3 steps educators can take to build social and emotional competence this summer

Summer is here, and if you haven’t taken the opportunity yet, it’s time to relax. Teacher stress amidst the pandemic has understandably received a lot of attention, but even before COVID-19 turned our world, including our schools, upside down in an unprecedented way, 61 percent of teachers reported that work was “always” or “often” stressful, which is twice the rate of the general population and akin to the stress levels reported by doctors and lawyers (Greenberg, Brown, & Abenavoli, 2016).

That stress also has a ripple effect. The negative impact of stress may begin with an  educator’s physical health and mental well-being and spreads to affect relationships with students and colleagues, the classroom environment, student achievement, and teacher turnover (Bintliff, 2020; Center for Health and Health Care in Schools, 2020; Greenberg, Brown, & Abenavoli, 2016; Ingersoll, Merrill, & Stuckey, 2014).

While there are a variety of ways to combat stress in general, including diet, exercise, meditation, and other techniques, SEL provides a unique lens for stress management in the context of the classroom.

In addition to helping manage personal stress levels, educators with strong social and emotional skills are better at navigating everyday challenges, are more prepared for the challenges of classroom management, are better able to model social and emotional skills to students, and are more adept at implementing social and emotional programs. National surveys indicate teachers want more professional development on the topic of SEL and how to tailor it to meet the needs of their students, yet most teachers do not receive SEL instruction in their preparation programs (Hamilton & Doss, 2020; Melnick & Martinez, 2019; Schonert-Reichle, Kitil, & Hanson-Peterson, 2017; Schwartz et al., 2020).

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Paul LeBuffe

Vice President of Research and Development at Aperture Education

For the past 25 years, Paul’s career has focused on strength-based approaches to promoting social and emotional competence and resilience in children, youth, and the adults who care for them. Believing that such approaches should be data-driven, Paul has authored many widely used, strength-based assessments of behaviors related to children and adolescents’ social and emotional strengths and needs including the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment and most recently the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) for grades K-12.These assessments have been adopted by more than 5,000 school districts, out-of-school-time programs, and early care and education programs both in the United States and internationally.More than 10 million children and youth have been assessed with these tools and the results used by professionals and parents to promote their social and emotional competence, foster their resilience, and build the skills these children will need for school and life success. Paul lives in Downingtown, PA with his wife, Penny, a special education teacher.

Latest posts by Paul LeBuffe (see all)

• Promoting student choice through SEL self-assessment - January 31, 2022
• How social and emotional competence leads to educational equity - October 26, 2021
• Building student resilience yields positive mental health behaviors - September 8, 2021