One strand of social-emotional learning involves decision-making skills. Children learn to make good choices in a series of stages, and teachers can facilitate the process in the classroom. Helping children develop strong decision-making skills will give them an important ability that will help them throughout their entire lives. Follow these 5 tips to teach your students better decision making.

Let Children Make Choices

In many schools, the teacher makes all of the choices in the classroom in an effort to maintain order and organization. Letting the children make choices will give them a sense of responsibility and help them learn how to make good choices. Make sure you are happy with all of the options you provide, so you do not need to negate their decision if they choose a certain avenue. Going against their decision would make the child lose confidence in their ability to make choices, seriously hindering the development of their social and emotional learning. Show enthusiasm for their decision so that they can begin feeling more confident making their own choices.

Discuss Everyday Decisions with the Children

Develop SEL by discussing some decisions that you make everyday with the children. Bring up a simple choice that you make and talk about the advantages and disadvantages of each option so that the children can learn how to have those thoughts when they are making a choice.

Teach Them Decision-Making Steps

Along with discussing your own decisions with them, you can teach children certain steps to aid in their decision-making. Teach them to identify the decision that needs to be made, think about what their options are, evaluate the different options, make a choice, and act on that decision to see how it works. Accentuating these steps may seem redundant, but it will help them thoughtfully make decisions and develop social and emotional learning skills.

Ask Open-Ended Questions to Promote Thoughtful Decision-Making

After the children have made a choice, ask open-ended questions that encourage them to think about why they chose that option. Questions like “How do you like that?” are a good way to get their minds going. Pushing them to discuss their decision out loud will force them to understand why they made their decision, what the consequences were, and how they can improve their decision-making the next time they are faced with a choice.

Encourage Them to Set Goals That They Can Achieve

Setting goals is always a good activity to incorporate into teaching. Having children set an achievable goal will help them think through the decisions they make in an effort to achieve the goal. A vital part of having them set goals is that they are able to fulfill them. Failing to meet a goal will damage a child’s confidence and make them question many of the things that they learned in the process. Make sure to vocally and enthusiastically support them as they take steps to get closer to achieving their goal. If they can become excited about the process, they will feel more motivated to make good decisions to reach their goal.

Incorporating social emotional learning (SEL) into schools is becoming a major point of discussion in education. SEL is proven to help students create relationships, learn, and develop skills that are necessary for them to succeed later in life. Many people believe that SEL is a vital part of a student’s learning and that schools should include it in their curriculum. However, many schools are still not setting aside space for SEL in the school system. In order to understand the future of SEL in schools, it is important to know how school officials see SEL and why it is not being implemented in school curriculums.

Teachers

Among teachers, there are 3 general categories that most fall into regarding their opinions about SEL. The first is a teacher who is supportive of incorporating SEL and believes that most of their school is also in support. The second type is a teacher who is personally supportive of SEL but believes that the majority of their school district does not share those views and does not feel a push to include it in their classroom. The third category involves a teacher who does not feel comfortable teaching SEL in the classroom but wants to do all that they can to improve the learning environment for students and acknowledges that social emotional skills are a valuable aspect of a student’s educational experience.

All three categories describe teachers who are generally supportive of SEL in the classroom. The main differences between the 3 were whether the teacher felt that their school supported them teaching SEL and whether they personally felt confident enough to teach social emotional skills.

Principals

The viewpoint on SEL among school principals was similar to teachers. A study for CASEL conducted in March 2017 revealed that, while the vast majority of principals are in support of teaching students social emotional skills, 83% of them do not know how they would incorporate that into their school.

Due to the confusion about how to teach social emotional skills, only one-third of principals have plans to include SEL learning in their school. There is widespread interest in incorporating SEL, but limited knowledge about how to effectively do it.

Other Factors for Incorporating SEL in Schools

One of the largest factors in whether schools are going to incorporate SEL is district leadership. Only 40% of principals reported that their district required all schools to have a plan for teaching social emotional skills. In order to be able to teach SEL, teachers need to be shown how to appropriately implement social emotional skills in their classroom. They also need certain resources. Teachers can only receive the knowledge and resources that SEL requires if they have district leadership actively focusing on how to best teach students social emotional skills.

The report for CASEL revealed that schools that have more people actively implementing SEL are more successful in helping the students develop social emotional skills. Principals and school
administrators, teachers, and counselors overwhelmingly engage in developing social emotional skills, but many other school officials are not as actively focusing on it, hindering the school’s ability to fully and successfully implement SEL into a student’s education.

Educators and administrators are still discovering what the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) means for schools, but most agree one change is positive for children. ESSA prioritizes social-emotional learning as critical to helping students develop the skills they need for success. Whether you’re developing a life skills curriculum or planning for the year ahead, teaching cognitive life skills will play a major role. Learn the core components of social-emotional learning (SEL) and how to bring positive thinking courses into the classroom today.

Social-Emotional Learning Competencies

There are five components of SEL that can be integrated into almost every lesson.

• Self-awareness – Students should gradually develop the skills necessary to identify their own thoughts, emotions, strengths and values. Doing so promotes self-confidence and a growth mindset.
• Self-management – Children can learn to not just monitor, but regulate their feelings to control impulses, manage stress and develop healthy habits.
• Social awareness – This competency focuses on developing empathy, showing respect and valuing diversity.
• Relationship skills – Students learn to communicate, work together in teams and respond appropriately in social situations.
• Decision-making – Children begin to respond to decisions by identifying problems, evaluating their options and taking responsibility for their own well-being.

6 SEL Teaching Tips

It sounds like a monumental task, but teachers don’t choose education because it’s easy. Approach social-emotional learning the same way you succeed at other subject matter, by working systematically toward your goal.

Start each day with an emotion check. Greet each student warmly as they arrive and invite them to identify how they feel. Early elementary students might refer to a chart with illustrations, and teachers can prompt older children to exchange the usual “happy” or “sad” for synonyms.

Use read-alouds to introduce social-emotional themes. Carla’s Sandwich is available free through Storyline Online and uses descriptive words to teach self-awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. The Orange Shoes is a touching story children of all ages will enjoy as they learn social awareness.

Explicitly teach teamwork skills. Children frequently hear they should listen to others, share, and be thoughtful, but they may not know what that looks like in an educational setting. Negotiation and compromise are skills you can teach. Give students plenty of chances to work with partners for a strong classroom community.

Cultivate self-awareness through mindfulness. Human beings in general stay so busy they often don’t evaluate their own physical and emotional condition. Mindfulness involves pausing to turn thoughts inward and become aware without passing judgment. Prompt students daily to spend a few minutes noticing their breath, thoughts, emotions and the physical sensations they experience.

Let them take a break. Part of developing balance involves knowing when stress is reaching critical levels and having the ability to walk away. Create a place where students can regroup when they feel overwhelmed. Offer headphones that block noise, a journal or drawing pad and a comfortable space to find calm.

Close each day by allowing a few students to reflect on what they experienced during the day. Point out examples of optimism, self-control and good decision-making and encourage students to do the same.