Upon talking with teachers about incorporating social emotional learning into afterschool sports, I was surprised to learn that some teachers did not know what social emotional learning was. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) involves people learning and applying the skills to understand and manage their emotions, to feel and show empathy for others, achieve goals, and maintain positive relationships. In the last few years, many school districts have prioritized social and emotional learning for their students, especially during COVID-19 where students display heightened mental health needs. Yet, the fact that SEL wasn’t a familiar concept to some teachers is troubling: if some teachers do not know what SEL is, how can they teach it to their students?

This phenomenon spans far beyond the teachers I conversed with: In one study, only 29% of teachers reported receiving ongoing training in social emotional learning and 20% of teachers say they never receive opportunities in their job to reflect upon and improve their own social emotional skills. Another study found that neither experienced nor first year teachers felt that they were adequately prepared to identify and manage students’ mental health needs. The lack of preparation creates lots of stress for teachers and leads to higher rates of burnout, higher teacher turnover, poor student engagement and, for students with additional learning needs, negative impacts on their long-term Individualized Education Plan (IEP) outcomes.

Given that, for the last two years, students have been learning remotely and have had limited interaction with their peers, all the while experiencing increased mental health needs as a consequence of COVID-19, it is more important now than ever that they receive satisfactory social and emotional learning in school. In order to effectively integrate social-emotional skills into classrooms, teachers need to receive ongoing training into incorporating social emotional learning into the classroom to support students’ needs and their own needs most effectively.

By Afrina Rohani, Graduate Assistant at the Center for Social Development and Education.