“Looking at schools across the country, I see continued challenges to the mental health and well-being of many students and school staff, exacerbated by educators’ worries about ‘saying the wrong thing’ or using the ‘wrong’ materials’,” writes Maurice J. Elias, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University and the director of the Social-Emotional and Character Development Lab, in Education Week. He is a co-director of the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for the United States.
“My colleagues and I at the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for the United States have witnessed how leaders can derive great benefit from prioritizing social and emotional learning in the culture of their schools. As school climate improves and social-emotional and character development increases, schools can become the truly welcoming and inclusive places students need to learn best.”
Here is a set of recommendations by Elias for school leaders to ensure that staff and students successfully manage stressors and focus on learning:
The classroom is not always the appropriate place to present staff personal views. The mission is to help students learn how to best consider issues, not to have them arrive at the same positions as their teachers.
Make the case for social-emotional learning competencies. Explain to your school community how helping students learn to listen to their peers and others, clarify different points of view, deal with strong feelings during conflict, understand with empathy, and problem-solve to reach effective, consensual solutions.
Incorporate mindfulness. Begin each school day with schoolwide mindfulness activities (being aware of your current feeling without judgment) and consider integrating mindfulness opportunities throughout the course of the day at specified times.
Model social-emotional competencies. It is vital to demonstrate how adults can treat their peers in the same constructive ways they are encouraging students to treat peers.
Create SEL competencies faculty meetings. A common vision for school-based staff meetings allows leaders to encourage a caring, supportive, and safe environment for expressing opinions without harassment, intimidation, or bullying.
Create shared classroom agreements. Each classroom can develop a “declaration of interdependence” and a “constitution.” The declaration articulates core values that everyone in the classroom agrees to follow and is respectful of different cultures and perspectives. The constitution should set specific, age- and context-appropriate expectations for classroom and school behavior. These are living documents, open to review and changes.
Assess and improve personal social-emotional competencies. Reflect on your ability to recognize and manage your emotions, identify sources of stress and manage stress, be empathetic, form and maintain positive relationships, and problem-solve. Use your strengths in these areas to form positive conditions for student learning.
“A positive environment requires intention and planning. This maximizes student learning and is the best way to strengthen students’ mental health and staff wellness,” says Elias.
Education Week
