BackHome
Refresh: OffView Personal Schedule
Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Using a database of 25 evidence-based SEL programs to identify kernels of practice

Sat, March 23, 12:45 to 2:15pm, Hilton Baltimore, Floor: Level 2, Key 9

Integrative Statement

Recent meta-analyses demonstrate that high-quality, evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions produce positive outcomes for students, including improved behavior, attitudes, and academic performance (Durlak et al., 2011). However, most evidence-based SEL interventions are complex, time-intensive, and limited in the extent to which they can be adapted to meet individual or local needs, context, and culture. As a result, low dosage, fidelity, and quality of implementation have been found to influence program outcomes (Durlak & DuPre, 2008) and often undermine efforts to bring comprehensive SEL programming to scale (Jones & Bouffard, 2012). There is therefore a need to develop less-intensive and highly-targeted strategies (“kernels of practice”) that are easy to use, quick to implement, and adaptable to population, context, and culture – thereby reducing the cost and logistical burdens of more comprehensive interventions. We hypothesize that kernels are both (a) more potent, and (b) more feasible to implement than comprehensive programs, potentially increasing initial uptake, impact, and sustainability over time.

Our paper describes the first phase of a rigorous, multi-year effort to develop and test SEL kernels of practice with students and teachers in U.S. schools. This initial phase focused on identifying common strategies among evidence-based SEL programs to inform the selection and design of a set of preliminary kernels. We hypothesize that these common strategies may represent essential “active ingredients” in the more comprehensive programs known to be effective, making them ideal for use as kernels. Accordingly, our research was designed to address the following questions: (1) what social-emotional content areas/themes are commonly targeted by pre-packaged programs, and using what methods?; (2) which of those practices appear across multiple programs?; and (3) what content themes, strengths, or gaps exist in comprehensive programming and should inform kernel development?

To do this, we used a database from a prior content analysis of 25 leading SEL programs that records whether and when the lessons/activities in each program target 12 sub-domains (e.g., empathy, conflict resolution, attention) across 5 broad domains (e.g., interpersonal, emotion, cognitive) of SEL. For each sub-domain, we went into the database and used a standardized coding protocol to assign each lesson/activity a focus ID based on the specific content addressed (e.g., for empathy: perspective-taking, empathic responses, active listening, etc.) and a strategy ID based on the instructional method used to teach the content (e.g., storytelling, game, discussion, etc.). We then used these IDs to cluster similar activities together, with each cluster representing a commonly used strategy that addresses a particular sub-domain. From this data, we identified 30+ potential kernels of effective SEL practice.

In our paper, we describe the methodology (i.e. database and coding system) created for this project and present our initial findings. We also discuss (a) how this information can be used to guide the development and testing of “kernels of practice” that are easy to implement and integrate across a variety of settings, and (b) what our data reveal about high-level trends in the content of comprehensive SEL programs and potential gaps we plan to address with kernels.

Authors