This blog series continues the important conversation the article jumpstarted around promising ways to help students build social and emotional learning skills, as well as academic mindsets and behaviors.
- Jill Vialet, Founder and CEO, Playworks
Untapped opportunities to develop non-cognitive skills hide in plain sight at schools: through play and recess. Recess and play have long represented a challenge for teachers during the school day. But we can transform these challenges into opportunities if we think about play as a tool for helping kids succeed. - Lija Farnham, Manager, and Mike Perigo, Partner, The Bridgespan Group
Many programs focused on social and emotional learning, character development, and academic mindsets are taught as add-ons or separate modules. But to really achieve the magnitude of results we aspire to with these efforts, say Lija Farnham and Mike Perigo, effective learning practices need to be integrated into teachers’ interactions with students throughout the school day. - Jeff and Tricia Raikes, Cofounders, The Raikes Foundation
The more people who understand that building social and emotional learning skills, character development, and academic mindsets can help students succeed in school and life, the better, say Jeff and Tricia Raikes in their response to “Rethinking How Students Succeed” on SSIR.org. In their response they encourage philanthropists and stakeholders to support efforts to help teachers master how to develop learning mindsets in their students. - Ellen Moir, Founder and CEO, The New Teacher Center
Research shows that beginning teachers often lack the perspective and experience to spot opportunities to foster rigorous academic instruction using social and emotional learning (SEL). Ellen Moir outlines these missed chances and shares stories of how teachers have learned to apply SEL. - Bridget Laird, CEO, WINGS
As we discover more about what students need to learn in terms of social and emotional learning skills as well as academic mindsets and behaviors, the questions of how to do this become more urgent. After-school programs can help provide the answers. - Brittany Butler, Executive Director, Character Lab
To push the conversation on social and emotional learning, and character development further, Brittany Butler suggests talking about what the movement isn’t, and not just about what it is. - Roger Weissberg, Chief Knowledge Officer, CASEL
We’re at a unique and exciting point in the fields of social and emotional learning and academic mindsets, poised for breakthroughs that could reshape how we think about preparing students for success in school, career, and life. And the collaboration of diverse but kindred groups will play an important role in helping these fields advance. - Camille Farrington, Senior Research Associate, CCSR
How can teachers help their students develop a positive mindset in the classroom when so many students who have come before them have been poster children for failure? How can students come to believe that a long history of academic struggle in their school does not predict their destiny? The first step is to ensure that teachers themselves believe they can succeed at helping their students succeed. - Paul Tough, Author
To create more effective learners, we need to change the environments in which students learn—to change the tenor of the interactions students have with their teachers and the messages students encounter throughout the day about their ability to succeed. It’s not a simple process, and it will take commitment from district and school leaders as well as from teachers and other adults who interact with students throughout the school day to make it a priority.
