Socio-emotional skills developed during school years help learners manage their everyday life
Social-emotional learning (SEL) and cultural competence are vital elements of an enriched school curriculum. They contribute to the process of developing self-awareness, self-control, and ensuring interpersonal skills that are necessary for school, work, and success in life. Studies have shown that social-emotional skills such as problem-solving, self-regulation, impulse control, and empathy help improve academic performance while improving the child’s self-image, building confidence, reducing negative social behaviour like bullying, stalking, and creating positive classroom climates. Social-emotional skills developed during school years help learners manage their everyday life successfully, even as adults.
Strategies for creating Socio-Emotional learning:
Overall, schools must ensure safe, supportive, non-judgemental, and inclusive environments to facilitate positive SEL and cultural competence among the learners.
1. Teachers need to be keenly observant and present to understand the needs of each child and then connect with them individually.
2.Creating a supportive and respectful atmosphere will lead to learning to understand one another on the basis of individual differences.
3. Sharing real-life experiences, creating a better rapport and understanding with group members, Storytelling as a methodology using personal or known real-life experiences are valuable additions to classroom learning.
4. Stimulating discussions that allow exchange of opinions, while respecting others’ opinions help to nurture unconditional positive regard for all, amongst learners.
5. Creating opportunities for hands-on learning gives learners the exposure to community work like working with the underprivileged, visiting an orphanage, etc that nurture empathy, pro-social behaviour and developing a caring and compassionate attitude towards others in the society.
6. Activities that require collaboration and teamwork must be incorporated. Supervision and taking care to vary the group members would help to maximize effective SEL.
These strategies would help to develop both interpersonal as well as intrapersonal skills and provide a foundation for positive, long-term effects on kids, adults, and communities.
Cultural competence equips an individual to accept differences and establish the appreciation of similarities and differences among cultures:
- Educators should be well-trained to have a clear understanding and awareness of their own cultures along with respect for other cultures
- It is important to develop a positive attitude towards cultural differences and ensure that one’s own behaviour doesn’t reflect any biases/ prejudices
- Cultural competence comes from gaining knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews, which should then be shared with learners through activities/ Projects. This will also establish better rapport between the teacher and the students
- Stress on developing skills for communication and interaction across cultures can pave the way to better understanding
- Scheduling events to effectively engage with diverse families and communities promote cultural interaction
- In order to become culturally responsive educators, teachers must be trained to assess their own cultural viewpoints and biases. Regular self–reviews followed by appropriate corrective measures would help to ensure a tolerant culture-fair environment at school
- Using culturally responsive pedagogy or culturally relevant teaching is important as teachers have more diverse classrooms today. Students are no longer of similar backgrounds or experiences, so instruction also needs to be differentiated
- Teachers should encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge in order to contribute to group discussions, which provides an anchor to learning
- Tying lessons from the curriculum to the students’ social communities to make learning contextual and relevant also encourage students to leverage their cultural capital.
- Diverse socio-economic background necessitates the practice of inclusivity - it’s important to encourage those who don’t to have a voice to contribute to classroom discussions.
- Teachers need to work to build relationships with their students to ensure they feel respected, valued, and seen for who they are. Building these relationships helps them build a community within the classroom and with each other, which is paramount.
To conclude, the school curriculum must create opportunities for facilitating the inextricably linked socio-emotional learning and cultural competence among learners. Such qualitative educational programmes would help to develop awareness and acceptance of one’s own self, while promoting an attitude of compassion, inclusivity, and cultural tolerance among these citizens of tomorrow, who shall indeed live and create the world on the basis of what they learn today.
L V Sehgal is the Principal of Bal Bharati Public School, Ganga Ram Lane. Views expressed are personal.