Teaching Young People Stress Management: The Benefits of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) - Essay Sample

Introduction

The present world that we live in can get described as a stressful one. The young people in the current generation are struggling to cope with new and predominant emotions that cannot afford to get ignored. Research has proven that when educators teach young people how to deal with stress, students are most likely to deeply learn while avoiding negative behavior, and thus they become successful at long last (Mahoney, Durlak & Weissberg, 2018). Social, emotional learning (SEL) has become a matter of learning, and it is essential for young people. The current paper discusses the perception of teachers on social and emotional learning of the learners.

Individuals that possess strong emotional and social skills have a better ability to cope with challenges that affect them in everyday of their lives. Additionally, the coping help benefits them in their academic, social, and professional lives (Mahoney, Durlak & Weissberg, 2018). SEL provides skills for effectively solving problems, management of emotions, control of impulse, and self-discipline. SEL gives a strong foundation on effects that are long-term and positive on children, adults, and society in general.

Therefore, SEL can get defined as the process whereby kids and adults comprehend and manage their emotions. In the process, the individuals can set positive goals and achieving them, together with feeling and showing empathy to other people. Additionally, individuals also have the capability of creating and maintaining positive relationships while also making correct and reliable decisions.

Teachers and educators are essential socializers, and they equip their keeners with experiences that can help them in promoting their social and emotional competences. Also, the experiences can help the learners overcome behavioral and emotional difficulties. The lessons can vary concerning the perceptions of the teachers on their emotional intelligence and the beliefs that they have about the implementation of SEL (Mahoney, Durlak & Weissberg, 2018). However, the perceptions of the teachers on SEL and EL cannot be comprehended fully without considering their cultural beliefs.

Generally, SEL gets broken down into five parts (Weissberg, Durlak, Domitrovich & Gullotta, 2015). The five sections include self-awareness, self-management, relationship skills, responsible decision making, and social awareness. Self-awareness refers to the ability to recognize and comprehend the emotions that one possesses and also knowing how they change into their behaviors. It includes one's ability to understand negative emotions and stress, having the awareness about the abilities and weaknesses that one possesses, and also having a sense of self-optima.

Self-management includes the ability of an individual to regulate their behaviors and feelings. Self-management includes having control over anger, how to handle stress, having self-motivation and also having the ability to persist through problems and setbacks. Social awareness consists of the ability to empathize with other people, and the willingness to comprehend and respect other people in terms of their unique behavior, experiences, and formalities (Weissberg et al., 2015). Relationship skills involve the creation and maintenance of healthy relationships. This can get done through listening actively, cooperating, resolving conflicts, and also through communication. Responsible-decision making is the final aspect of SEL, and it includes the ability of an individual to make decisions that are safe and healthy and also having good morals that promote the wellbeing of themselves and others around them.

Theoretical Framework

Benefits of Implementing SEL Programs and Practices

Social and emotional learning is not just an effective slogan in the education system. Instead, it is a practical approach that incorporates crucial life skills into the curriculum that schools use to educate students (Eklund, Kilpatrick, Kilgus &Haider, 2018). The life skills enable learners to have the ability to reach their potentials. There exist a variety of benefits that come along with the teaching of social and emotional skills to students, just like what many teachers are currently doing. The benefits of the implementation of the SEL practices and programs include the following.

Improvement of the overall climate of schools and classes. For children to do their best, they have to feel some aspects of safety, support, and respect. The incorporation of SEL by learners into classwork enables students to explore the above elements, and thus creating a positive learning environment for the students.

Increased motivation. Students opt to perform better when they have excellent feelings concerning themselves, the educators, and also the school in general. The integration of social and emotional skills in learning helps by encouraging students to feel acceptance, become themselves, work towards achieving their dreams and goals, have the will to take risks, and also love the process of learning (Eklund et al. 2018). Increased motivation always gets considered a good aspect in improving the overall performance.

Teaches skills that help in problem-solving. Students need proper skills to solve problems in all life aspects. Concerning this, social and emotional learning is beneficial in that it has more focus on the management of everyday challenges and situations (Eklund et al. 2018). For instance, students can learn how to behave when they get themselves in trouble, such as fights and also solving school problems such as mathematics problems. Other dilemmas that students can solve through social and emotional learning include instances such as when students are forced to do something that they do not like and so many others. In short, social and emotional learning can help give answers to most of the dilemmas that affect children during school and also after school.

