Well-being for the classroom
Social and emotional learning
Social-emotional learning (SEL) has evolved into one of the most often talked about (and researched) topics in the field of education that informs well-being.
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL, social-emotional learning (or SEL) is defined as the process through which 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 healthy relationships.
- Make responsible and caring decisions.
Five competencies have been identified that are central to SEL:
- Emotional competencies: Self-awareness and self-management.
- Social competencies: Social awareness and relationship skills.
- Decision-making competency: Responsible decision making.
Trauma-informed classrooms
Traumatic experiences affect children socially, emotionally, behaviorally, and academically.
Trauma exists in many forms, and it's common for learners to experience it, which greatly impacts their daily lives, especially in the classroom. Taking this into consideration, it's imperative that we educate ourselves on:
- What trauma is
- How to identify trauma
- How to support learners
- How to create a trauma-informed classroom
The responsibility to create safe and welcoming spaces for learners falls on educators. Knowing that learners come from different backgrounds, experiences, and exposure, educators need to be informed on how to create spaces that ensure each learner is heard, understood, and provided with an environment in which they can be nurtured and grow.
To learn more about how trauma affects learners and their education, download the WE well-being trauma-informed classroom module.
Positive youth development
Positive youth development (PYD) is another strategy that seeks to emphasize and promote the potential of children and youth. Specifically, the PYD approach “aims at understanding, educating, and engaging children in productive activities rather than at correcting, curing, or treating their formal adaptive tendencies or so-called disabilities” (Damon, 2004, p. 15).
Three areas that are central to the study of PYD include:
- Purpose
- Positive attributes
- Resilience
Service-learning
Service-learning is a learning approach in which learners explore challenges or problems in their school or community, develop plans to solve them and take action (Kids Involved Doing Service Learning [KIDS] Consortium, 2013). There are six components of service-learning that are found to be important for positive results (Anderson & Hill, 2001; Billig, 2000; Billig, 2011).
WE Well-being includes each of these six critical service-learning components:
- Investigation
- Planning
- Action
- Reflection
- Demonstration
- Celebration
To learn more about how to implement service learning in educational settings, check out the WE.org service learning toolkit.