"Fill the educator cup": utilizing educator collaboration, support, and training to better support students' social emotional learning

Social emotional well-being has a direct effect on school performance. Students who engage in prosocial peer interactions and feel a connectedness to school are more likely to experience growth in their social emotional competence and academic performance. Often, students who live in high stress environments come to school with inadequate skills in this area, affecting their ability to self-regulate, attend, and interact with others. However, these skills can be directly taught to students and improved through regular instruction and practice. Mindfulness practices serve as a gateway skill for developing social emotional well-being and are becoming more commonly used in the school setting. Using the perspectives of elementary teachers in Pennsylvania who have attended professional development and thus implemented mindfulness practices into their classrooms, an instrumental case study was conducted. The study explored how teachers describe the effects of mindfulness practices on their students' social emotional well-being, classroom climate, and overall academic performance. Nine elementary teachers in public schools in Pennsylvania participated in the study, which included a semi-structured interview and completion of a participant journal. All teachers had participated in at least eight hours of district-provided professional development series and had implemented mindfulness practices into their classrooms at least three times per week. The interviews were analyzed to gain insight into the participants' perspectives of their professional development, their personal and professional experiences with mindfulness practices, and the perceived effects of mindfulness practices on the students in their classrooms. Four thematic findings emerged: (a) opportunities for professional development, (b) personal mindfulness practices of teachers, (c) social emotional learning and mindfulness practices in the classroom, and (d) the effects of mindfulness practices on students in the classroom setting. From the findings, four results were drawn regarding the implications of implementing mindfulness in school settings. First, teachers expressed the need and desire for ongoing, supported professional development. Secondly, the teacher serves as a model in the classroom, establishing an environment in which desired, prosocial behaviors and social emotional competence are modeled for students. Thirdly, the data analysis showed that the implementation of mindfulness practices can serve as a means to develop social emotional competence in students. Finally, the analysis of participant responses indicated that mindfulness practices had a positive effect on student learning and classroom interactions. The study concluded and recommended implementing mindfulness practices into school settings with potential benefits for administrators and teachers as well as students. This recommendation begins with recognizing the importance of social emotional learning for students and supporting both pre-service and practicing teachers in the development of their own social emotional well-being. Given the impact of social emotional learning on all facets of education, administrators and educational leaders should advocate for support and funding for programs that would support social emotional development in school settings. Recommendations for future research include expanding the study to additional sites or extended years of implementation, an in-depth examination of professional development opportunities and structure, consideration of the educational leader's role in encouraging social emotional learning and self-care for educators, analysis of mindfulness programs implemented with fidelity, and the addition of student and family perceptions of mindfulness practices into the current research base. Keywords: social emotional learning, mindfulness practices, prosocial classroom, emotional intelligence, professional development

This study aimed to understand how a multi-tiered social-emotional curriculum could be implemented at the middle school level and its impact on student mental health, academic progress, and school culture at a public school in the Northeast. Many secondary schools quickly remediate academic skills rather than examining a student's social-emotional competence and how it may impact their learning. Unfortunately, the lack of social-emotional learning instruction results in an increase in special education referrals. This data was of interest to this institution, as in past years, there has been an increase in special education referrals stemming from a lack of academic progress due to social-emotional deficits. An initial research cycle identified a need for more knowledge about the current social-emotional learning curriculum offered within the school and who was responsible for delivering teaching toward the CASEL competencies. The subsequent actions steps included a curriculum audit for the CASELcompetencies within the English Language Arts curriculum, ELA curriculum reform, and faculty professional development centered on what social-emotional learning is, how to teach the CASEL competencies within the content curriculum, and the feasibility of implementing a multi-tiered system of support centered on social-emotional learning. This study revealed that there were significant gaps in understanding the impact of social-emotional learning, a lack of clarity about who was responsible for teaching these competencies and how to go about this instruction, and ultimately, a great interest in implementing a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) centered on social-emotional learning to improve student well-being, academic performance, and school culture. Implications for this institution included further professional development, a whole school curriculum audit, and the implementation of an MTSS centered on RTI. --Author's abstract

