Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process of acquiring the skills, attitudes, and knowledge required to understand and handle emotions, learn and show empathy, build positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and achieve positive and healthy goals. In other words, SEL helps people (children, young adults, and adults) in identifying and managing their emotional stress efficiently. It results in their holistic development and overall wellbeing.

Social-Emotional Learning comprises five main categories mentioned as follows:

• Self-Awareness: It includes an understanding of one’s own emotions and feelings, strengths, weaknesses, values, attitude, and resultant behavior.
• Self-Management: The second step after self-awareness. It includes the management of one’s feelings and emotions and the resultant behavior to achieve the desired outcome such as anger management, self-motivation, perseverance during hardships, etc.
• Social-Awareness: It involves being aware of the outside world, its norms, showing empathy, having compassion for those different from us culturally or otherwise. It also includes identifying a support structure for oneself both at home and in the outside community.
• Relationship-Skills: It is related to forging and maintenance of healthy interpersonal relationships according to social norms. It involves communication, active listening, cooperation, conflict resolution, managing social and peer pressure, and reaching out for help.
• Responsible Decision-Making: It involves making sound decisions, which benefit both the individual and others around them. This is guided by a sense of moral ethics according to different situations. Consideration of ethical standards, awareness of actions and their consequences, norms for risky behavior, and safety of oneself and others are some aspects included in it.

In a stressful time like now, learning SEL has become even more urgent and important. But imparting these skills in an online environment has challenges of its own. Doon World School, the best CBSE school in Dehradun sums up five effective ways to create an effective Social-Emotional Learning environment online.

1. Taking care of oneself: You, as a teacher, are supposed to be the caretaker of your students. But it is nearly impossible to take care of anyone else if you’re unwell or burnt out. Check for your own mental and physical health. In short, show your students how you manage your own stress and chances are they’ll adopt the positive behavior themselves.
2. Find ways to destress: Make sure you unwind and encourage your kids to unwind as well. These are unprecedented times, acknowledge that and ease into the new routine of online education instead of just diving into it head-first.
3. Ask about students’ emotional health: Before you start taking lessons, invest some time in knowing about your students’ life at home. Ask if they are having any troubles, questions, or confusion emotionally. Try to connect with them individually and hold a safe and secure space for them to open up.
4. Talk about the ongoing problems: As adults, we tend to avoid having difficult conversations with children either as a measure of protecting them or because of our own stress levels. They already are aware of the current difficulties, but they might be apprehensive about clearing their doubts or sharing their problems with their parents/teachers to avoid adding to their stress. Instead, encourage open and honest communication and ask them ways in which they want to help.
5. Promote a growth mindset: Talk about the importance of honest hard work, persistence, and a well laid out strategy. Encourage the students to not limit themselves, especially during these hard times. Encourage them to go for their ambitions with their whole heart. After all, where there’s a will, there’s away.

SEL is undoubtedly the need of the hour, but it is something that will always be relevant. By encouraging social and emotional development, we are putting down the stepping-stones to a better, more inclusive, and tolerant society.