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Social and Emotional Learning; Introducing the Issue

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Connect, Extend, Challenge Conectar, Ampliar, Desafiar Conecto, Amplio, Desafio

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Zana - This article connected with what I already understand about SEL in many ways. I believe that children do not just learn social and emotional skills by osmosis. They need explicit teaching and lots of opportunities to practise. At the same time, children develop these skills at different rates. Their personality, culture, upbringing and experiences can all influence how they respond and what they need. This is why I think it's important to have a whole-school approach, but also adapt it to the age and needs of the children. For example, in our school we used common frameworks and language, but the way we teach feelings vocabulary or restorative problem solving changes as children get older. This connected strongly with the article's point that SEL needs to be developmentally appropriate and that the adults and the environment also play an important tole.

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Mike - The article highlights the need for professional development to support social and emotional teaching practices in the classroom. I have thought for some time that, rather than just being an optional course, all staff members should be required to have SEL professional development as it is so crucial.

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Mike - A section comments on how different neurological and physical stages dictate which SEL skills are most important and when mastery should be achieved. It made me think about my school and whether we are really mapping this out across PYP. Are we targeting the right SEL skills at the right time? Are we considering student’s development based on this? Or are we just using academic assessment?

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Mike - There is discussion from Clark McKown about there being a mismatch between the need to assess for SEL and the inappropriateness of existing assessment systems for that purpose. Not that I disagree with existing assessments not being fit for purpose and being narrow in their focus, more that if we need such rigorous assessment for SEL for accountability?

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Zana - It made me think more about the role of the school day itself in supporting SEL. I already think carefully about the classroom environment and relationships, but I had not thought as much about the schedule as part of SEL (maybe because it's not something in my control). How much does the way we structure the day support children's ability to regulate and learn? I would like to explore how IB schools can intentionally design the school day to support SEL, rather than only teaching SEL skills within the existing timetables (which culturally and schoolwise differ very much according to what is valued most).

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Zana - One thing that challenged my thinking more was about how individual differences and context can influence social and emotional development. I am making a new Feelings Check -n for my class and have been searching for some quality photographs of children to demonstrate different feelings. When reading the article, it made me think about how different people can experience and express the same emotion, especially thinking about neurodiversity. For me, overwhelm might look like distancing myself from others and becoming quiet, while for someone else it could look like becoming very vocal and upset. How do we teach emotional vocabulary without suggesting that there is one 'correct' way for an emotion to look like?

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Maleyva

The article resonated with me because it highlights that SEL cannot be a separate lesson, it has to be in everything we do, across all subjects, from Nursery to Grade 12. Every stage of development looks different, but the need for emotional grounding is always there. With everything we now know about neuroplasticity, it's clearer than ever that social-emotional learning is not something we are born with,  it is trainable and physically shapes the brain. We also know that kids don't learn these skills by themselves. Before kids can self-regulate, they need co-regulation with a calm adult. That's why caring for teachers' mental health and well-being is so critical. We simply can't teach what we don't have. Teachers are the main role models in the classroom, and if we are burnt out, we can't show up as the safe, steady presence our students rely on. At the end of the day, SEL and academics aren't at odds with each other. When kids feel safe, connected, and emotionally supported, their brains are actually ready to learn, inquire, and think critically.

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Maleyva

The article really made me reflect on the need for intentionality and alignment across the entire teaching staff. SEL shouldn't be seen as the sole responsibility of the school counselor or principal. When a student experiences emotional dysregulation, our default reaction shouldn't be to immediately send them out of the classroom. Instead, every teacher needs to recognize these moments as valuable teachable moments to co-regulate and help the child practice self-regulation and other core social-emotional competencies in real time. When all educators share ownership of SEL, we build a consistent, supportive environment where students feel safe to grow through their challenges.

I'd love to learn more about how to facilitate school-wide alignment so that every teacher feels equipped, confident, and able to support students through dysregulation.

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Georgia - This article connected with my understanding that social and emotional learning is a primordial part of educating the whole child. Students learn best when they feel safe, connected, understood, and confident. The article strongly connected with the IB Learner Profile, particularly caring, reflective, balanced, communicative and open-minded.

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Georgia - The article extended my thinking by reminding me that SEL is not just a lesson or an activity. It happens throughout the school day—in the way students work together, handle challenges, respond to mistakes, communicate, and build relationships. It is clearer to me now that SEL can be embedded into the Approaches to Learning skills. I would like to learn more about meaningfully recognizing and assessing social and emotional growth. I am also interested in how SEL can be adapted to individual student needs.

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Georgia - The article challenged me to think about how much of SEL happens through our everyday classroom practices. I helped me reflect on my role as a teacher and the example I set (how I respond to mistakes, how I manage conflict, give feedback, and model empathy). The article reinforced the fact that SEL is not separate from learning but rather that it is an important part of helping students become confident, caring, reflective, and capable lifelong learners.

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Maleyva

Two things challenged my thinking. First,  emotional dysregulation isn't always noisy or disruptive. We often focus on the child who acts out or throws tantrums, but quiet, compliant, or overly anxious students are often just as dysregulated internally. Second, SEL shouldn't be graded like a traditional subject or reduced to a checklist of good behavior. True SEL growth is about process, self-awareness, and reflecting on how we bounce back from setbacks, not performing compliance for an adult.

For further consideration, I want to explore how to identify quiet dysregulation and develop classroom routines so quieter students feel safe expressing when they are overwhelmed. I also want to implement student-led reflection tools and self-assessment rubrics where kids can track their own emotional growth over time.

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Skyler - This article reinforced my understanding of SEL as more than teaching isolated emotional skills. It emphasizes the integration of cognitive, emotional, and social processes, as well as the importance of classroom practices, relationships, and school environments.

I also relate to the article's emphasis on adolescents' autonomy and perspectives, which is why I often find useful to stand from the adolescents' perspectives to ask them about their opinions, rather than using my own word to try to "influence" them.

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Skyler - This article extended my thinking about SEL in the IB by helping me see ATL skills not just as learning strategies, but as part of a broader social emotional system. It reminded me to think more intentionally about how ATL skills such as self-management, communication, and social skills are embedded across UoIs, rather than simply listed in unit plans.

I wonder: how SEL outcomes could be meaningfully assessed within IB units?

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Skyler - This article challenged my tendency to see SEL as a 'big & uniform' term. The authors point out that SEL frameworks often overlap, and that the same term may refer to different constructs across models. This made me rethink how could I connect CASEL competencies, IB ATL skills, and our own school language together to design my work around SEL later on.

One thing I'd like to explore is how to build a more coherent SEL ecosystem in which student learning, teacher-student interactions, parent communication, school policies, and assessment reinforce one another. I'm also wondering how we can evaluate changes in school climate and adult practices, not only changes in individual students.