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults recognize and manage emotions, create meaningful relationships and effectively solve problems. When taught to school-aged children, SEL has produced an impact on student grades, mental health and resiliency. These benefits continue on into adulthood as the tools and coping strategies earned in elementary school last a lifetime and generalize across situations. SEL is vital to the success of students both in school and later in life, but educators struggle to implement programs and lessons for a variety of reasons. This project seeks to help mitigate many of the barriers teachers face when approaching SEL with the aim of allowing educators to confidently integrate SEL into their everyday classroom routines. By providing an explanation of SEL along with accompanying activities, lesson plans and resources that can be readily integrated into classrooms, it is hoped that the benefits of SEL will emerge and create a more positive learning environment. It is also hoped that teachers will then be more willing to seek out specific SEL programs for their classroom use and encourage other educators to do the same.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) plays a crucial role in developing students' emotional intelligence, social skills, and overall well-being. SEL focuses on five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Integrating SEL into English Language Teaching (ELT) aligns these competencies with language learning objectives, fostering improved communication skills and holistic student development. Research indicates that SEL enhances emotional and academic outcomes, increasing student motivation, self-confidence, and peer relationships. In ELT settings, SEL supports a positive learning environment by addressing students' emotional needs, which boosts engagement and reduces anxiety. Despite its benefits, SEL integration faces challenges such as curriculum constraints, limited time and resources, and varying levels of teacher preparedness. Effective integration requires balancing SEL with language goals, providing adequate professional development for teachers, and addressing diverse student needs. While integrating SEL into ELT poses challenges, it promotes resilience, a growth mindset, and better communication skills, contributing to overall student success. To fully capitalize on SEL, educators need ongoing training, and policymakers should support SEL within educational standards. Collaborative efforts among educators, researchers, and policymakers are essential to develop and sustain effective SEL practices, creating a more engaging and supportive learning environment for students. This paper focuses on the opportunities and challenges of the integration of SEL in ELT. Keywords: Social Emotional Learning, ELT Classroom, Opportunities, Challenges

This study aims to explore the pattern of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in a mathematics lesson at an alternative elementary school in Indonesia. This qualitative case study involved school principal, teachers, and students, recruited using purposive sampling technique. Data were collected using observation, interviews, and document analysis. The latter was done following a model proposed by Creswell, consisting of raw data, organize and prepare the data for analysis, reading through all the data, coding all data, interrelating themes/description, and interpreting the meaning of themes/description. This study concludes that the SEL implementation pattern at the alternative elementary school consisted of a supportive classroom climate, integration of SEL into academic instruction, and explicit SEL instruction. A supportive classroom climate includes a physically healthy environment, cooperative and responsive interactions, a comfortable learning atmosphere, and respect for cultural diversity. Integration of SEL into academic instruction involves activities such as games, case studies, projects, self-reflection, group discussions, individual mentoring, structured assignments, and peer tutoring. Explicit SEL instruction refers to dedicated programs that must be implemented in a routine, active, focused, and explicit manner. Therefore, it is important to implement SEL in mathematics lessons systematically and responsively to support students’ social-emotional development and holistically improve their achievement.

This study explored how teacher perceptions of professional development (PD) on culturally relevant teaching (CRT) and a lack of student voice impede authentic implementation of CRT. Culturally relevant teaching involves utilizing student backgrounds and voices to shape curriculum and pedagogy. However, a review of the literature revealed that student voice is largely missing in CRT research. Additionally, teacher responses to PD were not frequently discussed in studies exploring implementation of CRT. The purpose of the study was to better understand student desires for education and teacher responses to PD on CRT. Research was conducted at a 7-12 public school in Northern California. Four teachers and three students were interviewed, and two students participated in a focus group. After analysis through coding, narrative analyses, and analytic memos, the findings suggested there was a void between teacher’s understanding of CRT and student desires for what CRT should include in the classroom. While students and teachers had similar understandings of the meaning of CRT, students desired more representationally diverse academic content and recurrent lessons on social emotional learning. An additional void in communication appeared to exist between teachers and administration regarding the perceived effectiveness of the mandatory school-wide CRT training. Two teachers had negative reactions to the PD and did not feel comfortable sharing their frustrations with administration. Overall, findings suggest that schools should create more explicit avenues for students to share their desires and feedback with staff. Additionally, training on CRT should take place through bottom-up PD rather than a top-down approach.

This qualitative study used responses to a large-scale survey on school experiences to identify schools where the students themselves reported above average scores on constructs of social emotional learning. The study looked at schools where the students reported above average results for several years in an attempt to answer the following questions: 1.What are the policies and practices of these schools specifically related to providing social emotional supports to students? 2.How do leaders in these schools describe their approach to providing social emotional support for their students? How do leaders assess their own perspectives, attitudes, decision-making and actions toward diverse student populations? To what do they attribute their schools' higher than average SEL scores? 3.What does an analysis of student responses in these schools show in terms of social emotional support provided by their schools? What do students report of their experience? The study looked at schools where students reported above average positive responses to survey questions on four social emotional learning (SEL) constructs for 4 years. Of the 10 schools that qualified, four agreed to participate. In order to examine the policies and practices of these schools, the researcher analyzed public documents from each school and conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with teachers and school leaders. The findings show that the administrators and teachers at the schools supported students' social emotional development by leveraging resources and acknowledging the need to promote equity. They incorporated SEL into the school culture through ongoing professional development, school wide practices, and intentional instruction in the competencies.

