Classroom & Playground Practices: Integrating Social & Emotional Learning as Part of the Curriculum

The model of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is offering students’ opportunities to acquire self-knowledge, to honor themselves as individuals with unique perspectives, extend this knowledge to understanding others.  Many of the concepts of SEL are based on the works Daniel Goleman about emotional intelligence.  We all have our own thoughts and ideas and with this arises both collaboration and conflict.  When students are self-aware, both in mind and body, they can better appreciate the perspectives of others.  Interaction with others leads to communication and sets the stage for either conflict or collaboration. 

Collaboration and communication are skills that must be applied repeatedly for anyone to become proficient.  In preschool when two children want to ride the same tricycle it can be very tempting for adults to “help” solve the problem.  Thought this may be a fast solution and solves the problem in the moment, it doesn’t offer the children any tools to help themselves the next time they encounter this situation.  When a teacher or other adult facilitates a resolution by checking in with everyone’s feelings, hearing everyone’s perspective, reflecting on how they handled the conflict and discussing what they could do next time to resolve it they are really teaching autonomy.  In this scenario the adult constantly fosters the sense of a safe learning environment and the adult is modeling skills and tools that can then be applied to a broad range of experiences.

When children learn in an environment where they are expected to work in teams or in small groups they must collaborate throughout the process continually.  By working in teams to create a three-dimensional penguin children must contribute skills and ideas together to create a shared vision.  Communicating during a class meeting or participating in group circle time offers the opportunity for showing mutual respect by taking turns and sharing with their peers.

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