Supporting Teachers’ Development of Educational Practices That Attend to Both Students’ Cognitive and Social-Emotional Needs

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: A Is for Adult Social and Emotional Learning: Supporting Educator Practices

Abstract

Recent research has found that SEL interventions have a positive impact on student performance (Bisquerra, 2009; Durlak et al., 2011). In spite of this evidence, current accountability demands still ask teachers, especially in charter schools (Goldring, 2008), to mainly focus on students’ cognitive skills, through the mastery of standards as measured per standardized assessments. This research is focused on identifying the elements that support teachers’ development of practices that attend to both the cognitive and the social-emotional needs of students. Using a practitioner driven methodology, action research, the staff of a charter school in a disadvantaged urban community engaged in an inductive process to identify students' needs, design and implement an action plan.

Author

• Lorea Martinez, Lorea Martinez, SEL Consulting