• The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL, 2020) defines social and emotional learning (SEL) as “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.” • CASEL (2020) stresses the importance of using SEL to advance “educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences with trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation,” and offers a framework that outlines the five most critical SEL competencies that can be taught and applied at various developmental stages: • Self-Awareness: Ability to understand your emotions, thoughts, and values and how they impact your behavior. • Self-Management: Appropriately managing your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in different contexts. • Social Awareness: Understanding and empathizing with others, including those different from oneself. • Relationship Skills: Ability to form and maintain supportive relationships, including building relationships with diverse individuals or groups. • Responsible Decision-Making: Ability to make caring, constructive choices. • Pam Allyn and Ernest Morrell have identified that a similar set of underlying social, emotional, and cognitive strengths should be leveraged as the foundation for building “super readers.” They articulate seven strengths: belonging, curiosity, friendship, kindness, confidence, courage, and hope (2016). • Because academic, social, and emotional learning is interconnected and can be explicitly taught, a “key task for educators becomes the intentional development of these skills, traits, strategies, and attitudes in conjunction with the development of content knowledge and academic skills” (Farrington et al., 2012, p. 7). • According to Dr. James Comer and the Yale Child Study Center, learning must address six primary pathways (physical, cognitive, psychological, language, social, and ethical) that must be developed to ensure students succeed in school and life (Comer et al., 2004). • Students need rich and meaningful experiences when learning skills—experiences that engage the mind and heart and help shape positive school histories (Muhammad, 2020). • Attention to students’ holistic learning and development can promote high-quality educational opportunities and outcomes for all children across race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, and other differences (Niemi, 2021).
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