How Social and Emotional Learning Can be Advantageous

The social and emotional learning curriculum has become increasingly important in recent years regardless if it is whether to boost academic achievement or teach important social skills. It is a good quality for a school to offer social and emotional learning because this can help in honing skills which are necessary for helping the students to manage their emotions, working and interacting with others and goal-setting. For a school to have an effective social and emotional learning program, it should be able to support the five key skills, there are – self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and, responsible decision making.

There have already been several studies which have already shown the benefits given by employing social and emotional learning in schools. Those students who have been educated in an environment promoting social and emotional learning show enhanced academic progress and an improved college and career readiness.

By adding social and emotional learning to the school’s curriculum, this helps the students in better managing their relationships with adults and peers, this also helps in the decrease on problems with conduct in the classroom and also with risk-taking behavior, and this also has a tangible positive benefit on students’ emotional well-being. The social and emotional learning skills also promote responsible decision making later in life. There are also studies which show that those students who are exposed to the social and emotional learning program when they were still young are less likely to behave violently or incline to substance abuse disorder later in life.

Below are some benefits which can justify why it is good that a school has a social and emotional learning curriculum.

• Avoiding instruction time losses

On average, researchers estimate that there are about eight minutes of instruction time that is lost because of the behavioral issues during each class. If aggregated, the total instruction time losses amount to approximately one month of lost learning per year. By employing a robust social and emotional learning program, this has shown to contribute to minimizing behavior issues and “buy back” instruction.

• Students become college ready

By having additional instructional time as a result of implementing the social and emotional learning curriculum. By having an active social and emotional learning program, there are also indications of increased school attendance and fewer number of students who are dropping out. Thus, from a policy perspective, having the social and emotional learning program in a school, this associates to significant academic performance improvements. With social and emotional learning programs, this shows to demonstrate comparable or increased academic outcomes than other universal interpolations. To be specific, there has been a meta-analysis of 213 studies, which involves a population of at least 270,000 students which show that students who were able to receive universal social and emotional learning program ranked 11 percentile points higher on an average on standardized achievement tests as compared to students who were not able to receive such program.

• Students become career ready

There is an increasing inclination from employers who prefer people with social and emotional learning skills like problem-solving, self-esteem, self-motivation, goal setting, listening, and communication. Furthermore, there are 12 out of 16 skill which is identified by the world economic forum which was noted as crucial for the 21st-century workplace among the social and emotional skills. By undertaking social and emotional learning program, this prepares students to enter the workplace with a substantially increased employability.

The skills mentioned above are covered by the five core skills being outlined in the social and emotional learning framework. This entails that those students who are attending schools which offers a comprehensive social and emotional learning curriculum are receiving direct instruction in these areas and have a better opportunity to practice these skills both inside and outside the classroom.

• Students become life ready

Schools which have a social and emotional learning curriculum shows results in a variety of enhanced life outcomes. Majority of the studies made conclude that students who were able to undergo an active social and emotional learning program manifest better and healthier behaviors. There are even several studies which show a much more profound health impact aside from improved response within the school. These health impacts include improved physical health and a decrease in the student’s likelihood of substance abuse, as well as a reduction in a student’s possibility of demonstrating violent behavior. Thus, this manifests that the social and learning program in both universal and tiered support can be used as a gauge to improve the student’s overall quality of life.

As a parent who is looking for an excellent school to enroll your child or children, it is better that you associate them with schools who are offering this curriculum either in universal or tiered support. This can help nourish the quality of your child’s learning by also allowing your child to be able to become socially aware not only towards himself or herself but also as to how he or she can affect his or her environment in and outside the school.

Nowadays, this should become one of the essential skills that your children must be able to learn, because, there might be aspects that can be addressed in the process of the program where you think was not crucial. By enabling your child to become more open with how to empathize with others, and how to deal with difficulties in school and in real life can really provide him or her an impact that he or she can carry as they go through life.

There are already several schools who are offering this curriculum, and not only should you consider the programs being offered, but you should also factor in if your child is comfortable with the school or not, or if your child feels safe with his or her peers. By getting all of these things considered, then you can be confident enough that you have enrolled your child in a right school with a safe environment.