional learning curriculum.

Consistency

If curriculum is added into the program all classrooms will be using the same vocabulary and teaching the same lessons which will allow students to be exposed to vocabulary used and skills taught throughout the building not just their classroom.

Consistency

While there is no research that social emotional learning harms children there is opposition.

Much of the opposition is based on opinion rather than fact.

Opposing Views

Educational Blogger Nancy Bailey is opposed to S.E.L. because...

Educational Blogger

  • She believes:
  • S.E.L. is often misunderstood by parents
  • Explained with a mix of too much psycho-social and neuroscience talk.
  • Forcing students to truly reflect on their actions, thoughts, and feelings is becoming too obsessive
  • S.E.L. should not involve assessments
  • Adults should not scrutinize how

children think or feel

  • These are her personal beliefs and she provides no research or data that S.E.L. is harmful to

students.

(Bailey, 2018)

Do all students need social emotional learning skills?

Kathleen Casper believes S.E.L. curriculum is detrimental for gifted students because

  • they become bored in these activities
  • programs not being created based on meaningful life experiences
  • it forces them to work with remedial students
  • activities may be embarrassing for gifted students
  • gifted students have a difficult time with building friendships with other children their age.

What about Gifted Students?

(Casper, 2017)

The solution? Differentiation!

Is it worth it?

  • Administrative concerns
  • Budget - is it worth spending the money on
  • Will it be implemented with fidelity?

  • Teacher concerns
  • Will we have time to add in more curriculum activities?
  • The curriculum and skills can be integrated within many current activities.
  • Do students truly need direct

teaching of skills or will they just

pick it up?

Concerns of Teachers & Administrators

Several Parents were interviewed...some concerns...

  • Parents felt they should be the ones to teach social emotional skills
  • Some did say they were unsure of how to do this though.

  • Concern that academics will not be rigorous enough
  • East Providence ELP includes all academic activities into engaging activities which can also foster many social-emotional learning skills.

What are Parents saying?

Supporting Evidence

What are the benefits of Explicit S.e.l. curriculum

  • In 2019, CASEL lists benefits as:
  • Greater academic success
  • Academic testing -11 percentile points higher compared to students not participating in S.E.L.
  • Increased pro-social behavior & self-esteem
  • 24% more improved their emotional well-being and social behavior
  • Positive attitudes towards academics
  • Decreased conduct problems
  • Lowered emotional distress
  • Long term real-life benefits for all students
  • 6% higher graduation rate, 11% higher college graduation rate

(CASEL, 2019)

What's next For

our

students?

Moving Forward

Please Complete our Parent Survey!

Survey

This is your chance to tell us what you think you your child needs!

Please return to your child's teacher by Monday, September 2, 2019

Curriculum Options

Teachers are currently researching 3 options for curriculum

  • Al's Pals Making Healthy Choices
  • PATHS Preschool/Kindergarten Classroom Model
  • Second Step

Teacher's are reviewing these curriculum options to see which will best meet the needs of all our students.

Teacher Review

First Quarter Pilot Program

Once teachers have selected the program that appears to be most beneficial for our program it will be piloted in Miss Gail's class for the first quarter.

Pilot

The Data says....

At the end of the first quarter all progress monitoring data will be analyzed.

Data results will be presented to administration in hopes of demonstrating the need for curriculum.

Administration will make a decision as to whether of not social emotional learning curriculum will be purchased.

Data Analysis

references

Bailey, N. (2018, March 19). Social-emotional learning: The dark side. Retrieved from

https://nancyebailey.com/2018/03/19/social-emotional-learning-the-dark-side/

Brotto, G. (2018, June 4). The future of education depends on social emotional learning:

Here’s why. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-06-04-the-future-of- education- depends-on-social-emotional-learning-here-s-why

Denham, S. & Brown, C. (2010) “Plays nice with others”: Social-emotional learning and

academic success. Early Education and Development, 21(5), 652-680. Doi 10.1080/10409289.2010.497450

Casper, K. (2017, January 26). Danger in a can: Why canned social-emotional skill

programs in schools can harm gifted students more than help them. Retrieved from

https://4.files.edl.io/9d9a/01/28/19/112303-1c8c649f-13d8-4909-a8f9-66b0a576febb.pdf

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). (2019). SEL impact.

Retrieved from https://casel.org/impact/

Gulbrandson, K. (2018, July 6). Character Education and SEL: What You Should Know.

Retrieved from https://www.cfchildren.org/blog/2018/07/character-education-and-sel-what- you-should-know/

Rhode Island Early Learning and Development Standards. (2019). Rationale. Retrieved

from http://rields.com/educators/ri-early-learning-and-development-standards/rationale/

References

Last Spring Miss Gail's Class participated in class wide social emotional learning lessons.

Lessons used the story Have You Filled a Bucket Today? and focused on being a "bucket filler".

Students learned about being a good friend and helping others.

S.E.L. In action

Helping Friends

Students Drew how they were bucket fillers.

How are you a bucket Filler?

Identifying

positive

choices

Taking

Turns

Calming our bodies

Our class participated in 5-10 minutes of yoga each day!

Playing

with

Friends

We ALL can play together!

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