Sneak Peek: Excerpt from “The Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning, Second Edition”

Key Points

• Featuring all-new and updated chapters, the Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning is now in its second edition! As co-editor Celene E. Domitrovich writes in her introduction below, the Handbook is one of the most comprehensive resources on SEL, packed with insights from the world’s leading experts on SEL research, implementation, and policy.
• In this exclusive sneak peek from the chapter “Fortifying the SEL Field: Critical Questions for the Road Ahead,” CASEL’s Timothy Shriver, Aaliyah Samuel, and Justina Schlund explore five questions to guide future innovations in the field.
• Order the Social and Emotional Learning Handbook, Second Edition to read the rest of this chapter (and the full handbook). Use promotional code APCASEL to receive a 25 percent discount!

Social and emotional learning (SEL)  is now a well-established global field of study. The Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning (now in its second edition) is one of the most comprehensive resources summarizing the work of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who are focused on promoting the intrapersonal and interpersonal competence of children and youth.

I served as an editor of the first edition under the mentorship of Roger Weissberg and took on the work of co-editing the second edition as a labor of love in his honor. In the following excerpt from the new edition, Dr. Tim Shriver, Dr. Aaliyah A. Samuel, and Justina Schlund guide readers through critical questions for the field as we continue to expand and strengthen SEL.

Celene E. Domitrovich

[L to R]: Handbook co-editors Celene E. Domitrovich, Joseph Mahoney, and Joseph A. Durlak.

Fortifying the SEL Field: Critical Questions for the Road Ahead

Timothy P. Shriver, Aaliyah A. Samuel, and Justina Schlund

The field of social and emotional learning (SEL) started in 1994 with a question: What if schools intentionally and explicitly supported the social, emotional, and academic development of all children (Elias et al., 1997)?

Since then, we’ve seen an explosion in family interest, school practices, research, policy, and innovation (Weissberg et al., 2015). Researchers across fields have built a compelling evidence base for SEL’s efficacy, demonstrating that when students experience a high-quality SEL program, academic achievement improves, prosocial behaviors increase, attitudes improve, and conduct problems and levels of distress decrease (Cipriano et al., 2023; Durlak et al., 2022; Greenberg, 2023).

Evidence-based programs and systems-level approaches have formalized new SEL strategies, bringing more sophisticated assessment tools for measuring the impact of SEL and deepening the alignment of SEL programming with all aspects of education (Mahoney et al., 2021; Osher & Berg, 2018; Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2019a).

 Five Critical Questions

Today, we ask a new set of questions to guide what’s next. In this chapter, we point the way for future innovations by identifying five critical areas of inquiry:

• Clarity and cohesion of the field’s definition and frameworks

• Strengthening evidence-based curriculum and instruction

• Ensuring professional development and teacher preparation that aligns with effective practices

• Producing new and more effective assessments of SEL experiences and outcomes

• Supporting new policy frameworks that promote the integration of social, emotional, and academic learning.

We explore each of these areas, posing questions and recommendations based on what we’ve learned from the field as we prepare for the work ahead.

Question 1: How will our field ensure clarity and cohesion of the field’s definitions and frameworks as interest grows?

The field currently employs a variety of SEL frameworks and definitions. There are benefits to this variety: A diversity of frameworks allows for the flexibility to tailor an SEL approach to local goals and needs. However, we also need consistency, or we risk inviting the criticism that “SEL can be anything” and creating confusion about what is and isn’t SEL. A generally accepted standard that serves as the “North Star” for the field will help counter these risks, serving to ensure all frameworks meet fieldwide conceptions of what SEL is and how it is implemented. The definition originally developed by our organization, CASEL, offers a leading candidate for “North Star.” This most frequently used definition was developed collaboratively by field leaders and offers a consistent core definition of SEL. This definition describes SEL as “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions” (CASEL, n.d.-b).

CASEL also offers a consistent framework for developing aligned practices across classrooms, schools, families, and communities to support SEL. The framework identifies five core SEL competencies—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making—that young people can learn and develop across contexts. These five interrelated dimensions of human development are supported by an extensive body of research (Cipriano et al., 2023; Durlak et al., 2011; Taylor et al., 2017), as well as surveys demonstrating strong public agreement around these concepts (Horowitz, 2022; National PTA, 2022; Populace, 2022)., Many frameworks align with these competencies, such as 21st Century Learning, Habits of Mind, WHO (World Health Organization) Skills for Health, and ACT (American College Test) Holistic Framework (Harvard University Graduate School of Education, n.d.), and schools, districts, and states have used them to help define standards (Dermody & Dusenbury, 2022).

Employing a “North Star,” such as the CASEL definition and framework, offers a way to create cohesion as we continue to learn how best to infuse SEL across in school and out-of-school times, how to engage many different stakeholders, how to deal with misinformation and disinformation, and how to address the needs of students from the full range of cognitive and social development.

For example, as schools and districts approach SEL, they often discover productive new directions for existing policies and processes. A systemic focus on SEL has led many districts to reassess their disciplinary approaches, reestablish family engagement strategies, or revise hiring practices (CASEL, 2021). In many school districts (e.g., Atlanta; Chicago; Washoe County, Nevada; and others), SEL serves as a common framework for organizing a range of programs, initiatives, and efforts devoted to student success and well-being. Insights and experiences around how this common framework shapes on-the-ground practices in turn helps to inform a continuous improvement of SEL definitions, frameworks, and strategies. For example, CASEL’s definition and framework, along with guiding resources, has been refined over more than a decade with insights from our partner districts to better reflect how they have applied SEL across their contexts.

