Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
Our goal is to build life-long learners, empower students to go after their dreams, and to ultimately prepare students to have a successful future. This cannot be done if we don’t teach and address students’ SEL skills, which ultimately translates into their interpersonal and employability skills. Through explicit teaching of the Second Step curriculum, as well as the implementation and modeling of intentional practices, teachers will guide students in building these skills.
According to the American Institute of Research (AIR), “The research is clear—employers are looking for employees who possess a broad set of skills that go beyond content knowledge.”
As these two frameworks illustrate, there is a great deal of connection between social and emotional competencies and employability skills. For example:
