Blog
Team Social Xleration, 21st April 2021
Introduction
With greater realization, today, social and emotional factors are recognized as two important and influential intrinsic human factors that influence a large number of aspects of a person’s life. Hence, it is necessary to leverage these two facets effectively. This is accomplished through instilling and growth of social and emotional skills, which is why the idea of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is so important.
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a US-based prominent organization that works extensively on SEL defines the concept as “An integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions”.
Benefits of SEL
A multitude of benefits has been ascribed to SEL skills among children, which encompass lower emotional distress, reduced discipline-related breaches, higher school attendance, and better test scores and grades. Committee for Children, an organization that works on SEL cites a range of evidence to underscore the importance of SEL-related benefits. These are as follows:
- 13% increase in academic achievement with SEL
- $11 returned for each $1 invested in social-emotional learning
- 5–12% decrease in school dropout rates associated with SEL
- Students were 42 percent less likely to say they were involved in physical aggression
- 20% less bullying by students with disabilities
CASEL Framework
A range of frameworks has been evolved related to SEL. An estimate suggests that there are 136 frameworks that have been put together which are linked to SEL. However, the most prominent and cited framework is the ‘CASEL 5’ Framework developed by CASEL. It is an SEL theoretical matrix that consists of five interconnected and large areas of competence. The CASEL 5 Framework is made up of five following core competencies:
- Self-awareness: This ability involves recognizing emotions, strengths and needs, and developing a growth mindset.
- Self-management: This skill is related to managing emotions, controlling impulses, and defining goals
- Social awareness: It has to do with seeing viewing things from other people’s perspectives, expressing empathy, and appreciating diversity
- Relationship skills: It points to skills related to communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution
- Responsible decision-making: It deals with deliberation about the consequences of personal action
SEL and Sustainable Development Goals
Education plays a significant role in the global commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a list of 17 interconnected goals framed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. When looking at the SDGs, it is evident that SEL skills are associated with SDGs 4 and 16. Target 4.7 reads as “By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.” The various aspects of the target encompassing education for sustainable development, a culture of peace and non-violence, appreciation of cultural diversity, and culture’s contribution to sustainable development clearly establish an unmistakable connection of SEL skills with this SDG. As for SDG 16 on Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, one needs to only look at Target 16.2, which is “End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children” to see the linkage with SEL skills, which also aim to eradicate violence against children.
SEL in the Indian Context
While not much work on SEL skills dissemination seems to have been done in the country, the importance of the concept has been recognized. The importance of SEL was stressed in the NCERT’s National Curricular Framework (NCF) 2005. The National Focus Group Position Paper, Aims of Education emphasized self-discovery, nonviolence, cultural diversity, and the promotion of talents such as performing arts, painting, and crafts, as well as literary abilities, which all come under the scope of SEL.
The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) underscores the importance of SEL in ensuring children’s holistic growth, asserting that the educational system’s goal must be to “develop good human beings capable of rational thought and action, possessing compassion and empathy.” The chapter on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) mentions “socio-emotional-ethical development” amongst the overall aim of ECCE. The chapter also stressed the incorporation of art, stories, poetry, songs, and more, all of which are acknowledged to build SEL skills.
As mentioned earlier not much on-ground work appears to have been done in the country except for ChildFund India’s work on SEL, which remains the most notable effort in this direction. The SEL work was commenced by ChildFund India in 2017 and since has been scaled to 15 states in India and is being further strengthened. After going through the available SEL pertinent information in India, Teacher Foundation was found to be the other organization that was involved with SEL to a reasonable extent. In this context, the organization introduced the Indian Social and Emotional Learning Framework (ISELF), which it explains “as a research-based educational resource developed by it to foster social emotional development of Indian children, using a carefully age-banded approach, from 6 years to 18 years.”
ChildFund India’s Experiences with SEL
In July 2017, ChildFund India took the first steps on the SEL path by introducing an innovative program model called “Building Basic Skills (BBS).” This Model emphasizes the involvement of parents and caregivers in various child learning activities at home, school, and even in the community, which is an important aspect of the SEL concept. ChildFund India launched “Khilta Bachpan,” a creative campaign in Delhi in August 2018 to encourage SEL skills among schoolchildren through art and culture. In December 2019, the campaign was officially extended to Odisha.
The commencement of ChildFund International’s School-Based Violence Prevention (SBVP) Global Program Model in 2018 to improve the skills of children, caregivers, and educators to prevent, reduce, and respond to violence against children (VAC) by concentrating on SEL skills and self-protection unequivocally highlighted the SEL related synergies between BBS Model and SBVP. ChildFund India’s SEL initiatives gained further traction as a result of this correlation. ChildFund India developed a pioneering program model named PENCIL (Protective Effective N Context based Initiation for Learning) with the aim of formalizing and consolidating the use of the SEL approach. The PENCIL Program Model primarily targets children and adolescents aged 3 to 14 in which the major focus is on ‘socio-emotional learning skills of the children’ along with ‘school readiness’, ‘context-based teaching and learning practice’, and ‘multilingual library and print-rich environment’.
In October 2020, the Khilta Bachpan Phase II, an amplification of Phase I, was launched, thereby further augmenting ChildFund India’s SEL efforts. Phase II aims to raise SEL awareness on a national level while also developing a state-wide model for SEL inclusive and conducive teaching-learning and ensuring that more high-quality material is included in children’s literature.
With the world reeling from the effects of Covid-19, ChildFund India demonstrated swiftness in responding to the ensuing educational crisis by sticking to its SEL orientation. It created a program called Intergenerational Coping and Learning (IGCL) to solve children’s SEL issues during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, which began in April 2020. A third-party assessment of the IGCL Program revealed that children and parents have highly acknowledged the contribution of the IGCL Program in helping them during the difficult period of the pandemic.
While ChildFund India plans to further consolidate and expand its SEL-related efforts, it is time for other organizations, both not-for-profit and public too to acknowledge the life-long significance of the SEL skills among children and adolescents and initiate suitable programs on the dissemination and instilling SEL skills among them. Besides, the importance of SEL skills for adults also needs to be acknowledged and appropriate programs are required to be designed for them to enable them to deal effectively in a growingly complex world.