Research on SEL
Do the Benefits of Social and Emotional Learning Programs Last?
“Social emotional learning focuses on developing five competencies: self‐awareness, self‐management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. The research around such interventions have shown that social‐emotional learning interventions have been successful in teaching specific skills that support social and academic adjustment, as well as decreasing conduct problems and emotional distress. These are skills that can support school, career, and life success while protecting students from negative outcomes. Skills developed through the intervention showed to be the best predictor of long term benefit. Effects were consistent across mulƟple demographic factors such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status and school location.”
Enhancing Students’ Social And Emotional Learning:
“Students do not typically learn alone, and social and emotional skills can help improve their academic achievement. Because these skills are so important to learning, it is important that schools and families effectively teach these skills to ensure student success. Our students come from diverse cultural and social backgrounds, with varied abilities and motivations for learning. Students who lack social-emotional competencies may become less connected to school as they progress from elementary to middle to secondary school, and this lack of connection hinders their academic performance. “
Research conducted by CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning):
“Social and emotional learning (SEL) teaches children to recognize and understand their emotions, feel empathy, make decisions, and build and maintain relationships. A widely cited 2011 meta-analysis previously showed that SEL programs immediately improve mental health, social skills, and academic achievement. The current study (2017) shows that school-based SEL interventions continue to benefit students for months and even years to come.”
For further detail on research conducted:
CASEL in Collaboration with UBC:
CASEL has been working in close collaboration with the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Education and in February 2017, CASEL announced the publication of a new report titled To Reach the Students, Teach the Teachers: A National Scan of Teacher Preparation and Social & Emotional Learning. CASEL funded the research for the report, the first-ever scan of teacher preparation related to SEL, as part of a grant from NoVo Foundation.