This is PART 4 in a series on student well-being. Throughout this series, I will explore what recent research has revealed about ways to create an environment in which all students can thrive.
For this series, I will be diving into my file of half-written articles and dust-covered books to learn more about topics like mastery learning, youth mental health, culturally responsive teaching and learning, culturally proficient SEL, the use of praise, the psychology of learning, equity in grading, and universal design of learning.
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -Maya Angelou
In my last post, I took a closer look at what Culturally Responsive Teaching & Learning is (and isn't!) within the context of the "Ready for Rigor" framework. The "Ready for Rigor" framework was designed to create the social, emotional, and cognitive conditions necessary for students to actively engage with and take ownership of their learning. It embodies four areas of focus including awareness, learning partnerships, information processing capacity, and communities of learners. If you missed my last post, you can catch up here.
In this post, I will explore the intersection of culturally responsive teaching and social-emotional learning through the lens of the CASEL framework. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which all young people and adults (1) acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, (2) manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, (3) feel and show empathy for others, (4) establish and maintain supportive relationships, and (5) make responsible and caring decisions (CASEL, n.d.).
SEL curriculum focuses on the development of the 5 key student competencies:
1. Building self-awareness: Understanding how one's emotions, thoughts, values and experiences can influence behavior.
2. Self-management: Ability to regulate one's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
3. Social awareness: Ability to take on the perspective of others.
4. Relationship skills: Ability to connect with others and grow positive conflict-resolution skills.
5. Responsible decision-making: Making positive choices and accepting the outcome of choices.
There is a robust body of research regarding the effectiveness of culturally responsive teaching & learning and social-emotional learning frameworks. Culturally responsive teaching and learning has been shown to increase student achievement and engagement, develop critical thinking skills, and promote a sense of belonging. SEL has been shown to improve student behavior, reduce levels of depression and anxiety, improve in academic performance and increase overall well-being. These frameworks are mutually reinforcing. Building cultural competency helps to create the learning environment necessary for all learning to take place. It can also help create partnerships between the schools, families, and the larger community.
When implementing a SEL plan, it is important to strengthen the faculty's SEL and cultural competencies before rolling it out school-wide. Research shows that adults who can recognize, understand, label, express, and regulate their own emotions are
- Less likely to report burnout
- Experience higher levels of relational trust with peers, patience and empathy
- Create safe learning environments
- Teach and model competencies for students
- Build stronger relationships with students
- Have fewer discipline problems (drc.casel.org)
One of the leading reasons for teachers leaving the profession is burnout. This can be addressed and mediated using these frameworks. We must support both our faculty and students.
Tools for Building Culturally Proficient SEL
Cultural competence is "the ability to examine the various social and cultural identities of oneself and others, understand and appreciate diversity from a historically grounded and strengths-focused lens, recognize and respond to cultural demands and opportunities , and build relationships across cultural backgrounds" (Strengthen, 2020). It leads to higher levels of social awareness, the ability to take the perspective of those with different backgrounds and cultures, and the building of relationships with diverse groups of people within the workplace, and community. Reflecting on past, current, and future practices is essential to developing a culturally profient classroom that meets the social-emotional needs of students.
The Mindful Reflection Tool: The Mindfulness Reflection tool is based on the work of Barbara Dray and Debora Wisenski. It is a reflection tool that is designed to help teachers unpack their interactions with their students. There are six steps to this reflection process, the teacher:
- Describes the interaction with the student
- Reflects on his or her interpretation of the student's behavior
- Consider alternative explanations for the behaviors
- Shares his or her reflections with a colleague
- Identifies a small change that he or she can make to reframe the situation
- Revisits the process to reassess attributions and student behavior.
Important Note: Before beginning the process, the teacher must be ready to reflect on their own attributions and be willing to be vulnerable in examining their own beliefs, behaviors and attributions.
Attribution is the process by which we infer the causes of events or behaviors. Our attributions shape the way that we view our world and how we interact with it. We can either interpret a behavior as part of a person's disposition (who they are) or situational (environment) factors. Oftentimes, we attribute the negative behaviors of others to their disposition. We fail to recognize how their behavior was shaped by the environment. For example, if someone cuts me off in traffic I have A LOT to say about who they are as a person but when I accidentially cut someone off I rationalize my own behavior as a result of the circumstances. For example, I might think that I am not a bad driver, the other car was just in my blindspot. I teach this concept, the fundamental attribution error, to my own students! Here's a fun video that I use to help my students apply the concept: Snack Attack. This concept can be directly applied to the classroom. To what do we attribute the behavior of our students? To what do we attribute our own behavior? How does this shape our classroom expectations and the way that we respond to conflict?
The Greater Good Science Center has an excellent write up of The Mindful Reflection Process for developing culturally responsive practices. You can access it here.
SEL and Culturally Responsive Teaching Reflection
The following tool was designed by the Massachusetts Department of Education to crosswalk the five SEL competencies alongside the continuum of culturally responsive teaching in regards to learning environment, instructional materials, and instructional practice. This tool helps teachers map out how they are currently supporting these competencies in their classrooms and identify potential areas of growth.
SEL and Culturally Responsive Teaching Reflection
There are numerous opportunities to embed cultural responsive SEL into the high school curriculum. Choosing materials that are reflective of diverse experiences can help build both self and social awareness. Helping students develop goal setting, coping, self-advocacy and social awareness skills.Co-creating behavioral expectations and taking an assets-based approach can help build stronger relationships and guide responsible decision making. Oftentimes, these are things that teachers are already doing! As we saw in the last post, it's just good teaching. However, by being explicit about the skills that we are building we can empower our students to become healthier, happier, and successful members of society.
Be Well,
Cori
I have a new website! Check out https://ablendedlearningjourney.com/ for additional resources!
Other Posts in this Series:
Resources:
5 ways culturally responsive teaching benefits learners. New America. (2019, September 23). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/5-ways-culturally-responsive-teaching-benefits-learners/
Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Schools and Classrooms. Culturally responsive and sustaining schools and classrooms. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.doe.mass.edu/odl/e-learning/culturally-resp-sust/content/index.html#/lessons/AiTU1tnJ3CuQO6t1IGdXo60vEWEUrQtp
DOE Mass. (n.d.). Culturally Responsive Social-Emotional Competency Development. Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Schools and Classrooms. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://doe.mass.edu/sfs/sel/ela/
Dray, B. J., & Wisneski, D. B. (2011). Mindful reflection as a process for developing culturally responsive practices. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 44(1), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/004005991104400104
Ready4Rigor. (n.d.). The mindful reflection protocol. The Mindful Reflection Protocol. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://crtandthebrain.com/wp-content/uploads/Protocol-for-Checking-Unconscious-Bias.pdf
Strengthen adult social, emotional and cultural competence. CASEL District Resource Guide. (2020, October 22). Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://drc.casel.org/strengthen-adult-sel-competencies-and-capacity/strengthening-adult-sel-and-cultural-competence/
What is the Casel Framework? CASEL. (2021, October 11). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-is-the-casel-framework/
What is social and emotional learning? What is SEL? - Casel Schoolguide. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://schoolguide.casel.org/what-is-sel/what-is-sel/)
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment