Social-emotional learning (SEL) is gaining increasing attention in education policy and practice due to growing evidence that related constructs are strongly predictive of long-term academic achievement and attainment. However, the work of educators to support SEL is hampered by a lack of available, unbiased measures of related competencies. In…

Objectives: Given the pervasiveness of emotional and behavioral deficits of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), there is a pressing need for effective interventions to address their difficulties on Facial Expression Recognition and Emotion Understanding (FER/EU). Qunatiandi, a structured, app-based intervention program that is…

Social and emotional learning competencies are included within physical education standards in the United States and abroad. Students should begin learning these important life skills in physical education at an early age, but most of the available teaching strategies target secondary environments. Physical educators can intentionally integrate…

The aim of this paper is to describe a school-based universal intervention (the Tilly's Life Center "I Am Me" program) to promote emotional competence and social-emotional skills in adolescents. We present results of a mixed-methods program evaluation conducted in public schools in Southern California. In Study 1, sixteen students…

Depressive adolescents are a challenging and vulnerable group in schools. Specific developmental features such as irritability and comorbid behavioural disorders complicate the recognition of their emotional problems for peers, teachers and even parents. Our research shows that teachers tend to overlook depressive feelings in adolescents; however,…

This action guide provides school leadership teams with a resource for integrating the social, emotional and academic needs of young people into the daily student experience, from the time a bus driver greets a student until the end of the day. It supports the school leader and her/his team in mapping out an approach for integrating the social,…

The school-based elementary mentor program in this study paired community members with students in a one-hour, once weekly developmental program that focused on building relationships through conversation, crafts, games, and trips. This quantitative study with a purposeful sample (n = 30) examined the social, emotional, and academic impact of…

In order to further understand what educators can do - and are doing - to build strong relationships, Transforming Education (TransformEd) has produced a series of briefs or "stories from the field" that are intended to share student and educator perspectives about developing and sustaining strong relationships within the classroom and…

This paper, authored in collaboration with researchers from Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reviews findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) at a partner school, focused on understanding the effects of a direct-to-student intervention on students' mindfulness…

Social emotional learning (SEL) is broadly understood to be a process through which people build awareness and skills in managing emotions, setting goals, establishing relationships, and making responsible decisions. Research highlighted in this report demonstrates that the effective integration of SEL in school systems creates a foundation for…

New advances in neurobiology are revealing that brain development and the learning it enables are directly dependent on social-emotional experience. Growing bodies of research reveal the importance of socially-triggered epigenetic contributions to brain development and brain network configuration, with implications for social-emotional…

In addition to excelling in subjects such as science, math, arts, and social studies, students must also develop skills like resiliency, adaptability, and collaboration in order to truly succeed in the world. But how do schools effectively measure those skills when they so often rely on standardized assessments? This article provides a thorough…

Currently, 69% of American four- and five-year-olds are enrolled in some kind of center-based early childhood education (ECE) program, and 43 of the 50 states of the USA offer state-funded prekindergarten programs. This creates an important opportunity for the early promotion of social, emotional, and behavioral competencies and early intervention…

The conflicting education values in Hong Kong kindergartens and primary schools pose various challenges to kindergarten teachers in providing pupils with a smooth transition to primary school which requires collaboration from schools and families. This study explored these challenges as well as the benefits of a professional teacher training…

Students flourish by having positive learning experiences at school. Here we describe an action research study undertaken in an Australian primary school that was intended to promote the development of students' positive learning identities and resources. We partnered with classroom teachers to devise pedagogical practices that explicitly targeted…