Social and Emotional Learning

The report is called:

As usual, I suggest you look at the whole publication if you have time.

I’ve picked out some key points:

Self-control and self-regulation matter most consistently for adult outcomes, e.g. better self-regulation is strongly
associated with mental well-being; good physical health and health behaviours; and socio-economic and labour market outcomes.
Self-perceptions and self-awareness, such as self-esteem and the belief that one’s own actions can make a difference are also found to be important for many adult outcomes.
Social skills, related to peer relationships, sociability and social functioning in childhood, also matter.
Good emotional health in childhood matters for mental well-being as an adult.

In a very contemporary context:

Compared with cognitive ability assessed at the same age (10 years), social and emotional skills:

matter more for general mental well-being (such as greater life satisfaction, mental health and well-being);
matter similarly for health and health related outcomes (such as lower likelihood of obesity, smoking and drinking, and better self-rated health);
matter similarly for some socio-economic and labour market outcomes (such as higher income and wealth, being employed, and not being in social housing);
matter less for other socio-economic and labour market outcomes such as obtaining a degree, having higher wages and being employed in a top job (although there is nonetheless
a relationship to these outcomes).
Differences in these skills accounted for almost 10% of the higher likelihood of being in a top job enjoyed by children with parents from professional backgrounds. Importantly, this effect is on top of the role played by cognitive ability, which accounted for roughly 20% of increased likelihood.
It suggests that interventions to improve these skills are likely to improve access to a competitive top job if they can help children to achieve better qualifications in school.

But what about our input?

New teachers were described as sometimes under-prepared in this area which led to suggestions to include child psychology and social and emotional learning in both initial teacher training (ITT) and continuing professional development (CPD).
Recognising the achievements children and young people make in social and emotional learning was described as being really important.

TEACHER INFORMANT