This article examines the ways in which racist structures negatively affect students’ social and emotional development and how social-emotional learning (SEL) may be a useful tool to push against racist structures to develop students socially and emotionally. We propose an ecological framework to examine how micro-, meso-, and macro-level structures influence students’ social and emotional development. Our framework is anchored on the juxtaposition of learning versus schooling. We examine what it means to practice SEL versus social-emotional schooling (SES). We argue learning is a holistic process contingent upon centering identity and community. Conversely, schooling is a process that seeks to conform students to ways of understanding that reify the status quo and hinder critical thinking. We identify the practices of SEL and SES by analyzing them at the classroom (micro), school building (meso), and school district level (macro). We argue all 3 levels must be leveraged to create the conditions conducive for SEL to permeate the school and disrupt racism in schools.

In this presentation I propose children’s literature as an effective tool to teach social emotional learning in the classroom. Social emotional learning has increasingly become a focus in many Canadian schools. Social emotional learning has been defined in many ways but is usually accepted to be a combination of developing children’s abilities to self-regulate their feelings, understand and display empathy and make responsible choices. These are skills that can benefit children in a variety of ways that includes increasing self-esteem, reducing conflicts with peers or family members and developing resiliency. Although social emotional skills like empathy are essential for the adequate moral development of children, there is little communication as to the ways qualities like empathy can become teachable skills. This poses a challenge to classroom teachers who are not receiving training or professional development from Social Emotional Learning organizations or research bodies but wish to incorporate elements of the theory into their existing practice and routines. Although some organizations offer scripted lessons and programming to be used in the classroom, programs alone may not be enough. Locally developed resources created for peer-to-peer sharing amongst teachers allow for greater integration and have the added benefit of being customized for each teacher’s unique learning community. This presentation will focus on the integration of social emotional learning at the classroom level using a children’s literature approach. I share some of the resources I have created for this purpose.

The focus of this special issue is on identifying factors that predict a school’s likelihood of high implementation of social– emotional learning (SEL) interventions. In this case, these factors are interpreted as readiness to implement. Implementation readiness is defined by the editors as the capacity to implement an evidence-based intervention (EBI) effectively. Though not stated explicitly, readiness in this definition seems to be a characteristic of the implementers (i.e., teachers or school). The model proposed by the editors and reflected to varying degrees by each of the seven studies involves documenting variables of teachers, classrooms, and schools that are predictive of high-quality implementation and using those variables to create readiness profiles and tailor implementation supports. SEL programs have demonstrated convincing efficacy for improving the social and academic development of children (Durlak et al. 2011). As practitioners and policy makers become more convinced of the fundamental importance of SEL as a foundation for quality education and child development, the challenge of effectively scaling SEL programs and practices is becoming more critical and timely. This special issue addresses an important empirical question: Can we identify factors that represent Breadiness^ of a school (and its teachers and classrooms) to adopt an SEL program and deliver it with sufficient quality and fidelity to reproduce the improvements in social and academic outcomes demonstrated in controlled trials? The seven SEL implementation studies presented in this special issue depict a complex picture of delivering SEL programs in schools and assessing both implementation and impact. As a result, across these seven studies, and other similar studies, we arrive at a long laundry list of variables that may influence implementation quality, fidelity, and reach (which may in turn potentially impact program effects and sustainment). So what can be made of the complex readiness model characterized across these seven studies? The collective body of SEL implementation research, exemplified in the articles of this special issue and more broadly, addresses both academic (i.e., for the sake of increasing our generalizable knowledge) and utilitarian (i.e., for the practical advancement of the scaling of SEL practice in schools) ends. Though these are sometimes overlapping goals simultaneously advanced, for the sake of clarity and space, this commentary will primarily address the practical and pragmatic value and lessons of this special issue, with admittedly less attention paid to issues of methodology, analytic techniques, or study designs. Considering the lessons we can draw across these seven SEL implementation studies, we might start with the end in mind: what could we do if we arrived at a clear list of the most important predictors of high(or low-)quality implementation? It is a herculean task to elucidate the characteristics of social–emotional development and subsequently use that knowledge to craft an intervention intended to promote such development. To further demonstrate, in the context of a rigorous experimental trial, that such an intervention can produce (both statistically and practically) significant improvements relative to a control condition is equally challenging, and not accomplished without a commitment to sound theory and a solid understanding of the school and classroom context (Flay et al. 2005). So the achievement of each of these programs in demonstrating efficacy must be recognized. Taking such * Brian K. Bumbarger bkb10@psu.edu

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs and curricula have emerged as a priority in schools over the past three decades, with greater urgency since the COVID-19 pandemic. While SEL programs may show promise in supporting students’ social and emotional needs generally, current SEL practices apply color-evasive approaches, leading to White-centered practices and norms that do not acknowledge the identities and needs of students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). In response, scholars have called for Culturally Responsive Social Emotional Learning (CRSEL) programs to support students in acknowledging their cultural strengths, recognizing their funds of knowledge, and feeling connected to their learning environment. Although there is a growing body of research on SEL that focuses on conceptualizing social justice, trauma-informed, equity-based, and anti-bias education SEL, more research is needed on teachers’ perspectives and how they implement and integrate CRSEL into their classroom settings.

