Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning - The "Why" Behind Implementing an SEL or Emotional Intelligence Program for Schools and the Workplace

The "Why" Behind Implementing an SEL or Emotional Intelligence Program for Schools and the Workplace

06/21/19 • 19 min

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Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning

Welcome to our FIRST “Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast” this is Andrea Samadi. In this episode, we will be talking about the WHY behind setting up a social and emotional learning program in your school or district, or emotional intelligence training in the workplace.

Today I have with me Majid Samadi, Corporate Sales Leader for the past 22 years, and my husband, and we will be talking about “The Why Behind Social and Emotional Learning or Emotional Intelligence Training for Schools and Workplaces” and offering his thoughts with his experience in mind.

Andrea to Majid: As someone who works in the corporate world, why do you think teaching SEL in our classrooms is so important to develop our future generations? What skills do you think are missing?

Majid to Andrea: What about you? Since you were a teacher in the classroom, why do you think SEL programs are so important in today’s classrooms? Why now? Hasn’t SEL always been important for preparing young people for the workplace?

Sure, these skills have always been important, but the research wasn’t there 20 years ago.

When I first started my career in education, in the late 90s, as a classroom teacher, I felt overwhelmed and frustrated by the lack of resources to help me to manage and teach my students (my first teaching assignment was a behavioral class) and I had to be creative to hold their attention, let alone teach what was required. I discovered social and emotional learning skills by chance through a motivational speaker.

After seeing students working with skills that developed their attitude, mindset, confidence and goal-setting abilities, (you know, what we used to call soft skills) and it skyrocketed their results, (I saw kids who were able to go from C grades to A grades, from being a bench warmer to the starting line-up and improving their personal lives) I knew we were onto something. It actually hit me like a brick since I was really struggling to make an impact on the students in my classroom, and then here were these 12 teens talking about their results after only a few months of working with lessons that mirrored growth mindset, and self-awareness...and I knew I was meant to be doing this work back then. It’s been a 20-year journey and I am excited to share the resources and ideas with everyone here on the podcast.

I know it won’t shock educators to know the statistics that support the need for students and SEL but did you know that:

1⁄4 students struggle with anxiety

1/5 struggle with depression

Research now shows us that students with strong SEL health “demonstrate self-control, communicate well, problem solve, are empathetic, respectful, grateful, gritty and optimistic.”[i] We also know that neuroscience has advanced our understanding of these SEL skills.

Here’s more research of what we know now:

“Success in life, and in college and career specifically, relies on student’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. (Integrating Social, Emotional and Academic Development: An Action Guide for School Leadership Teams) page 4

“Research shows that teaching these skills result in immediate and long-term improvement in academic achievements and are a better predictor of success than academic ability alone.” (Perspectives of Youth on High School and SEL Webinar, Dec. 11/18).

(Research of over 200 studies show that students who studies SEL have an 11% gain in academic achievement). School climate, autonomy, educator health improves.

We also know that there is a connection between educator cortisol increase and student cortisol increase. We know that teachers who demonstrate Social and Emotional Learning competencies are more likely to stay in the classroom longer because they are able to work more effectively with challenging students- one of the main causes of burn out. That’s why this topic is of such interest to so many people these days.

“School leader support is the biggest predictor of whether change takes hold and is beneficial” (SEL and Principal Leadership) April 2, 2019 Edweek Webinar. (which is why we knew it was important to launch this podcast with ideas, resources and tools).

Adult SEL must be addressed and trained so teachers can use these skills with their students as they are teaching.

Only a well-regulated adult can help regulate a student. Teaching is a high stress job, tied for nursing. There must be a plan in place for educator well-being.

Since the research is here and proving what we have known for decades, the time is now to implement these programs into the classroom.

We know from the feedback from the Edweek 2019 Social and Emotional Learning in Schools Summit that educators are “interested in social and emotional learning but aren’t always sure where to start” [ii] and they are looking for “clear starting points in developing their ...

Andrea to Majid: As someone who works in the corporate world, why do you think teaching SEL in our classrooms is so important to develop our future generations? What skills do you think are missing?

Sure, these skills have always been important, but the research wasn’t there 20 years ago.

