3 Updates to Our Guidance for Advancing SEL in the Classroom

Key Points

• The CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL outlines an intentional, collaborative process for systemic SEL implementation. Guidance is organized around four focus areas, including Focus Area 3, Promote SEL for Students. Since we launched this guide, there have been many innovations in the research around promoting SEL for students.
• In response to these changes, we’ve updated our guidance in the School Guide to offer the latest classroom strategies, resources, and tools.
• Read on to learn about three ways we’ve updated CASEL’s classroom resources to support educators as they apply these concepts.

Educators are learners for life. That’s our takeaway from years of working as, with, and in support of teachers. Educators are curious and committed, doing everything they can to meet the varied needs of their students. But they are also very busy, and the amount of information they are asked to take in and apply can be mind-boggling. That’s why, as an organization committed to advancing SEL through research-practice partnerships, we digest the latest research insights in the field and provide actionable resources and tools for educators. 

We’ve incorporated our learnings from these as well as other partnerships to create the CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL, which outlines an intentional and collaborative process for systemic SEL implementation, from the classroom to the school, the central office, and communities and families.

Many districts and schools have successfully implemented the guidance in the Guide, but we are committed to updating it when new innovations in research and practice emerge. In the past four years, we’ve seen insightful research published about the importance of school connectedness, the role of student voice in strengthening learning environments, and the ways that collaborative-problem solving invites student curiosity and strengthens their sense of agency.* Building upon these new insights, we have expanded and revised our guidance on SEL in classrooms.

Read on to learn about three ways we’ve updated CASEL’s classroom resources to support educators as they apply these concepts:

1. We’ve added new tools and examples of what strategies could look like and sound like in practice.

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To streamline the “Classroom” section in the School Guide, resources for classrooms are now distributed among just three sections. These sections are organized around each leg of the “three-legged stool” of SEL in the classroom, which show how a systemic approach to high-quality SEL can be embedded through the classroom environment and instruction.

Every educator has their own toolbox, and CASEL’s new and updated tools provide grounded, research-based, ready-to-implement strategies. We’ve also shared more illustrations of SEL in classrooms across grade levels.  You’ll see more examples like this in our updated guidance:

2. We’ve elevated ways educators can partner with young people to better understand their experience of school and co-create strategies for improvement.

By engaging students in the learning design and making their voices central to the classroom experience, educators can incorporate the focal constructs of identity, agency, belonging, collaborative problem-solving, and curiosity to honor the strengths and needs of all students, especially those farthest from opportunity. Our guidance now includes more examples of ways teachers can learn from their students and collaborate to strengthen the learning environment. 

For one example, see CASEL’s new teacher tool for developing class routines and responsibilities.

3. We’ve expanded on our guidance about integrating SEL with academic instruction.

In addition to what many teachers do to weave in experiences of SEL and opportunities to practice and reflect, another essential way teachers integrate SEL is by taking a student-centered approach. That is, they place students’ experiences, mindsets, interests, needs, and learning styles at the center of their instructional decision-making. Teachers’ powerful influence on the way students perceive themselves as learners and valued members of a community can’t be understated. The language teachers use during instruction and their responsiveness to student input about what and how they are learning is a key way that teachers model social and emotional competence and contribute to students’ sense of agency, self-awareness, and belonging. 

For an example, see these 10 phrases to build positive academic mindsets:

We’ve shared our top three changes to our guidance on SEL in classrooms. Now  it’s time for the exciting part: sharing with staff, teachers, and school leaders. Thank you for taking time to explore! 

Looking for more support with SEL in the classroom? Check out our winter and spring workshops on the SEL 3 signature practices and integrating SEL with instruction.

*Highlighted research publications we’ve incorporated since our last edition: 

• The BELE Framework (2020)
• Transformative Social and Emotional Learning: In pursuit of educational equity and excellence (Jagers et al., 2021)
• Strengthening School Connectedness to Increase Student Success (Balfanz et al., 2024)
• The State of the Evidence for Social and Emotional Learning: A Contemporary Meta-Analysis of Universal School-Based SEL Interventions (Cipriano et al, 2023)

Related Posts:

• Resource Roundup: 11 Resources for Starting the School Year Strong
• 5 Meaningful, Standards-Based SEL Activities for the Classroom
• Our Favorite Tools for Starting the School Year

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