One of the biggest educational trends of the past decade is social-emotional learning. Experts quibble over what these soft skills are exactly but the term generally refers to things like managing emotions, learning to set goals and getting along with others. Programs to boost these skills have proliferated at schools. Some are sold by curriculum publishers and cost many thousands of dollars. Others are free but can still involve hundreds of hours of teacher training. Many of the programs require carving out entire class periods during the school day to directly and explicitly teach social-emotional skills.
It’s hard for schools to afford them, allocate the time and teach complicated lessons properly.
Stephanie Jones, a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, is convinced that the explicit teaching of soft skills benefits students. But she wondered if there was another way. “There are a lot of terrific boxed programs out there that have lots of evidence, but some places aren’t quite ready for that approach,” said Jones. “They want something that either helps them get on the pathway to SEL [social and emotional learning] or that’s more adaptable.”
[For more on this story by JILL BARSHAY, go to https://hechingerreport.org/a-...emotional-learning/?]
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