Should Schools Embrace Social and Emotional Learning?

Calls for schools to pay heed to children's social and emotional learning have proliferated in recent years. Is the current enthusiasm for educating the "whole learner" a much-needed correction to the narrow concentration on academic skills in the modern reform era? Or is it a misguid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Education next 2019-07, Vol.19 (3), p.68
Main Authors: Balfanz, Robert, Whitehurst, Grover J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
Accountability
Educational Change
Elementary Secondary Education
Emotional Development
Evidence Based Practice
Holistic Approach
Resistance (Psychology)
Science Instruction
Social Development
Social Emotional Learning
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Summary:Calls for schools to pay heed to children's social and emotional learning have proliferated in recent years. Is the current enthusiasm for educating the "whole learner" a much-needed correction to the narrow concentration on academic skills in the modern reform era? Or is it a misguided retreat from academic rigor and an attempt to sidestep demands to hold schools accountable? In this forum, Robert Balfanz, research professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Education, argues that learning science favors an approach to schooling that addresses all aspects of development--social, emotional, and academic. In the companion essay, Grover "Russ" Whitehurst, nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute and professor emeritus of psychology and pediatrics at Stony Brook University, maintains that the current approach to social and emotional learning is misguided, and that the evidence does not support the claims. [For "An Integrated Approach Fosters Student Success. Forum: Should Schools Embrace Social and Emotional Learning?," see EJ1217943. And for "A Prevalence of 'Policy-Based Evidence-Making.' Forum: Should Schools Embrace Social and Emotional Learning?," see EJ1217947.]
ISSN:1539-9664
1539-9672