The role of continuous professional development for teachers’ social-emotional well-being - Creating a teacher SEL framework and PD approach

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday III)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Sustainable and holistic teacher professional development in crisis contexts: challenges and solutions

Proposal

In emergency contexts, teachers and students face significant social and emotional challenges, including threats that impact their mental wellbeing, uncertainty about the future, and increased levels of stress. To ensure that students receive quality education in these complex settings, teachers must develop social and emotional competencies and skills that support their personal well-being, as well as the social emotional needs of their students. In fact, when teachers learn to regulate and manage their emotions, they are able to maximize their effectiveness in the classroom, which ultimately benefits students and can help to create sustainable educational change (Jennings, 2015).

Developing social emotional competencies in teachers requires continuous, long-term professional development programming that is context-appropriate and research-based. This presentation highlights an example of a Continuous Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Professional Development Framework for teachers (the “what”) and describes ways that it can be adapted and tailored to different emergency and conflict settings (the “how.”) to create sustainable changes to the teaching profession.

The What: The Continuous SEL PD Framework has been used in 4 countries over 3 years and was developed by SEL experts with experience working in international conflict settings and violent communities in the U.S. The framework merges multiple evidence-based SEL approaches that have been shown to impact student learning and teacher performance. At the heart of the Continuous SEL PD Framework is the Core SEL Competency framework from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), which defines the following 5 competencies needed to effectively manage daily activities and obstacles: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationships skills, and responsible decision-making (CASEL, 2018).

These 5 competencies include both intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies, and therefore promote management of one’s own social and emotional skills, along with maintaining effective relationships with others. For the Continuous SEL PD Framework, the 5 CASEL competencies are adapted for teachers and complemented by other evidence-based frameworks, including the Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets, mindfulness strategies, and psychological first aid. These complimentary frameworks and approaches can be integrated into continuous professional development programs to meet the needs of students and teachers within varying country contexts.

The How: The Continuous SEL PD Framework can be adapted to different conflict settings based on the needs of the education system and donor requirements. The framework requires, at minimum, a full school year of implementation to ensure that teachers are able to learn, develop, apply, and sustain SEL practices within their profession. However, the type and sequence of concepts, the number of complementary frameworks used, and the type of pedagogical approaches used can be tailored to the context.

To highlight the flexibility of this continuous PD framework, this presentation will explain two possible adaptations:
(1) A PD plan to develop teacher SEL skills, using the Core CASEL competencies, a version of the 40 assets adapted for adults, and additional strategies, including mindfulness.
(2) A PD plan that integrates SEL for both students and teachers, along with an early warning system to connect SEL with indicators in attendance, behavior, and course work.

Authors

• James Hahn, FHI 360

• Paul Frisoli, FHI 360