Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a collective term used to describe the way students acquire skills and use them to control their emotions, to develop care and concerns for others, make the right decisions, establish positive relationships, and tackle difficult situations.
In studies sponsored by the Singaporean Ministry of Education, it is found that SEL has vast impact in two main areas – character and citizenship.
The importance of Social Emotional Learning in classrooms in Singapore are a social set up whereby students who leave their need for direction in this areas immediately they enter a classroom. The relationship between students, their peers, teachers and others result in experiences that educate, intentionally or not, that have immense impact on their personal beliefs in relation to how the perceive the world and themselves. Being parties to this learning process is indeed an uphill task and great responsibility for any Singaporean student or parent.
If adhered to the latter Social emotional learning in Singapore can foster students social-emotional development through developing safe, caring learning environment involving peer and family initiatives, improved classroom management and teaching practices and a wide range of community based initiatives to improve on developing the community (Casel.org., 2011).
Besides their households, during the school time the Singapore classrooms are to experience social interactions. A positive atmosphere socially will second this, which also plays an important part in education. Emotional health is another important factor and is affected greatly by social health.
Applying Social emotional learning also comes with some challenges that stand between them and their success. Primarily grading is commonly used in classrooms as competition between students.
The challenges of applying the social emotional learning strategy in Singapore can be hindered by the fact that behavioral tendencies are self-perceived as opposed to the cognitive abilities, and thus belonging in personality realms. In contrast, the abilities which encompasses actual abilities, belongs primarily in the domain of cognitive abilities while trait is hypothesized to be orthogonal to cognitive ability (Jones, 2010).
There are two schools of thoughts that are mutually hostile, the ability versus trait, the two thoughts measure, write, and analyses in different ways. An average person talks of the intelligent quotient as a skill some of it being considered as intuition. Having evaluated the pros and cons involved in the application of SEL, it is evident that the adoption of the pro-social behavior in schools would improve the quality of education in Singapore and hence fast track short term educational goals of Singapore’s educational system.
There are other challenges to be considered as well in a bid to bring a clearer understanding of applying SEL in school. The main challenge is that the introduction of the SELs calls for an evaluation of the manner in which the learning process takes place (Casel.org, 2011). The teachers need to be well equipped to deliver as expected. This raise the questions of whether are all teachers “ ready for it” as not all teachers are trained or competence in SEL or rather SEL can influence teachers’ efficacy, job satisfaction, stress and burnt out which are significantly interrelated to student outcomes ( Colle, Shapka & Perry, 2012). For instance, teachers has many roles to play, they must be able to encourage positive behavior by helping student to build self control and responsibility using Gordon’s theory. Gordon suggests teacher must be able to identify and resolves a behavioral problem whether it is teacher-owned or student owned by using confrontation, overlapping or helping skills (Tan et , al, 2011). Also teacher must be able to create and maintain a positive, productive and effective learning environment as well as reducing power struggle with students while also applying SEL in their teaching method. This may cause some stress on teachers as (Colle & others, 2012) also said that teachers who value SEL higher may also experience higher stress to conduct it well. As SEL is conducted by teachers in our schools hence we should not neglect this aspect. Also the findings mentioned that teachers who are comfortable teaching SEL have higher social-emotional competence. Hence, they can provide a healthy classroom which is essential for effective learning and teaching experiences. Another constraint faced by our educator is the society culture that is academically driven thus shaping the national mindset of the majority of Singaporean that focus on grades and wealth (Tan et , al, 2011).
Having evaluated the pros and challenges involved in the application of SEL, it is evident that the implementation of the pro-social behavior in schools would improve the quality of education in Singapore and hence fast track short term education goals of Singaporean to meet the demand of the 21st century. Since this is a government funded programme and Singapore is slowly shifting to a more liberal society, more autonomy can be given to the school to encourage innovations. The instructors who teach SEL to students should be experienced with SEL and must be equipped with both knowledge and skills to teach.
References
Brown, J. et al (2010). Improving Classroom Quality: Teacher Influences and Experimental Impacts of the 4Rs Program. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 102(1), pp. 153-167.
Casel.org. (2011). Collaborative foe Academic, Social and Emotional Learning. Retrieved on 13th Aug. 2012 from http://casel.org/
Jones, S.M. et al. (2010). A School Randomized Clinical Trial of an Integrated Social Emotional Learning and Literacy Intervention: Impacts after 1 School Year. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 78(6), pp. 829-842.
Moe.gov.sg. (2011). Social Emotional Learning. Retrieved on 13th Aug. 2012 from http//www.moe.gov.sg/education/programmes/social-emotional-learning/
Brown, J. et al (2010). Improving Classroom Quality: Teacher Influences and Experimental Impacts of the 4Rs Program. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 102(1), pp. 153-167.
Casel.org. (2011). Collaborative foe Academic, Social and Emotional Learning. Retrieved on 13th Aug. 2012 from http://casel.org/
Jones, S.M. et al. (2010). A School Randomized Clinical Trial of an Integrated Social Emotional Learning and Literacy Intervention: Impacts after 1 School Year. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 78(6), pp. 829-842.
Linney, J.A. (n.d). The Importance of Schooling. (Attached).
Moe.gov.sg. (2011). Social Emotional Learning. Retrieved on 13th Aug. 2012 from http//www.moe.gov.sg/education/programmes/social-emotional-le
arning/
