Social and Emotional Learning (SEL):

A Recipe for Optimism for Our World

Do you sometimes feel that the we have lost sight of what truly matters in educating our children? Are you concerned about the apparent lack of empathy and the propensity of people to inflict harm and cruelty?

Are you worried that, globally, our educators are told to focus only on test scores and academic achievement, highlighting inequity and fomenting great stress in our children? Are you saddened at this state of education?

The world is on the move…

I know I am, but I also know that things are changing. In our work at Six Seconds, we are committed to supporting educators as they seek to implement SEL programs in diverse countries and cultures. We know that SEL is gaining ground because we see it on a daily basis around the globe. SEL research, teacher training, and practice is intensifying and spreading rapidly – a reason to feel optimistic and inspired that positive change truly is taking place.

Six Seconds is contributing to positive change

Six Seconds offers research grants to promote the use of our internationally validated assessment tools, the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment (SEI) for adults and (SEI-YV) for youth, and we work with schools to create customizable, culturally relevant, transformational SEL programs for students,  teachers,  and schools. Here are just a few examples of how emotional intelligence, social and emotional learning, and Six Seconds are changing the world.

Mexico

In Mexico, several teachers and an SEL consultant are working in a K-12 international school that serves 1200 students from 30 countries. Their goal is to have SEL integrated into all courses. They use a combination of Six Seconds and other tools in the upper grades and one teacher researcher is using the SEI-YV assessment with her leadership cohort of 10^th -12^th graders, teaching them the EQ competencies of the Six Seconds model and helping them to teach the same to younger students.

China

World Academy for the Future of Women

In China, the Six Seconds Global Office has granted the use of the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment for youth (SEI-YV) for a research project supported  by a Six Seconds China Director in Beijing and directed by faculty members at the university in Hangzhou. They are instituting an experimental study of 200 seventh graders. Both groups will take the SEI-YV assessment and the treatment group will undergo an SEL intervention series of 16 Self-Science lessons, spanning four months. Both groups will then retake the assessment. Academic and social behavior will also be measured pre and post intervention. Other Six Seconds practitioners in China have worked to support young women leaders using SEL activities.

 Lebanon

In Lebanon, a young researcher at Lebanese American University aims to assess the impact of Self Science lessons in improving emotional intelligence and academic achievement in the lower elementary classes. Six Seconds has granted the SEI-YV assessments. The researcher hopes that the program will “empower people to take ownership of a positive future.”

India

Josh Freedman, COO of Six Seconds and EQ Educators in Chandigarh, IN

In India, a psychologist is using the SEI-YV tools in her research to study the “impact of the training of emotional intelligence on attention and concentration in academics of children, years 13 to 16.”  She will administer the SEI-YV to a control group and experimental group; the treatment group will undergo lessons in SEL. Data will be collected from varied assessment measures of attention and concentration, as well as qualitative interviews. EQ and SEL is blossoming in schools throughout India.

Africa

Jayne Morrison, Director, Six Seconds Middle East and Africa and recent EQ course graduates in Dubai

In March 2013, educators in South Africa will be hosting their first Six Seconds EQ Educator teacher-training course for educational administrators and teachers throughout the community.

 

Nigerian educator demonstrating Emotional Literacy

The founders of a school in Nigeria recently attended a Six Seconds Coach EQ course in Denver, CO. They wish to introduce the SEI-YV youth EQ assessments into their school and extend to other communities in Nigeria.

 Canada

In Canada, a social worker is advocating for a Six Seconds program in her daughter’s French Immersion school in Montreal. If the plan is accepted, Six Seconds EQ Educator teacher training would take place in French and English.

United Kingdom

In the UK, a researcher has been awarded a Six Seconds grant to use SEI assessments for her organization’s work with disadvantaged young adults in rehabilitation and half-way houses. She writes, “ I want to use these tools for development purposes to highlight the EQ strengths that clients will have and how they can use these to develop themselves and help them to reach their goals.

Bahamas

Bahamas EQ Pilot Grade 5 Lesson

Finally, closer to home, Six Seconds is involved in a year long implementation project in the Bahamas, working with 10 Ministry of Education Schools. Students take the SEI-YV; teachers take the adult SEI; while selected teachers and administrators take a certification course to use the SEI assessment tools and become the change leaders in each school. The principal of an extraordinary Independent School in the Bahamas was able to attend our Six Seconds teacher training, and finding it aligns so well with her school’s mission, she has committed to bringing a comprehensive Six Seconds SEL program to her school.

 

So the world is changing. It is heartwarming to see the amazing outpouring of interest and commitment in SEL from educators, researchers, and practitioners from around the world. And it is essential too, if we are to raise the next generation with the problem-solving skills, the insight, and the humanity to become change-leaders in the 21^st century.

Can you see how SEL can benefit your community? What plan can you make for incorporating SEL into your school’s mission, curriculum and instructional practice? Tell us in the comments?

Please also contact me, Susan Stillman, Six Seconds Director of Education Global Office, with any questions about how we may be able to help!

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