.:: Emotional/Moral Development ::.

Covering the section of Emotional/Moral Development for Chapter three: Jen Radaskie

Article Title: "Enhancing School Based Prevention and Youth Development Through Coordinated Social, Emotional, and Academic Learning"

Article Authors/Contributors (as listed in article): Mark J Greenberg, Roger P Weissberg, Mary Utne O'Brien, Joseph E Zins, Linda Fredricks, Hank Resnik, and Maurice J Elias

Article Summary:  This article places a strong emphasis on effective education by means of ensuring social and emotional needs are met.  Furthermore, the authors are concerned with the limitedness of these goals.  What the article aims for is a guide for school improvement.  To do this, they have covered the background of academic learning which exposes the readers to some statistics that truly are eye-opening when we consider the reasons the world of academia has shifted to such an extent.  From there, the authors move on to present various approaches that can be taken to improve the social and emotional aspects of learning.  Finally, they take an in-depth look at the issues that have since been considered as damaging to students in today's academic setting.

Key Points:

1. High-quality education should teach young people to interact in socially skilled and respectful ways.
1. Schools should also teach student to practice positive, safe, and healthy behaviors, contribute ethically and responsibly to their peers, family, school and community, as well as possess basic competencies, work habits, and values as a foundation for meaningful employment and engaged citizenship.  (These are the qualities  high-quality education seeks to teach).
2. Social Emotional Learning, SEL, instruction should begin in preschool and continue through high-school.
1. SEL allows students to recognize and manage their emotions, appreciate others perspectives, establish goals, make responsible decisions, and handle situations effectively.
3. Positive youth development programs, like promotion and prevention programs, make a difference; results of studies taken showed improvements in interpersonal skills, quality of peer and adult relationships, and academic achievement.  Results also indicated a reduction in problem behaviors.
4. There are 3 effective strategies that encourage school-based prevention strategies:
1. Teaching students SEL values and how to apply them, combined with ethical values in everyday life through interactive classroom instruction, providing frequent opportunities for student self-direction, and school/community service.
2. Fostering respectful, supportive relationships with other students, staff, and parents.
3. Supporting and rewarding positive, social, health, and academic behavior through systematical school-friendly community approaches.
5. Training for schools--superintendents, principals, teachers, and parents--must be further developed and policies must also be developed  which will support the successful introduction and institutionalization of these school-based prevention programs.

Complete Reference:

Greenberg, M. T., Weissberg, R. P., Zins, J. E., Fredricks, L., & Elias, M. (2003). Enhancingschool-based prevention and youth development through coordinated social, emotional, and academic learning. American Psychologist, 58(6/7), 466-474.