Measuring social-emotional learning: Consensus for action

Group Submission Type: Pre-conference Workshop

Description of Session

Short Description

An evidence-base in high income countries shows that social-emotional learning interventions improve children’s academic and behavioral outcomes (Durlak et al., 2011) and this evidence has translated into a burgeoning interest in and focus on SEL programming in emergencies. Having a common set of core competencies and measurement sub-tasks will allow us to build evidence together and move further, faster. This can help us jointly advocate for the need for more focus on SEL programming in Education in Emergency (EiE) plans. This workshop will engage participants by 1) drawing on experiences and knowledge of participants to round-out the picture of the universe of SEL competencies that we focus on in EiE programming, 2) engaging in consensus-building activities that help us articulate the core SEL competencies that we can all focus on in EiE programs, and 3) developing a plan for how to move forward with the development of measurement sub-tasks that we can use to jointly measure the impact of our EiE SEL programs.

Proposal

Title

Measuring Social-Emotional Learning: Consensus for Action

Names of Workshop Leaders/Organizers

Silvia Diazgranados Ferráns, Ed.D--International Rescue Committee

Carly Tubbs Dolan--NYU Global TIES for Children

Roxane Caires--NYU Global TIES for Children

Nikhit D’Sa, Ed.D--Save the Children

Autumn Brown--International Rescue Committee


Workshop Rationale

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have put forth an ambitious and holistic perspective of quality education that focuses on life-long learning: “knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development” (UN, 2015). This has laid the foundation for a focus on education that looks at learning from multiple-dimensions, including children’s social and emotional development. This is especially important in emergencies. Chronic stress from adverse life experiences can alter the development of young children’s brain, manifesting in a physiological stress response and limiting children’s ability to learn and flourish in the classroom (National Scientific Council of the Developing Child, 2014). Programs that want to address the learning ambitions of the SDGs with children in emergencies need to consider this exposure to adversity.

There is considerable evidence from high-resource contexts that programs that teach children to recognize emotions, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions, can impact children’s academic and behavioral outcomes for the better, especially for children who have experienced adversity (Durlak et al., 2011). This evidence-base has translated into a burgeoning interest in and focus on SEL programming in emergencies. While the evidence base on the impact of SEL programs in emergencies in growing (Aber et al., 2017), there are still many gaps in our understanding of what activities work, why, and in what contexts.

One issue is that we do not have a common set of SEL competencies or measurement sub-tasks that different organizations and institutions use. While many organizations use the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (2017) framework to describe what sub-domains they are focusing on, there is still limited consensus on the core set of competencies we can all address in our programs in emergencies and measure in our assessments. Having a common set of core competencies and measurement sub-tasks will allow us to build evidence together and move further, faster. This can help us jointly advocate for the need for more focus on SEL programming in Education in Emergency (EiE) plans.

The objectives of this workshop are three-fold. First, draw on experiences and knowledge of participants to round-out the picture of the universe of SEL competencies that we focus on in EiE programming. Second, engage in consensus-building activities that help us articulate the core SEL competencies that we can all focus on in EiE programs. Third, develop a plan for how to move forward with the development of measurement sub-tasks that we can use to jointly measure the impact of our EiE SEL programs.

The workshop will be organized for active participant discussion and engagement. We will open with a short presentation of a sector-wide scoping study conducted by the International Rescue Committee in partnership with NYU Global TIES for Children that assesses what dimensions of social-emotional learning practitioners, researchers, civil servants and donors are interested in measuring--as well as how they are measuring these domains. The IRC and NYU will present the results of this study to start the working session. Participants will then be divided into small groups, each group given a different case study of a child in an emergency and a deck of SEL competency cards they can use. Participants will be asked to discuss the kinds of SEL competencies they should focus on for the case-study child, and be given the option to define additional competencies that are not part of their initial deck. After reporting back to the group, we will work on a consensus building activity that distills the core competencies all groups focused on. We will end with an open discussion of assessments and subtasks that different organizations have been using to measure these core competencies. We will invite contributors from the SEL Community of Practice to present their measurement initiatives as well.


Duration and Size

We propose to organize this workshop in one 3-hour block of time for up to 40 participants


Special Requests

We will be conducting several small-group activities during this workshop. We would prefer that the room be organized with several round tables that participants can use to meet in small groups. We will also require a projector and screen to use for the short presentations and description of the activities.

Sub Unit

• Pre-Conference Workshops

Workshop Organizers

• Autumn Brown, International Rescue Committee

• Nikhit D'Sa, Save the Children

• Silvia Díazgranados Ferrans, International Rescue Committee

• Carly Tubbs Dolan, New York University Global TIES for Children

• Roxane Caires, Global TIES for Children, New York University