Educators' implementation and use of social and emotional learning early in the COVID-19 pandemic

Building Resilience and Social-Emotional Competencies in Elementary School Students through a Short-Term Intervention Program Based on the SEE Learning Curriculum

This study explored the positive effects of a six-week Social-Emotional and Ethical Learning® (SEE Learning) program on resilience and social and emotional competences, adapted for elementary students in Daegu, South Korea, a region strongly affected by the first outbreak of COVID-19. A total of 348 third- and fourth-grade students from 15 elementary schools participated, and the curriculum was tailored, emphasizing key areas such as resilience, attention, kindness, attention training, and compassion. Repeated measures analysis of variance (RMANOVA) tests showed statistically significant improvements between pre- and post-tests in resilience and its subscales, including self-efficacy, tolerance of negative affect, positive support relations, power of control, and spontaneity, as well as in social and emotional competencies, including emotional regulation, social skills, empathy, and social tendencies. Despite a lack of maintenance in all areas, at follow-up, the mean scores for self-efficacy, tolerance of negative affect, and positive support relations, as well as emotional regulation, social skills, empathy, and social tendency, remained higher than pre-test levels, suggesting some lasting benefits. The findings underscore the potential of the SEE Learning program integrated with resilience, mindfulness, compassion, and ethical practices to enhance students' resilience and social and emotional well-being. This study contributes to the growing body of evidence supporting the use of mindfulness and compassion-based SEL programs to mitigate the adverse effects of traumatic events on children's mental health.

Using Virtual Reality Interventions to Promote Social and Emotional Learning for Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This study provides a comprehensive review of the application of virtual reality (VR) in social and emotional learning (SEL) for children and adolescents over the past decade (January 2013-May 2023), with a specific interest in the relations between their technological and instructional design features. A search in Web of Science resulted in 32 relevant articles that were then manually screened. Coding analysis was conducted from four perspectives: participant characteristics, research design, technological features, and instructional design. The analysis provides insights into the VR literature regarding publication trends, target populations, technological features, instructional scenarios, and tasks. To test the effectiveness of VR interventions for promoting SEL, a meta-analysis was also conducted, which revealed an overall medium effect size and significant moderating effects of SEL disorder type and instructional task. Finally, based on the research results, the practical implications of and future research directions for applying VR in SEL were discussed.

What predicts the alleviation of Covid-related future anxiety in schoolchildren 6 to 9 months into the pandemic?

Introduction

Although the first COVID-19-related lockdown in the Spring of 2020 has contributed to an increase in mental health problems in many children worldwide, less is known about the longer-term effects of the pandemic on their (future) anxiety. This article examines resilience factors against children's Covid-relatedfut ure anxiety (CRFA).

Methods

N = 140 children (48,6% female) in 3rd and 4th grade classrooms in Northern Germany were asked to self-report about their CRFA, their anxiety, and the social climate in their classrooms in September (T1) and December 2020 (T2).

Results

Results indicate that 18.6% of the children experienced CRFA "often" in at least one item of the CRFA scale at T1. CRFA was more pronounced in girls and in children from immigrant families. Changes in children's CRFA between T1 and T2 were predicted by changes in their anxiety and changes in classroom climate. Children in classrooms with increasing levels of peer support tended to have decreasing levels of CRFA, whereas their agemates' CRFA in less supportive classrooms tended to increase over time.

Discussion

These results suggest that peer and teacher social support may bolster children's resilience against future anxiety in challenging times. Implications for teachers and schools are discussed.

Perceptions of Social-Emotional Learning Among K-12 Teachers in the USA During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process of acquiring and applying knowledge, skills, and attitudes to achieve long-term relational and emotional goals. Teachers often implement SEL strategies in the classroom; however, shifting to online schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted teachers' perceptions of their abilities to implement SEL. This study was designed to identify whether and how teachers' perceptions of SEL changed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers (N = 637) in the USA completed a demographic questionnaire, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and rated their beliefs about SEL during the pandemic on a modified version of the Comfort and Culture subscales of the Teacher SEL Beliefs Scale. Data were collected between September 2020 and March 2021. Teachers indicated that they felt neutral to comfortable with SEL and that they felt neutral to supported by their school culture for SEL during the pandemic. Lower depression symptoms, greater school poverty, and perceived general support (not specific to SEL) from the administration were associated with higher teacher comfort with SEL. Further, greater general support from the district and colleagues was associated with greater school culture supporting SEL during COVID-19. Results suggest that addressing teachers' internalizing symptoms and fostering a supportive work environment is important in aiding teachers in SEL implementation.