"Brown Bag" Special Interest Group Meeting: Implementing and Assessing Social Emotional Learning in Schools

This session will be an open discussion for anyone whose research includes social emotional learning. As new SEL strategies, curricula, and programming continue to be developed, several questions arise as to how best to implement these practices and to assess their outcomes. As SEL becomes more widely recognized by schools and adopted into the curriculum delivered universally, what will its role be in more targeted preventive interventions? Are classroom teachers the best facilitators of SEL? How are SEL outcomes affected when it is taught as a separate stand-alone subject versus when it is integrated across the academic curriculum? To assess SEL outcomes, what factors should a researcher consider when choosing among tests of knowledge, self-reports, peer-reports, and teacher- or parent-reports? How can researchers play a role in guiding schools to use evidence-based practices and assessments? These are some broad discussion starters; the session will be open to focus on the interests of the participants.