Understanding SEL at home and in the classroom
Just as with science, mathematics, and reading, social-emotional learning happens in both the home and the classroom - and is strengthened by a strong two-way partnership between families and schools. Research suggests that this partnership is crucial to student achievement and wellbeing.
Skillsets (whether social, emotional, or academic) are enhanced when they are mutually supported and reinforced at home and at school. For example, social-emotional skills develop every time a child interacts with parents, peers, teachers, and others. Enhancing parents’ and teachers’ social and emotional knowledge, skills, and dispositions empowers them to effectively model and apply the skills children need to learn. Moreover, when parents and teachers use similar strategies to foster SEL, it eases the transition between home and school and creates consistency and continuity in expectations for behavior, which enhances not only children’s developing skill sets, but also the relationships between children and their parents, teachers, siblings, and peer (Albright & Weissberg, 2010)
Knowing the value of the school-home connection, this page is intended to provide an overview of SEL key terms and resources so all parents and caregivers feel empowered to have conversations with their students' teachers and other caregivers about social and emotional learning and its impact on student success.
Key Terms
Social and Emotional Learning - The process through which all people acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
Competencies - Unlike standards that are established criteria that students should know and be able to do, competencies describe how students apply and transfer their learning to new contexts and situations.
SEL Competencies - These competencies describe what social and emotional learning looks like in practice. Arizona adopted CASEL's five broad and interrelated competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
Arizona SEL Competencies
The Arizona Social Emotional Learning Competencies use CASEL's five core competencies which describe what social and emotional learning looks like in practice. By using the integrated framework, the five core competencies can be taught in many ways across many settings.
Visit our SEL Competencies page to learn more about the five core competencies and integrated framework.
Arizona SEL Competencies and Framework
Resources