How we define and conceptualize SEL will continue to increase in rigor and precision as the field matures. For example, we are learning more about what applications of SEL look like across the arts, sports, youth development, leadership development, community service, peer mediation, health, character education, and job preparation. As we continue to see new applications along with a global expansion of SEL, a continual focus on a shared definition and framework offers us the opportunity to drive toward a clear vision for high-quality education that prepares all children to become lifelong learners, engaged citizens, and thriving adults.

 Question 2: How will our field strengthen evidence‑based curriculum and instruction for SEL?

The expansion of the SEL field is reflected in a tremendous growth in SEL programs in the past decade. National survey data from 2021 found that spending on SEL in the United States grew approximately 45% to $765 million in just over 1.5 years (Crowley & Mainelli, 2021). But alongside this increase in curriculum and instruction are growing concerns about ensuring program quality across so many curricular and instructional options. It is a matter of concern that some educators have reported a lack of clear evidence that SEL is effective with their own students, despite broad research that SEL is effective across populations (Prothero, 2022a, 2022b). To address program quality concerns, we need to build on existing frameworks and standards for SEL quality and invigorate the next generation of SEL research.

The well-established “SAFE” criteria offer an existing framework for guiding practitioners in program selection. Research has shown that SEL effectiveness varies across curricular and instructional features (Cipriano et al., 2023), and that SEL programs are most impactful when they adhere to the following features:

• Sequenced activities that build skills developmentally
• Active forms of learning
• Focused time spent on specific social and emotional skills
• Explicit targeting and defining of skills (Durlak et al., 2010, 2011)

In addition to the SAFE criteria, we are learning that cultural adaptations matter (Greenberg, 2023) and there is likely a developmental “order” to developing social and emotional skills (i.e., programs that promote intrapersonal skills before interpersonal skills tend to produce stronger outcomes when it comes to skills development, school climate, and externalizing behaviors; Cipriano et al., 2023). Now we have an opportunity to build on our understanding of quality programs by digging even deeper into how to make SEL instruction most effective for different ages and contexts, and how to integrate SEL effectively with other approaches (Bradshaw et al., Chapter 20, this volume).

To establish quality standards for program development, researchers should delve more deeply into curricular components, carefully designing studies to examine which strategies lead to specific outcomes and what mediating factors drive these outcomes, such as the following:

• The short- and long-term outcomes for different instructional approaches and specific skills-focus at various developmental stages, particularly in secondary levels, where research is more limited.
• The parts of SAFE implementation of evidence-based programs that matter most in terms of promoting SEL in classrooms, schools, homes, and communities.
• How specific SEL curricula and instruction can be best tailored for specific groups, including students with disabilities, and across cultures and nations.
• How SEL is carried out and aligned effectively across different settings—classrooms, schools, homes, and communities—and how the effectiveness of SEL curricula and instruction is impacted by these environments (Cipriano et al., 2023; Durlak et al., 2022). This includes understanding the roles of family and community partnerships within SEL programming (Garbacz et al., Chapter 9, this volume), as well as curricular and instructional approaches that reach beyond the classroom.

 We can also continue learning from research and implementation science to improve the adoption, integration, and sustainment of SEL across contexts. Implementation science seeks to bridge gaps between research and practical application by identifying both barriers and facilitators to the adoption of various programs and practices. The SEL field embraces many principles of implementation science, including its emphasis on evidence-based programs and practices as fundamental to improving outcomes. As research expands, we must also recognize that demonstrating the effectiveness of a program or approach does not guarantee uptake. Therefore, we must identify and address all the factors (e.g., educator capacity, community buy in, availability of quality data to measure outcomes) that may influence the adoption and effective delivery of new programs or approaches (Supplee et al., 2023). In addition to program features, our standards of quality need to encompass features for successful SEL adoption (e.g., the need for continuous improvement, engagement of diverse stakeholders, and building the capacity of adults).

We have practical starting points for addressing implementation quality. Along with the SAFE criteria, CASEL and others have shared guides, indicators, and rubrics for quality SEL programming that are drawn from a wide-ranging research base and speak to many factors from implementation science (Bruzios & Cooper, Chapter 33, this volume; Schwartz et al., 2022).

Models of quality implementation worldwide can also drive continued learning through effective research–practice partnerships (in this volume, see examples in Rimm-Kaufman et al., Chapter 18, on integration of SEL and academics; Berman et al., Chapter 22, on SEL at the district level; Cefai & Simoes, Chapter 34, on SEL on the world stage; and Kim et al., Chapter 39, on SEL in countries facing conflict and crisis). These “on-the-ground” models are essential for learning more about the challenges educators face with SEL implementation quality, their adaptations to SEL programs and practices, why we need those adaptations, and what outcomes they produce (Skoog-Hoffman & Jagers, 2020) …

Order the Social and Emotional Learning Handbook, Second Edition to read the rest of this chapter (and the full handbook). Use promotional code APCASEL to receive a 25 percent discount!

Celene E. Domitrovich, PhD, is Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center and Director of Research and Innovation for the Early Childhood Innovation Network. She is also Senior Scientist at CASEL and maintains a professional affiliation with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her research and publications focus on evidence-based approaches to the development of social–emotional competence in children and youth and systemic approaches to the implementation of social and emotional learning efforts. Dr. Domitrovich has served on the board of the Society for Prevention Research and is a recipient of the Joseph E. Zins Award for Action Research in Social and Emotional Learning from CASEL.

Related Posts:

• State of the Field 2024: Dr. Aaliyah A. Samuel and Dr. Timothy P. Shriver on SEL Then, Now, & Next
• 30 Years of SEL Research: What’s New, and What’s Next?
• What Strategies Can We Use to Integrate SEL and Academic Learning?

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