Challenges Facing the Social and Emotional Learning Practices

In order to promote an environment of openness and belonging, school leaders are interested in developing students' SEL skills. However, integrating SEL into the curriculum can be challenging, given that these skills have not been traditionally taught or tested.

Fremont, CA: To state the obvious, SEL has grown substantially. Before the pandemic, most instructors reported SEL practices in their classrooms. The pandemic has only increased interest in bolstering students' social and emotional health. As SEL continues its rapid expansion, some challenges may come along.

Challenges facing social and emotional learning practices:

Maintaining quality at scale

Ingenious program designers find solutions to problems, such as how to teach pupils social and emotional competencies. Together with researchers, they undertake a comprehensive evaluation study. This study is often conducted in schools with a high level of dedication and includes substantial implementation support. Comparing students who received the program to those who did not, the study reveals that students who received the program displayed measurable gains on crucial outcome measures. Thus, an evidence-based practice (EBP) is born.

Therefore, implementing the EBP in all schools can achieve a massively positive impact. It turns out that this is an extremely difficult task. Some school districts will be able to implement SEL programs of such high quality and intensity that they yield the student advantages demonstrated in evaluation studies. However, many will struggle. Some will, for example, acquire programs that never leave the metaphorical shrink wrap. Perhaps some teachers will enthusiastically implement a curriculum while others will not. Perhaps teachers will resent being asked to do "one more thing" or lack confidence in their ability to teach something novel and non-academic. There are a number of reasons why simply shipping an EBP without systemic support for its constructive use may not result in measurable student gains.

Customization over standardization

The conflict between uniformity and customization is a second SEL difficulty. On the one hand, implementing a program faithfully is the greatest method to assure that it provides the type of demonstrable effect demonstrated by rigorous evaluations. This necessitates implementing the curriculum as intended with proper rigor and student engagement. In other words, adhere to the program as specified. This is a type of standardization.

In any given community, some parts of a social and emotional learning (SEL) program may feel like a good fit, while others may not. Or, a creative teacher may simply have a different notion of how to deliver a subject than what is outlined in the scope and sequencing. Standardization can feel restrictive in these circumstances. Furthermore, educators are a creative group. They are capable of customizing a curriculum to some extent.