Social-emotional learning—particularly skills such as listening and sharing—seem like a natural extension of an elementary school curriculum. But middle and high schoolers can be a much tougher audience for that kind of learning.
“Sometimes, we hear that people think of social-emotional learning as something for K-5 or K-8 schools,” said Karen VanAusdal, the senior director of practice for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a national organization that advocates for SEL. She was speaking during a Feb. 13 Education Week K-12 Essentials Forum on social-emotional learning priorities and practices.
But “when we think about adolescents and what’s happening [to them] in terms of the incredible growth—physically, cognitively, emotionally—all the more reason to be attending to the social-emotional development of our adolescents in an intentional way.”
Making such lessons work for teens and tweens is “the final frontier” for SEL, agreed Trish Schaffer, the director of multi-tiered systems of support for Nevada’s Washoe County school district, during the online forum.
Social-emotional learning programs have now been in schools for several years, and in many cases, even longer. They aim to teach kids how to regulate their emotions, empathize with peers, make responsible decisions, and build other life skills.
But in many places, parents and community members have pushed back against the integration of SEL into district curricula, claiming the programs de-emphasize academics and promote a liberal political agenda. Plus, recent actions by President Donald Trump’s administration and conservative activists could reinvigorate political pushback to social-emotional learning, with potentially long-term consequences on how schools teach the concept.
Even so, growing concerns that kids are struggling to manage their emotions and become independent thinkers and decisionmakers are putting SEL strategies front and center in efforts to address those problems.
Social-emotional-learning lessons ‘can’t be boring’
Some strategies that help, according to Schaffer and VanAusdal? First and foremost, SEL for that age group “can’t be boring,” Schaffer said.
Instead, teachers need to highlight the “relevant and real-life context” for skills like empathetic listening by practicing it with students throughout the school day in classes such as history, science, and physical education.
Schaffer also recommends elevating student voice in SEL programs. She considers that a “real cornerstone to SEL implementation,” particularly at the secondary level because it helps students have “ownership of what they want to learn, what skills they need to practice.”
VanAusdal suggested that the secondary level is also a good time to pair work on SEL skills—such as collaboration—with academic assignments through strategies such as project-based learning or analysis of real-world problems.
Ensuring that SEL is “incorporated into those learning experiences is really key for this age group,” she said.
