Why Socio-Emotional Learning is Crucial for Teachers

Education landscape is constantly evolving with major disruptions and continuing expansion and integration of digital technologies accompanied by changed profiles of learners and educators. The growing complexity and emerging issues that are making teaching and learning a daunting task need compelling strategies to tackle them head on, lest they jeopardize individual and societal health, thereby causing further aggravation.

With increased globalization and frequent shifts in educational trends, many teachers are unsure how to address the ensuing challenges to meet the current demands. Apart from many other challenges one of the greatest challenge they face is students’ discipline and improving learning outcomes. 

Whilst it is generally believed that a teacher’s job is very fulfilling, it can be very exhausting specially in the current times with excessive demands on their mental and physical health. Therefore, some proactive measures need to be taken by them if they need to keep up with the fast-paced and changed scenarios of their profession.

According to some leading scientists in the field of social-emotional learning “teachers who possess social-emotional competencies are less likely to experience burnout because they’re able to work more effectively with challenging students.”

Given these and other issues, it is extremely important for all stakeholders to realize that learning in schools requires the coordination of cognitive, affective and socio emotional skills of all involved in the process.

Socio Emotional learning is one such approach to foster necessary skills that are essential for school, work, society and a fulfilling life. It may not be able to solve all the challenges but will make significant impact on students and teachers.

With the introduction of SEL competencies, children and adults learn to identify their feelings, understand and manage their emotions, feel and show empathy for others, forge positive relationships and make responsible decisions. In the process of gaining an understanding of the various components of SEL, children and adults acquire strong social and emotional skills and are able to cope with everyday challenges, learn to tackle life tasks and benefit academically, professionally and socially.

All educators need to be oriented towards the five core competencies of SEL. Some recent studies have shown that teachers have a positive effect on the development of non-cognitive skills of the students leading to increased academic achievement. It has been observed that when teachers are engrossed in SEL content and classes, they learn to reflect on their own socio-emotional competencies. Therefore, teachers’ well-being plays a huge role in students’ successes. 

On the contrary, lack of SEL competencies in a teacher, will have a ripple effect leading to dismal teaching learning processes and poor student growth with negative mental outcomes.

SEL competencies may not be able to have a grip on all aspects of a teacher’s profession but can definitely make the teachers work more effectively in a challenging environment in a class. Moreover, consistent use of the skills will make them more competent to adapt to the changes on the go.

Despite the known importance of SEL, its adaptation and implementation is still quite poor. According to an OECD study, programs for international student assessment and survey of adult skills are covering a whole range of SEL skills which will lead to important life outcomes and can be assessed within the cultural and linguist boundaries.

A review of social and emotional learning for education systems, published by the UNESCO MGIEP, presents scientific evidence on the importance of SEL to education, thus highlighting its significance in achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 4, that focuses on building peaceful and sustainable societies through education.

Education leaders, teachers and policy makers need to ensure how to monitor and foster students’ socio-emotional skills as they are important drivers of their mental health and future achievements. 

To foster social skills and emotional intelligence in students, proper planning of SEL competency framework needs to be done. It should have a developmentally staged curriculum with relevant and meaningful content. The activities should be easy to implement and can be taught as a standalone subject to start with as it would contain age-appropriate, skill-building exercises. 

Socio-Emotional Learning is a lifelong skill. If modelled well by teachers and school leaders, it will very subtly percolate into instruction, school culture and discipline policies of the school.

Written By:-
Ms. Sushma Raturi,
Member Secretary,
Academic Council & Head – Teaching, Learning & Training
Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Schools,

Published by: Financial Express
Link: https://www.financialexpress.com/education-2/socio-emotional-learning-teachers-psychology-teacher-training-teacher-education-school/2930295/
Published on: 31 December 2022