What is Social Emotional Learning?
Social emotional learning (SEL) is "the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions." (The Collaborative for Academic and Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
In simpler terms, it's how everyone navigates personal and professional relationships - and achieves personal and professional goals - successfully.
The five core social and emotional skills within the CASEL wheel framework are:
- Self-awareness
- Self-management
- Relationship skills
- Social awareness
- Responsible decision making
Each SEL skill helps students and educators thrive and build trusting relationships within their classrooms and schools, with families and caregivers, and within their communities. In turn, such authentic school-family-community partnerships support student learning and academic achievement, increase educational equity between students of all socioeconomic backgrounds, and empowers everyone to create safe, healthy, and just environments for all.
Why do teachers need Social Emotional Learning?
When educators receive SEL professional development paired with professional learning materials like the TCM resources on this page, district leadership and school leaders ensure teachers can:
- strengthen their own social and emotional competencies (SEC)
- maintain personal mental health and well being
- learn strategies to facilitate academic instruction and integrate SEL problem solving into lesson plans
When teachers develop and integrate SEL skills into their own lives and teaching successfully, this ensures they can support student learning, student success, and emotional intelligence growth. School leaders and district leadership are encouraged to support educators by providing SEL training to help teachers manage and strengthen their own learning and own SEL skills.
If SEL skills are incorporated into professional development resources and professional learning workshops, not only does teacher effectiveness increase, but teacher stress significantly decreases thanks to acquiring these new skills and coping strategies.
More SEL Resources to Explore
Please feel free to browse the product boxes above to discover more social-emotional learning professional development resources.