Academic preparation at KCD has always been extremely important, but it’s only one aspect of our commitment to teaching the whole child. Our students are not only gaining a strong academic foundation, but they are also learning skills that will help them be happy, successful adults: managing their emotions, resolving conflicts, and making responsible decisions. Over the last several years, educators, including those at KCD, have started using the term social and emotional learning (SEL) to talk more systematically about this important aspect of teaching and learning.
SEL is based on the recognition that everyone experiences a wide range of emotions throughout the day. Some of these emotions are helpful; others aren’t. SEL can help students learn to use emotions to enhance their learning. It can also help them recognize when emotions are posing a barrier to learning and provide them with strategies to get around that barrier.
At KCD, SEL is based on the RULER program developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. RULER provides an evidence-based set of skills and strategies that teach students to Recognize, Understand, Label, Express, and Regulate their emotions. RULER allows us to approach SEL in a thoughtful, systematic way.
To understand why SEL is so important for students, we reached out to KCD grad Allison Aboud Holzer ’96. Allison co-created and directed the coaching program at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and RULER before founding her own company, InspireCorps, with two colleagues in 2013. InspireCorps works with companies to build and sustain the emotion and practice of inspiration as a resource. Together, they have a book coming out in late 2019: Dare to Inspire: Sustain the Fire of Inspiration in Work and Life (DaCapo Press). She has been a wonderful resource for KCD, advising us on the implementation of the RULER program and providing professional development for our teachers as well as an education program for parents.
According to Allison, SEL can play an important role in helping students manage anxiety and conflict. “Students today say that they experience a lot of stress and anxiety, and some of that is natural. A small level of anxiety can actually be a good thing. It can help you focus and perform with greater focus, but if it becomes too much it can become debilitating. So how do you build awareness of your own emotions and how they are impacting you? Am I getting close to the point where my anxiety is getting in the way and preventing me from really performing at my best? If I am, is there something I can do about it?
“Then there is this whole other level of learning to care about each other and and really trying to understand what’s going on in each other’s lives. Emotional intelligence doesn’t make difficult emotions go away, because that’s just part of life. Emotional intelligence allows students to have the empathy and self-awareness to ask, ‘Why did this conflict happen? What can I understand about myself and the other person so that we can stay engaged and have a conversation?’” [Note: The educational field uses the term social and emotional learning while emotional intelligence is more commonly used in business or when referring to adults.]
To demonstrate how this works, Allison shared an example from a teacher who is one of her clients. “This teacher reported that two students strongly disliked each other and were constantly at odds throughout the school year. One day they were using the Mood Meter and talking about how they felt, and the two students realized that they shared similar feelings. There was a moment of connection. They saw each other differently and then hugged. It brought these two students together.”
Allison also points to a growing body of research showing the benefits of SEL. “One study [1] showed that students rated with higher social and emotional competencies tended to have better outcomes later in life, including health, academic achievement, and employment. This study is careful not to claim a causal relationship between social and emotional competencies and these outcomes—rather, they tend to predict these outcomes even more than cognitive and other measures.
“A large meta-analysis in 2011 [2] showed that schools consistently and systemically using social and emotional learning have increases in their students’ academic success, such as grades and standardized tests; decreases in disruptive behaviors; and better relationships between children and adults.”
Allison also believes that employers are increasingly realizing that employees with strong social and emotional skills are happier, more productive, and make better team members and leaders. “If you look at the magazines that are talking about the cutting edge trends in business, emotional intelligence comes up way more than it ever has before. It’s clearly a trend, and [employers] want their employees to have those skills. So I would say that [SEL is] aligning students with skills that are really trending as essential in today’s workforce.”
“Emotional intelligence training helps students find ways to stay engaged with others even when it’s difficult. That’s a really essential skill. In my company, we work mostly with companies and corporations, and I can tell you that adults struggle with the same thing. By doing this training early with students, you’re equipping them with self-awareness and emotion management skills that they can use to be more effective as adults so they don’t have to be in a position where they are struggling with this later in life.”
It’s been wonderful to welcome Allison back to KCD, and she said that she has enjoyed working with the KCD community and reconnecting with her school. “I talk about KCD all the time,” she said. “I even have it in my professional bio because I do think it has been a very important part in shaping who I am today. It was great to have the opportunity at KCD push myself and try to be successful and learn and grow in a lot of different areas. [KCD] was such a unique and supportive community for me. I always felt supported. If you wanted to try something or learn something, [the school was] going to give you the support, attention, and resources to help you be as successful as you want to be. It was student-driven in that way. Whatever your goals were, KCD would meet you there and help you succeed.”
[1] Jones, D. E., Greenberg, M., & Crowley, M. (2015). Early social-emotional functioning and public health: The relationship between kindergarten social competence and future wellness. American journal of public health, 105(11), 2283–2290.
[2] Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child development, 82(1), 405–432.