Social and emotional abilities are vital for children not only in regard to academic success, but also for their hospital growth and overall happiness. Social-Emotional Learning or SEL programs usually involve developing five cognitive and behavioral competencies, which are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. As Hind Louali mentions, nurturing these skills through intentional activities in the classroom can go a long way in helping kids to take responsibility for their actions and make good choices in academia and beyond.
Hind Louali provides insights into using STEM to improve Social-Emotional Learning
Addressing SEL abilities is known to be a continuous process. According to research, the SEL development of a child directly correlates to their success and happiness as an adult. Schools can be a pretty safe place where children are encouraged and instructed in SEL skills, prior to becoming active members of society and the consequences that exist in that role. In addition to the personal development gains associated with social-emotional learning infused lessons, including SEL strategies in teaching creates highly engaging experiences. This empowers students to contribute more and learn more academically.
Here are a few ideas to address each SEL competency with students:
- Self-Awareness: Self awareness is the ability to recognize one’s emotions, including their strengths, limitations, and emotional needs. STEM challenges are commonly conducted in a team environment, providing people with numerous opportunities to address both positive and negative emotions. Educators should try to highlight positive behavior in students and encourage them to continue with it. They should help the students notice their own emotions and learn through experience where their strengths are.
- Self-Management: This implies to the ability to regulate emotions and behaviors in order to achieve important goals. For a lot of students, working well in teams can be a huge challenge. Setting appropriate rules can address how the students should manage their own emotions and set the tone for beginning each challenge.
- Social awareness: Social awareness refers to the ability of a person to understand what others are feeling and put themselves in their shoes. This aids individuals to relate to others and empathize with them. Educators can choose to share stories from history where people invented or created solutions to problems that people were facing.
- Relationship skills: Relationship skills imply to the ability to handle conflict competently, work well together in teams, and have positive relationships with others. Choosing to model such behaviors can be crucial in students gaining mastery over such social skills.
- Responsible decision-making: Responsible decision-making is ideally marked by students making effective use of problem-solving skills when trying to make positive choices about their personal and social behavior. STEM challenges are a good way in helping the students flex their critical thinking muscles. The struggle of not immediately knowing what to do is what helps the students to actually grow in their problem solving skills.
As Hind Louali mentions, STEM challenges are already an integrated approach with real-world applications in many situations. Collaborative environments like school classrooms would be a good way to teach young kids the relevant social-emotional skills needed for success.
