By Kate Walker
How exactly does learning unfold in youth programs? They are a particularly rich context for young people to learn and practice social and emotional learning skills. It is critical that we understand how learning happens there, and how we as adults can support that process.
Youth in our programs often engage in real-world activities and projects, work in teams, take on meaningful roles, face challenges and experience the accompanying up and downs.
This can lead to learning skills such as:
For the good news is that programs do not need to create or adopt a new comprehensive SEL curriculum. In fact, research shows that integrating specific strategies and practices into existing curriculum is likely more effective.
There are several strategies that practitioners can embed into their daily practice to better support social and emotional learning:
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How exactly does learning unfold in youth programs? They are a particularly rich context for young people to learn and practice social and emotional learning skills. It is critical that we understand how learning happens there, and how we as adults can support that process.
Youth in our programs often engage in real-world activities and projects, work in teams, take on meaningful roles, face challenges and experience the accompanying up and downs.
This can lead to learning skills such as:
- Problem solving - Developing strategies for thinking through and adapting to problems.
- Teamwork - Working with others includes learning about helping and being helped, getting and giving feedback, and leading and being led.
- Responsibility - Taking on meaningful roles and progressively challenging obligations.
- Initiative or grit - Feeling motivated from within to direct attention and effort toward a challenging goal.
- Emotional management - Learning not only to manage emotions, but also to use emotions in constructive ways.
For the good news is that programs do not need to create or adopt a new comprehensive SEL curriculum. In fact, research shows that integrating specific strategies and practices into existing curriculum is likely more effective.
There are several strategies that practitioners can embed into their daily practice to better support social and emotional learning:
- Equip staff - Help staff understand and be fluent in the concepts and language of social and emotional learning, support their own social and emotional skills, develop a culture of coaching, and practice giving effective feedback.
- Create the everyday learning environment - Staff can influence the culture of their program by paying attention to the ways that routines, behavior expectations, and conflict resolution processes support social and emotional learning. This is highly connected to the work of youth program quality.
- Design impactful learning experiences - Programs that focus on specific skill development using sequenced and active learning strategies and focused and explicit skill content consistently succeed in promoting social emotional learning. Further, Integrating reflection activities as part of the learning process helps youth internalize social and emotional skills.
- Use data for improvement - Gathering data for program improvement is most beneficial when integrated into an ongoing process for reflection and improvement. Meaningful measurement is not only about proving that your program works, but also about improving the work that you do.
-- Kate Walker, associate Extension professor and Extension specialist, youth work practice
You are welcome to comment on this blog post. We encourage civil discourse, including spirited disagreement. We will delete comments that contain profanity, pornography or hate speech--any remarks that attack or demean people because of their sex, race, ethnic group, etc.--as well as spam.
These programs are wonderful! I've been into similar programs myself and I must admit that it changed my life in a good way.
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