Why Introduce SEL to Your School?

There is plentiful research into the benefits of SEL, with compelling evidence to support making the case for it in an international school setting. These benefits include:

• Better academic performance and classroom behaviour outcomes

• Improved long-term emotional wellbeing for students, regardless of their backgrounds

• Better life outcomes for students thanks to improved social and emotional skills

• Good return-on-investment of an estimated 11 to 1

CASEL points to statistics that back up the practical benefits of SEL: “About 27% more students would improve their academic performance at the end of the programme and 24% more would have improved social behaviours and lower levels of distress.” Meanwhile, a meta analysis of over 700 studies showed its impact on young people and their academic and social experiences: (An update on social and emotional learning outcome research - kappanonline.org)

• 9% decrease in conduct problems, such as classroom misbehaviour and aggression

• 10% decrease in emotional distress, such as anxiety and depression

• 9% improvement in attitudes about self, others, and school

• 23% improvement in social and emotional skills

• 9% improvement in school and classroom behaviour

• 11% improvement in achievement test scores

With CASEL highlighting one study by Taylor et al. (2017) that shows “a positive correlation between strong social emotional assets (measured at the end of intervention) and higher levels of wellbeing up to 18 years later”, it is clear that SEL provides more than a short-term improvement in school experience: it translates to better outcomes long-term.

The research is worth exploring in more depth, as it also covers the unanimous agreement of educators, school principles and youth that SEL has a positive impact.