Social and emotional learning

Social and emotional learning refers to the processes through which people acquire and use knowledge, attitudes and skills for managing emotions, pursuing goals, understanding others, maintaining relationships and making responsible decisions. In education, the term covers both instruction in these capacities and the conditions that give learners opportunities to practise them. It is not one standard curriculum: definitions, lesson plans and assessment methods differ among programmes and organizations. SEL is also distinct from clinical mental-health treatment, although schools may coordinate learning supports with other services.

One widely used framework is CASEL’s five areas of competence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. The OECD’s Survey on Social and Emotional Skills groups the skills it measures differently, including task performance, emotional regulation, engaging with others, open-mindedness and collaboration. These are examples of frameworks, not a single universally agreed list. Their use in schools depends on learners’ developmental stages and cultural and community contexts; no brief checklist captures every aspect of social life or emotional development.

Schools may provide explicit lessons in skills such as recognizing emotions or resolving disagreements. They can also reinforce learning through cooperative projects, discussion, routines for reflection, and classroom practices that give students chances to listen, collaborate and make choices. Some approaches extend beyond individual lessons to school climate, family partnerships and community programmes. Because SEL programmes vary, implementation may involve adapting activities to age, language, local priorities and available support while preserving the programme’s intended learning goals.

Reviews of universal school-based SEL interventions have found positive average outcomes, including gains in social and emotional skills, attitudes, behaviour and academic achievement. A 2011 meta-analysis synthesized 213 programmes involving 270,034 students; a later review covered 424 studies from 53 countries and 252 interventions involving 575,361 students. The later review also reported substantial variation in programme content, features, context and implementation quality. These findings support the potential of well-designed SEL, but averages across studies do not guarantee that every programme will work equally well in every school.

Researchers assess SEL in different ways, including students’ reported skills, observed behaviour, school climate and academic or well-being measures. The OECD’s international survey reports associations between measured social and emotional skills and outcomes such as academic success and life satisfaction; such associations are not, on their own, proof that a particular skill or school programme caused an outcome. Survey results also show that reported skills vary across demographic groups. Evaluation therefore needs to consider who is represented, how measures work across settings, and whether implementation fits local needs rather than treating one framework or score as a complete measure of a learner.