Rachel Liang

Assessing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Review of the Literature on Assessment Tools and Related Issues

There is widespread acceptance of the benefits of social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum in the educational context. However, the assessment of learning outcomes is not so clearly documented. This review compares SEL and the related constructs in three international settings, namely Australia, UK and USA, and then focuses on the assessment tools and practices used to examine SEL learning outcomes. To identify the assessment approaches used, multiple database searches were conducted. Boolean searches were conducted using the following terms: student, learning, assessment, resilience, perseverance, self-management, social emotional learning, personal, social capability, psychology of learning and learning outcomes. The database searches were limited to English-language scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals published from January 1990 onwards. Eight key studies were examined in depth, which collectively reported on over 120 tools/instruments. Lessons learnt from these studies are detailed in the chapter. From the review, it is clear that there is no magic bullet for assessing SEL across all age groups. The choice of measures differs depending on the purpose of the assessment. In building an approach to assessment, there are eight key considerations that may be distilled from the literature. A number of suggestions are offered for future definition and assessment of SEL.

All children have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves and for the nation

THIS PAPER REPORTS ON a social emotional learning (SEL) program entitled COPE-R and the role of the teacher in supporting young childrens developing social and emotional understandings, particularly around caring and empathy. Thirty-eight four- and five-year-old children and their teacher from an inner-Melbourne city long day preschool program participated in the research. The teacher was also a member of the research team hence the study falls within the realm of practitioner-research, which aims to shed further light on the role of the teacher in designing, implementing and evaluating challenging programs for young children. A qualitative case study methodology was employed to ensure that the voices of the children and the teacher-researcher were centrally located in the research. The data included the teacher-researchers program plans and reflective journal notes, childrens drawing-tellings and transcribed child interview data. Findings highlight the capacities of the participating children to engage in the COPE-R program and to demonstrate increased social emotional skill development—as evidenced through being able to identify and give voice to social emotional issues, enact relational empathy, demonstrate care for others and the environment, and recognise emotions in self and others. Also, the findings provide insight into the role of the teacher in implementing the COPE-R program, which enabled the participating children to give voice to a range of social and emotional issues including empathy, reciprocity, generosity, kindness and joy.