What Are the Specific Social and Emotional Needs of High Achieving Students?

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Shleton, CM. (2003) Emotional Awareness: Fundamental to Effective Teaching. Independent School, 62(3), 62-71.

Weissbourd, R. (2011). The Overpressured Student. Educational Leadership, 68(8), 22-27.

Once I have established the context surrounding the unique needs of these students, I will endeavor to link these needs to potential ameliorative action utilizing practices outlined by SEL researchers. One of the leading sources of progressive research into social and emotional learning is the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Throughout its multiple publications, the collaborative provides research-based guidance on relevant topics such as the links between SEL and academic achievement, strategies for developing and assessing key SEL-related competencies, and plans for implementing and assessing SEL learning standards in schools. I will draw upon these texts for the practical element of my project, in which I hope to integrate social and emotional learning into the environment of my practicum school. Such texts include:

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. (2003). Safe and sound: An educational leader’s guide to evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs. Chicago, IL.

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. (2012). Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs: Preschool and Elementary School. Chicago, IL.

Zins, J. E., Weissberg, R. P., Wang, M. C., & Walberg. H. J. (Eds.). (2004). Building academic success on social and emotional learning: What does the research say? New York: Teachers College Press.

Future Pathways

Going forward, I hope to research and test out strategies for improving the social and emotional well being of the pre-adolescent students in my class. Again, I anticipate that most of these strategies will be extracted from publications on SEL from education scholars, though I intend to modify them to best suit the needs of the students I am working with. My guides during this process will include my school advisor and potentially some of the SEL research specialists located at UBC. Specific topics that I will explore include: the steps teachers and administrators can take to make the classroom and school environment supportive for SEL, specific strategies that students can use to manage stress and pursue self-care, and the ways teachers and schools can reach out to parents to ensure that families are supporting their child’s social and emotional development.

I believe that my practicum school (and my fifth grade classroom, specifically) will be an apt environment for exploring topics related to SEL. As students reach the middle years, they are developmentally able to comprehend more complex emotions and reactions. They are capable of understanding their own emotional temperament and implementing self-management tools that enable them to appropriately confront and diffuse stressful situations (Shelton, 2003). Already, students in my class are familiar with the concept of metacognition, and are comfortable employing targeted strategies to optimize their learning in the classroom. This schema will provide a natural framework for examining their own emotional temperament and utilizing learned tools to manage stress. Collaboration with administrators and parents, however, may prove to be more difficult. I am fully aware that this may be a sensitive subject to discuss for these stakeholders, as no doubt these individuals and institutions are already doing their best for the children in their care. For this reason, I will endeavor to make to carry out my research using a strengths-based analysis to highlight the great work the community is already doing to promote SEL and suggest pathways forward.

Ultimately, I intend to use the knowledge and skills acquired during this process to become a more holistically-focused professional. I am sure that this will be to the benefit of all my future students.

References:

CASEL. (2014). What is Social Emotional Learning? Retrieved from http://www.casel.org/social-and-emotional-learning/

Durlak, J., Weissberg, R., Dymnicki, A., Taylor, R., & Schellinger, K. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based interventions, Child Development, 85(1), 405-432.

Luthar, S. S., & Becker, B. E. (2002). Privileged but Pressured? A Study of Affluent Youth. Child Development, 73(5), 1593-1610.

Shleton, CM. (2003) Emotional Awareness: Fundamental to Effective Teaching. Independent School, 62(3), 62-71.

Weissbourd, R. (2011). The Overpressured Student. Educational Leadership, 68(8), 22-27.