I know it won’t shock educators to know the statistics that support the need for students and SEL but did you know that:

1⁄4 students struggle with anxiety

1/5 struggle with depression

Here’s more research of what we know now:

(Research of over 200 studies show that students who studies SEL have an 11% gain in academic achievement). School climate, autonomy, educator health improves.

Adult SEL must be addressed and trained so teachers can use these skills with their students as they are teaching.

Only a well-regulated adult can help regulate a student. Teaching is a high stress job, tied for nursing. There must be a plan in place for educator well-being.

Since the research is here and proving what we have known for decades, the time is now to implement these programs into the classroom.

Next Episode

Self-Awareness: Know Thyself

In this episode, we will introduce the first of six social and emotional learning competencies (self-awareness) that we will be diving deep into over the next six weeks. With each competency, we’ll investigate the best practices and strategies that educators/and the workplace can use for themselves to develop and improve their own SEL/Emotional Intelligence and well-being practices, before extending these strategies to their districts, schools, classrooms, workplaces and communities. We’ll offer ideas, tools and resources (in the show notes section) so that anyone can apply these skills themselves, and then teach others for improved results, focus and productivity.

With the buzz of the importance and need of social and emotional learning in our schools (and emotional intelligence training in our workplaces), we all know that developing a child’s SEL skills is just as important as their academic content to ensure student motivation and success throughout their school years as well as in their future careers. We do know that students with strong SEL health “demonstrate self-control, communicate well, problem solve, are empathetic, respectful, grateful, gritty and optimistic.”[i] All of the skills our workforce is actively looking for.

We also know that neuroscience has advanced our understanding of these SEL skills. We know that there is a clear connection between educator cortisol increase and student cortisol increase, (meaning that when teachers are stressed, the students will in turn be stressed) and that teachers who demonstrate social and emotional learning competencies (like self-awareness, social awareness, self-regulation, decision-making, relationship building) are more likely to stay in the classroom longer because they are able to work more effectively with challenging students—one of the main reasons for educator burn out. This is something I remember well—since this was one of the reasons I left the classroom over 20 years ago. I wish I knew the research and had some of the tools that I know now, and the importance of working on myself, before considering an impact on others. I hope these ideas, can help offer solutions to deepen the student/teacher relationship as well as connect teachers back to their profession, providing them with that feeling of autonomy, and peace that we all are looking for in our workplace.

In the corporate world, these skills aren’t new, but they are “newly important” and of high urgency to develop in our future generations. A recent survey showed that 58 percent of employers say college graduates aren’t adequately prepared for today’s workforce, and those employers noted a particular gap in social and emotional skills. Our goal with this podcast is to close this gap by exploring six social and emotional learning competencies as a springboard for discussion and tie in how an understanding of our brain can facilitate these strategies. We want the ideas you take away with you to be actionable whether you are an educator working in a school, an employee of manager in a corporation, or someone just looking to take their skills to the next level. We have done all of the research for you and look forward to hearing about the results that you create.

Self-Awareness

Today we will begin with Self-Awareness to kick off our first SEL competency since to “know thyself” is the most substantial achievement we can have in our lifetime.

“The major value in life is not what you get. It’s what you become.” (Jim Rohn, American author, speaker and entrepreneur).

So let’s take a deeper look. What is self-awareness, why do we need it, and how can we get more of it?

Self-awareness is “the ability to see ourselves clearly, understand who we are, how others see us and how we fit into the world.”[ii] When we have self-awareness, we have a power within ourselves because there is a comfort in knowing who exactly who we are and where we fit into the larger world around us. Research shows that “people who are more self-aware have stronger relationships, are more creative, competent are better communicators and perform better at work.”[iii]

Here’s 6 Steps to Becoming More Self Aware

Know Thyself and Then Build Yourself Up With Self-Esteem and Courage: Have you taken the time to think about who you are? Do you know where you fit into your school, workplace, community, state, country and world? Do you know what your purpose is? Your Why? You are more than just an educator or employee in a corporation, but have you thought about, who exactly you are? If you work in the corporate world, I’m sure you can see that you are more than the day to day job that you are doing. Take some time to think about who you are. Let’s say that you were looking for a new job but lacked some of the skills listed in the job description. You know that you can learn these new skills, but ...