School- and teacher-related contextual factors are those that often influence the quality of social-emotional learning (SEL) program implementation, which in turn has an impact on student outcomes. The current paper was interested in (1) Which teacher- and school-related contextual factors have been operationalized in articles that focus on the relationship between implementation quality indicators 200 and contextual factors in SEL program implementation in schools? (2) Which contextual factors would demonstrate the highest frequency of statistically significant relationships with SEL program implementation quality indicators and could therefore be more essential for ensuring the program outcomes? Determining the more significant contextual factors would allow for more focused and better-informed teacher professional development for supporting students’ social and emotional skills, it can also be useful for hypothesis development for quasi- experimental research designs of SEL program implementation on the school level. A systematic literature search was conducted in seven electronic databases and resulted in an initial sample of 1,281 records and additional journal and citation sampling of 19 additional records. 20 articles met the final inclusion criteria for the study (19 quantitative and one mixed methods). Inductive content analysis and quantitative analysis were employed to map the variables and estimate the relative frequency of statistically significant relationships across studies. Four categories of contextual factors were revealed: program support, school, teacher, and student categories. The results of the study reveal the diversity in contextual factors studied across SEL program implantation quality and bolster the relevance of program support factors (modeling activities during coaching and teacher–coach working relationship) for ensuring implementation quality. A link between teacher burnout and program dosage was revealed. Student factors emerged as a separate contextual level in school, with special attention to student baseline self-regulation that may influence SEL program implementation quality.

PurposeRecently, the pace of pedagogical change in the field of social-emotional learning (SEL) has increased worldwide; hence, there is a greater need to understand and promote social-emotional elements in education systems. The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of SEL content and practices in the curricula of teacher-education courses while being mindful of the principles underlying teacher–student relationships.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative methodology, data were collected from 55 students enrolled in three courses taught at a college in Israel. The participants wrote reflections on their SEL experiences, which were analyzed using thematic analysis.FindingsThe students’ responses revealed various practices and themes that significantly affected their personal and professional development, among them, the relationships in the classroom, both among the preservice students themselves and between them and the teaching staff. The participants also noted that the SEL components of the course influenced the quality of learning and the development of a professional identity that is actively attuned to elements of SEL.Research limitations/implicationsBy introducing SEL early in the preservice stage, preservice teachers learn to create safe and supportive environments for their future students, thus improving students’ academic achievements, behavior and well-being.Originality/valueThe study underscores the importance of embedding SEL in the teacher-education curricula and its influence on both preservice teachers’ learning experience and the formulation of their image as future teachers while highlighting the significant role of teacher–student relationships in promoting healthy personal and professional development.

An integrative literature review was conducted according to Coopers’ guidelines in order to critique and integrate issues over the convergence among imaginative/Waldorf pedagogy, social-emotional learning and media literacy mindfulness in Primary and Secondary education. A comprehensive analysis of theoretical and empirical articles between 2005 and 2019 was provided. Three research questions were set, discussed and analysed highlighting the followinggaps in the literature: (i) the combination of imagination pedagogies with digital media and social-emotional development is neglected, (ii) there is a lack of longitudinal studies to analyse how social-emotional skills contribute to forming critical media literacy according to student’s developmental stage, (iii) there is urgent need for reconceptualizing media literacy by encompassing and analysing its effects on cognitive, social-emotional and motivational skills development. We provide a framework presenting four perspectives, theoretical, developmental, pedagogical and social, supporting the relationship among imaginative pedagogy, media literacyand social-emotional skills.

Now more than ever, the overall health and well-being of students and educators alike become a global priority for health-care professionals, educators, and families. Socialemotional learning (SEL) competencies are critical for success in college, career, and life. To truly transform our schools and create more equitable outcomes for all students and more satisfying experiences for adults, schools should consider a systemic approach to SEL. This brief introduces the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and its work on systemic SEL. The systemic SEL approach emphasizes relationship-rich learning environments where instructional practices, resources, policies, and communication are aligned and coordinated to promote socioemotional competence for all. CASEL, a field leader in SEL for 30 years, has a mission to help make evidence-based SEL an integral part of education from preschool through high school. CASEL envisions all children and adults as self-aware, caring, responsible, engaged, and lifelong learners who work together to achieve their goals and create a more inclusive, just, and equitable world.