How To Incorporate Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in the Classroom
Just academic success is not enough anymore. Students require an effective combination of abilities to cope with relations, learn to make responsible choices, maintain a proper emotional state, and lead a healthy and professional life. Here is where Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) comes in.
Bearing out this change, a 2025 Education Week survey found that 83% of principals indicate that their schools are now using an SEL curriculum or program, up from 73% in 2021-22 and only 46% in 2017-18. This recent development demonstrates that SEL is gaining increasing significance as the core component of contemporary teaching, which promotes academic success and general well-being among learners.
Grasping the Core: The Five Competencies of SEL
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines 5 interrelated areas of core competencies upon which effective SEL programs are constructed:
● Self-Awareness: Awareness of personal feelings, thoughts, and values and how these affect behavior. This involves having the right determination of strengths and weaknesses and a solid feeling of self-confidence and optimism.
● Self-Management: Being able to mediate stress, restrain impulses, and self-motivate. This would include the establishment and pursuit of personal and academic desired outcomes, emotional control, and the ability to show perseverance.
● Responsible Decision Making: Making positive and polite decisions regarding personal conduct and social relations in consideration of moral principles, safety risks, and social orders. These are realistic appraisals of consequences and the well-being of both self and others.
Methods of a Seamless SEL Integration in the Classroom
Including SEL does not need a new curriculum (though focused programs may be valuable); it can become integrated in the rhythm of any day of classroom life:
Create a Healthy Nurturing Classroom Environment
● Negotiate Clear Norms: Work in pairs or groups norms that lay policy on respect, kindness, active listening, and safety (emotional and physical). Review such norms on a regular basis.
● Morning-Meetings/Check-Ins: Have a meeting at the beginning of the day. Apply it in greetings, sharing of emotions (with emotion charts or scales), setting an intention or talking about a SEL-based question. This establishes neighbourhood and self consciousness.
● Celebrate Diversity & Foster Belonging: Deliberately explore different views in the lesson and speak in inclusive language and provide the students modes of sharing background and experiences in a respectful way. Make every student feel viewed, listened, and respected.
The Manthan School is a school that has an example of such a starting point. In terms of vision, they also focus on a safe, happy and protective atmosphere bearing in mind that emotional security is the foundation upon which curiosity (“Wonder and be Curious”) and exploration (“Explore with a free mind”) can thrive.
SEL into Curricular Instruction
● Literature Connections: Stories, novels, and historical accounts help to learn more about the emotions, motivations, difficulties of relationships, and decision making of characters. Post-SEL-focused questions: “What do you think they were feeling? What were the implications?”
● Group Work with SEL Focus: Design group work with SEL on interpersonal skills focus teaching and assessment of relationship skills. Allocate roles, learn phrases of conflict resolution (“I feel.. when… because…”), ask groups to discuss the process of collaboration.
● Project-Based Learning (PBL): PBL is inherently SEL friendly. The students have to develop group dynamics, long-term strategies, complex problem solving, and decision-making, which involve self-management and social awareness, and responsible decision-making that will affect their project. The Manthan Schools philosophy of schooling, to help children to be free minded in exploring and give them skills to be a life-long learner matches SEL-infused PBL.
Teach frontal SEL Skills
● Specific Skill-building Manufactured Mini-Lessons: Establish brief, frequent times (10-20 minutes) when you can explicitly teach and practice a specific SEL skill. Utilize role-playing, video, scenario, board games and picture books.
● Example: Instruct Pronoun Usage in conflict. Train yourself to recognize feelings based on charts, or apps.
● Vocabulary of feelings: Move beyond prompting students to use the word happy, sad, mad. Add such words as frustrated, proud, anxious, grateful, disappointed. Write on the distinctions.
Encourage Student Voice and Reflection
● Choice and Autonomy: Give students choices regarding their learning (e.g. the topic, format of projects, seating). This creates self-management and decision making.
● Goal Setting: Teach students how to make realistic academic and personal goals/SEL. Consider progress and make strategies on a regular basis. This may be as basic as saying, I will seek help when I am stuck this week.
● Class meetings: Periodically meet with students to share observations and concerns about the classroom, share successes, address problems, offer critiques in a collaborative spirit and act on them. This fosters neighborhood and good decision making.
The Manthan School: Vision in SEL Synchronization
The vision of the Manthan School is intrinsically connected with effective implementation of SEL: “to offer a safe, happy and protective environment in a Campus constructed around Curriculum so that students Wonder and are Curious, Explore with the free mind and provide students with the skills to be life-long learners.”
Safe, happy and protective environment
It is the pre-requisite of SEL, indeed. Without being secure, students are unable to take emotional risks, show curiosity, or trust relationships. It is within this environment that SEL practices actively promote and sustain.
Be Curious, Wonder, Explore with a free mind
Curiosity and exploration can only occur when students are emotionally safe to explore and pose questions, make errors and inquire freely. Productive exploration requires SEL skills such as social awareness (respecting different ideas), and self-management (persevering despite the difficulties).
Reason SEL Matters: The Impact
Literature never ceases to demonstrate that well-executed SEL results in:
● Higher grades: (Averages 11 percentile-point boost on achievement tests)
● Improved classroom conduct: Fewer interruptions, violence and bullying.
● Reduced Emotional Distress: Reductions in anxiety, depression and stress.
● Better Social Skills: Better relations with peers and teachers.
● Good Long-term Results: Increased graduation rates, college attendance, career achievement and well-being.
● Positive School Climate: This makes the environment friendlier, respectful, and productive to all.
Conclusion
The classroom needs SEL, and they can not afford not to integrate it in there, to prepare students to the challenges of 21 st century. Stewarded schools such as The Manthan School, that focus their vision on safety, curiosity, exploration, and lifelong learning skills, not only embrace but reap the benefits of the potent structure of Social-Emotional Learning inherent in such a commitment. In fostering these key abilities, we not only help students excel in school, but thrive in life.