Encourages compassion. Compassion gets considered one of the essential social skills that set the foundation for children. However, the ability is most of the time overlooked. It is of the essence for children and young people to get taught how to care about other people's feelings. Once the students can do this, they get effective in relationships maintenance with friends and illustrating kindness and support to other individuals.

Teaches collaboration and teamwork. For students to be successful currently and in the future, they need to learn about working well with others. Social and emotional skills enable students to collaboratively work with their partners and other small groups that they may form (Weissberg & O'Brien, 2014). This includes giving them knowledge on how to work with other individuals that they do not consider as friends, solving problems using disagreements, becoming a [layer in a team, and more aspects. The above skills are also essential for the students' success in classrooms.

Improvement of overall academic performance. Sometimes, some teachers tend to think that the skills provided by SEL are separate entities from academics. However, the truth is that the thoughts are a lie. A variety of social and emotional skills helps and encourages most of the learners to have better academic performance (Weissberg & O'Brien, 2004). Some of the capabilities include setting goals, management of time, solving problems, making a plan, and also working with groups.

Characteristics of Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness includes the understanding and the gain of insight by individuals, on aspects that they consist of. Such elements may include qualities, strengths, defects, abilities, emotions, and many more. Additionally, self-awareness also consists of the knowledge of individuals to incorporate the above aspects in their behaviors (O'Conner, Feyter, Carr, Luo &Romm, 2017). Through social and emotional learning for students by teachers, learners can get the above aspects. A useful SEL should, therefore, include the characteristic of self-awareness, whereby individuals have the ability to rediscover themselves.

Self-Management

The aspect of self-management describes the ability of one having control over themselves. The command can include the regulation of thoughts, behaviors, and even one's emotions. The strength of one to manage their stress levels, impulses, and also the ability to motivate oneself are other aspects that are included in self-management (O'Conner et al., 2017). An effective SEL, therefore, should pose the issue of self-management, because the aspect helps students in their academic life and their life after academics. For instance, self-management allows students and those who have gone through the SEL process to set, work towards, and also achieve their dreams and goals, whether academic or personal.

Social Awareness

Social awareness includes the ability of individuals to take other people's perspectives, and reason with other people from diverse cultures and backgrounds (Raimundo, MarquesPinto & Lima, 2015). Additionally, social awareness helps individuals recognize the resources and support from the school, family, and even society. Social awareness is an essential component for students, for it helps in the improvement of their behaviors in the classroom, which leads to a conducive learning environment. Also, social awareness is vital for the success of individuals in the workforce. Therefore, social awareness is an essential characteristic of ESL.

Relationship Skills

Relationship skills are another characteristic of SEL. It refers to the ability of individuals to form and maintain their relationships. The relationships formed should be rewarding and those that involve good morals. This is inclusive of proper listening and speaking skills, the resistance to social pressure that is termed as inappropriate, negotiating through conflicts, and also the ability to offer for help when needed (Raimundo, MarquesPinto & Lima, 2015). Relationship skills are essential for individuals in their existence. The reason for this is that people cannot live on their own as they need partners and friends for everyday activities.

Informed Decision Making

SEL helps enhance the capacity of students to come up with appropriate and informed decisions about their choices in life. The options can either be in their personal lives or their social interactions with other people (Raimundo, MarquesPinto & Lima, 2015). Through informed decision making, students can access the consequences of their actions. Therefore, they can make a correct decision on whether to do what they were about to or to stop.

Related Literature

Freestanding SEL Standards

Recently, recommendations got made for establishing and adopting the SEL standards at the lower levels of the state and district. The SEL standard aims at outlining further skills that student is expected to learn and comprehend. The guideline of standard and implementation provides a strategy that has set guidelines and expectations about the content that learners should learn about (Dusenbury, Zadrazil Mart & Weissberg, 2017). Therefore, in short, the guideline sets the standards for how teachers should teach and assess students at school.

Additionally, the standards get referred to as naturally longitudinal. This means that they set given expectations of the way students should perform across and within given levels. SEL standards are set to guide emotional and social learning in schools (Dusenbury et al. 2017). Policies at the state level and the federal level are essential because they promote the delivery of SEL services, together with educating on accountability to ensure competence in terms of social and emotions amongst learner...