More great information from Edutopia: How SEL helps students deal with conflict and problems better, how SEL helps with the management of emotions, allowing students to learn better, and why SEL should be valued as part of the curriculum, just as much as literacy and numeracy.
Various terms have been used when referring to, and interchangeably with, social-emotional learning- emotional intelligence, emotional quotient, social intelligence, social-emotional competence, and social-emotional intelligence (Coryn, Spybrook, Evergreen, & Blinkiewicz, 2009). Essentially, they all refer to the same concept: the development of a skill set involving relationship building, emotions, self-awareness, self-management, and awareness of others’ feelings and being, are critical in terms of optimal development of the whole child. We are no longer focused solely on the development of academic intelligence, but of the whole child, making social-emotional learning a critical facet of educating our children.
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory states that people are gifted with a set of intelligences, comprised of differing types and levels of intelligence (Katz, 2012). He points to eight different intelligences, including intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences as part of this set. Intrapersonal intelligence refers to self-awareness, being able to understand and be objective about oneself, possessing metacognitive skills, having the capability to understand one’s relationship to others, one’s need for change, and one’s response to change (Katz, 2012). Interpersonal intelligence refers to how we perceive the feelings of others, our ability to relate and respond to others, how we interpret behaviours and communication, and the capability to understand how people and their circumstances are related (Katz, 2012). Intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences are our social-emotional intelligences, and just as critical as the other intelligences identified by Gardner- linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial-visual, and naturalistic. Thus, as educators we must address these social-emotional intelligences with as much purposefulness and commitment as we do the others; social-emotional learning is a critical part of a child's development and education.
References
Coryn, C., Spybrook, J., Evergreen, S., & Blinkiewicz, M. (2009). Development and Evaluation of the Social-Emotional Learning Scale. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 27(4), 283-295. Katz, J. (2012). Teaching to Diversity. Winnipeg: Portage and Main Press. |
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