Highlighting social-emotional learning in the content-based curriculum

Abstract

This study aimed to understand how a multi-tiered social-emotional curriculum could be implemented at the middle school level and its impact on student mental health, academic progress, and school culture at a public school in the Northeast. Many secondary schools quickly remediate academic skills rather than examining a student's social-emotional competence and how it may impact their learning. Unfortunately, the lack of social-emotional learning instruction results in an increase in special education referrals. This data was of interest to this institution, as in past years, there has been an increase in special education referrals stemming from a lack of academic progress due to social-emotional deficits.An initial research cycle identified a need for more knowledge about the current social-emotional learning curriculum offered within the school and who was responsible for delivering teaching toward the CASEL competencies. The subsequent actions steps included a curriculum audit for the CASELcompetencies within the English Language Arts curriculum, ELA curriculum reform, and faculty professional development centered on what social-emotional learning is, how to teach the CASEL competencies within the content curriculum, and the feasibility of implementing a multi-tiered system of support centered on social-emotional learning.This study revealed that there were significant gaps in understanding the impact of social-emotional learning, a lack of clarity about who was responsible for teaching these competencies and how to go about this instruction, and ultimately, a great interest in 6 implementing a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) centered on social-emotional learning to improve student well-being, academic performance, and school culture.Implications for this institution included further professional development, a whole school curriculum audit, and the implementation of an MTSS centered on RTI.