Social and emotional learning in Curriculum for Excellence

http://www.place2be.org.uk/

Teachers have a crucial role to play in developing the minds of children.` So says Catherine Henderson, Development Officer from Place2Be, Scotland , a charity which offers support to teachers and also whole class work on particular issues such as friendship, self-esteem, concentration, confidence and bullying. One thing is certain: the issue of children`s wellbeing has opened up a whole new industry and a set of new responsibilities for teachers. Like many of these not-for-profit organisations, Place2Be tends to back Government dogma and provides the appropriate services.

As a major part of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) it is the responsibility of every teacher to contribute to learning and development through health and wellbeing.

Most of the ideas regarding mental health and social skills derive from Daniel Goleman`s 1995 book  `Emotional Intelligence` which covers five main domains: self-awareness, managing feelings, motivation, empathy, and social skills. They are not portrayed as such in Curriculum for Excellence but they can be seen in some of the experiences and outcomes which result in a series of `I can do` statements for children:

`I can expect my learning environment to support me to`:

develop my self-awareness, self-worth and respect for others  

experience personal achievement and build my resilience and confidence

Other examples:

I am aware of and able to express my feelings and am developing the ability to talk about them. 

I know that we all experience a variety of thoughts and emotions that affect how we feel and behave and I am learning ways of managing them.

 "In health and wellbeing, assessment has to take account of the breadth and purpose of the wide range of learning experienced by children and young people within this curriculum area...Teachers and learners can gather evidence of progress as part of day-to-day learning inside and outside the classroom and, as appropriate, through specific assessment tasks."

 How well are they applying personal and interpersonal skills as part of their daily lives, and developing them as they grow and mature?

Through their involvement in planning, managing and participating in individual and group activities in school and in the community, do they demonstrate skills, attitudes and attributes which will be important for the world of work, such as judgement, resilience and independence?

Recalling that personalised learning involves teachers and learners in discussions about the learners` next steps, it can be seen that learners will be challenged to reflect on their performance in certain tasks and to explain how they plan to make progress towards the learning outcomes. We are informed that: "Progression in knowledge, understanding and skills can be seen as children and young people demonstrate that they are: "

developing an increasing depth of understanding of their own and others’ motivations, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours

extending the range of their relationships within and outwith the school.

https://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/all_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539562.pdf

How many parents in Scotland realise that when they send their children to school they are going to be systematically and psychologically moulded into being a certain kind of personality? I doubt there are many. Of course, anybody with a bit of common sense knows that this is an experiment which will fail a lot of children. Some of the tasks are beyond the maturity and sophistication of adult learners, never mind children and young people. A review of a similar, smaller scale experiement in England showed no convincing results, although plenty of excuses. But is it an experiment that should be tried at all?

Carol Craig has written a report: `The potential dangers of a systematic, explicit approach to teaching social and emotional skills (SEAL)`.

 (C)hildren who are already expressing their feelings will get lots of lessons on the benefit and encouragement to do so and thus may express their emotions even more. Those who already have high self esteem, and perhaps too much focus on themselves, will be encouraged to value themselves and to feel proud when they might already be doing that more than is helpful

 
She claims there is a link between the self-esteem movement in the USA and falling educational standards. After all, if children do not need to work to earn self-esteem, why bother? The focus on subjectivity and feelings at school undermines the importance of objective information which is already being replaced in the pursuit of skills in other parts of the curriculum. Some would say this is part of the deliberate dumbing down of children.

For others, the world of objective facts is a welcome release from the world of feelings, but that is not going to be allowed, no matter what the child`s temperament, gender or circumstances. If a child is struggling with emotional difficulties, encouraging them to attend to their feelings may be the worst thing to do because it is possible to be overwhelmed by bad feelings and to get stuck in a dark mood. When it is realised that it will be teachers - who are not experts in these matters - who will have the day to day responsibility for managing the learning outcomes, the whole enterprise looks reckless.

It seems that gathering evidence of the great transformational change in education is more important to the Scottish Government than proceeding with caution.

So much for GIRFEC.