You Are What You Teach

by Jason Hicks

Nourishing the Integration of SEL in Teacher Practice

In schools, the word “initiative” is often treated like a school cafeteria lunch tray from days past – remember the one with the five distinct compartments? For many educators, the various programmatic improvements brought forth by school leaders feel disconnected, like keeping the peas and carrots from touching the strawberries and grapes. SEL is no exception. Helping teachers adopt the mindset required to blend SEL with academics in support of student learning faces the same challenges.

As I reflect on times in my leadership history (either as an administrator or a teacher leader) when perhaps those initiatives were perfectly connected in my mind but were not connected in the minds of the teachers I was leading, it reminds me just how important communicating relevance is to achieving organizational clarity and cohesiveness. Some people may not like their food to touch but understanding the relationship between the various programs in a school setting enables stakeholders to make a meal of the ingredients put in front of them in a way that is meaningful for them.

Case in point, when we think about advisory programming, to what degree do teachers see academics and SEL as separate compartments on the proverbial lunch tray? Do teachers and students understand the interconnectedness? How intentionally are students transferring those enduring understandings, to use the language of McTighe and Wiggins, from one situation to another? Are the program resources scaffolded to meet the needs of teachers who are implementing the learning? Is SEL actively taught and reinforced in the academic setting as well? Finally, what evidence exists to support the prevailing assumptions? Does the greater school community see them as separate or as a smoothie? That is, as complementary parts of a nutrition whole.

A rich source of wonder for me, and the inspiration for this writing, is the intersection of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and the International Baccalaureate (IB) frameworks. In our work with schools, my colleagues and I often think about complementary frameworks and how various programmatic choices and teacher practices intersect to meet students’ academic, social, and emotional needs. Based on my observations, educators often view the “main course” of such frameworks as academics; and yet, none are fully actualized without building a school’s capabilities related to SEL. They are not separate items in a school’s tray, but instead a smoothie of sorts — seamlessly blended and inseparable. So much so that the overall flavor can’t exist without all the ingredients.

In I.B., students develop strong academic, social, and emotional characteristics through the 5 Approaches to Learning (ATL): Communication, Social, Self-Management, Research, and Thinking.  I have been part of conversations related to how much ATLs are integrated into content classes and when it is appropriate to teach them separately largely centering around the demands of teaching content versus the benefits of explicitly teaching ATLs.  Given the nature of this ongoing discovery process in education, this may be a tension to manage and not a problem to solve.

The fact of the matter is that an explicit focus on SEL through ATLs is another key ingredient to that carefully constructed, nutritionally sound smoothie. Although the frameworks themselves work to communicate an interconnectedness between academics and SEL, it is up to administrators and teachers to make a meal of them in their practice. Certainly, other structures like advisory and stand-alone SEL curricula can also be effective in nurturing SEL.

In the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, teachers design learning environments and experiences that support the development of SEL skills within the academic setting.  As a vehicle for MTSS, UDL is a scientifically valid framework for guiding educational practice to support the development of expert learners who are purposeful, motivated, resourceful, knowledgeable, strategic, and goal-directed. Teachers with a “UDL mindset” accept that barriers to learning are in the learning environment and the design of the lesson and NOT in the student.  Removing those barriers meets the needs of a wide range of learners with the recognition that there is no such thing as an “average” student. A deeper dive into the UDL Guidelines reveals specific principles and checkpoints that support a focus on SEL. In the principle of Engagement, for example, students develop their capacity to sustain effort and persistence and internalize self-regulation. As educators provide multiple means of action and expression students continue to internalize skills related to executive functioning.

Given the nuance and complexity of blending academics with socio-emotional learning, leaders might consider Posner’s Conceptual Change Theory. Posner reminds us that providing people with the opportunity to discover their dissatisfaction with their mindsets and practices creates the inspiration to change. It is best done by introducing ideas to people in small bites. By asking them their next “just right” questions in this case by providing opportunities for teachers to reflect on: their own emotional intelligence and what they bring to the moment; how their beliefs about SEL manifest themselves in those important discussions they have with students; and, how they can model the thinking that supports self-regulation of the social and emotional. For example, as a  “think aloud” in the classroom, teachers are modeling their SEL-related perceptions and experiences alongside a lesson, providing a richness to the smoothie that supports students in seeing the connections between themselves, their own social and emotional learning and the world at large. School is life, and in life, the social and emotional are present in each of us every moment. When teachers embrace that mindset it is hard to imagine them (and by extension students) continuing to see academics and SEL as separate side dishes on the lunch tray.

The challenge for leaders is how to connect ideas, communicate the desired state, and curate cohesiveness in service of the whole child. Reflecting on a school’s preferred change model or identifying a specific model, or parts of various models to use may be the next best step in forming a learning experience for students where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts – just like that smoothie!

Jason Hicks is co-owner of Pathways to Inclusive Education, which guides schools in developing and sustaining Multi-tiered Systems of Support. He coaches and consults with schools in the areas of system thinking, collaborative structures, and teacher leadership.  Jason also leads teacher professional learning and coaching related to Universal Design for Learning