Exploring Social Emotional Learning Benefits – Free Inquiry #2

This week

This week I plan to explore the benefits of Social Emotional Learning. Researching this information will be beneficial to me during the rest of my discoveries as it will provide me with greater insight into why SEL is important, as well as finding out how SEL truly makes a difference in students every day lives.

Benefit #1:

Self Regulation & Management

By introducing Social-Emotional learning, students are exposed to emotions and what emotions may look, and feel like in day to day life. Through this introduction, children are taught to embrace their feelings. Students are also encouraged to identify their feelings.

Understanding how you are feeling and reflecting back on what may have triggered that emotion, can help children realize that emotions are normal and everyone has them. Through the exploration of students' personal emotions, they are able to grasp a better understanding of how to regulate them.

Benefit #2

Enhanced Learning

Introducing SEL to students also impacts their learning. If SEL is brought into the classroom environment, students will hopefully feel safer to be the person they are as well as respected.

Studies have shown that if students feel heard and respected within the classroom, they will ultimately be more successful with their learning as they will be able to feel more comfortable and confident speaking up in class and staying engaged in group work, etc.

Benefit #3

Connecting With Others

Once students have a better understanding of their own personal emotions, this is where the social aspect comes in. Being aware of your own personal emotions enables students to be able to understand their peers and friends in a more personal way.

Due to students having the tools to manage their own emotions and behaviour, this opens more doors for building connection and relationships with others. Kids will learn different tools in how to regulate their emotions as well as learn how to resolve conflict issues with others.

Benefit #4

Empathy

Once children have a better understanding of their own emotions, it becomes easier for them to put themselves in the shoes of others; therefore, building compassion and empathy for others around them. This is beneficial for students as empathy is extremely important when it comes to making friends and maintaining those friendships.

Benefit #5

Respect Yourself, Others & The World

Lastly, I believe that respect is a major benefit of Social Emotional Learning. Through my research there were many different benefits found, but some of them I feel could fit into the general term of respect. Overall, as students understand how to manage their own emotions, they also learn how to be empathetic towards others based on the knowledge they have gained from their own experiences. Through these discoveries they learn how to build meaningful connections as well as learn how to maintain these connections through respect.

This chart here shows the key elements of Social Emotional Learning and connect to the benefits that studies have proven to be a result of incorporating SEL into the classrooms.

I am very excited to continue exploring this topic now that I have gained more information that can guide me through the rest of my research, as well as throughout the process of building my resource binder!

Photo Sources:
Image of bubbles:https://unsplash.com/photos/ncyGJJ0TSLM
Kid with Map: https://unsplash.com/photos/Rem_P2u_eIQ
photo with blocks: https://unsplash.com/photos/t4B_JcUofvY
Photo of kids walking: https://unsplash.com/photos/CYlPykF-qAM
Apple and Books: https://unsplash.com/photos/OyCl7Y4y0Bk
Students w hand up: https://unsplash.com/photos/gsRi9cWCIB0
two kids walking: https://unsplash.com/photos/NLh54uTbftQ
Website Sources:
Top 6 Benefits of Social–Emotional Learning in the Classroom

https://www.nu.edu/blog/social-emotional-learning-sel-why-it-matters-for-educators/#:~:text=Broadly%20speaking%2C%20social%20and%20emotional,them%20to%20succeed%20in%20school.

Free Inquiry