Social-Emotional Learning for Teachers
Often, we forget that teachers are humans. They may struggle with personal vices, be traumatized by negative events, OR be happy and act silly because of it. In essence, teachers are just as human as you and me.
Let’s face it. The school is a social world constructed by intricate interrelationships (Waller, 1932).
“Young teachers fail because they do not know how to keep order. Brilliant specialists do their jobs poorly because they do not understand the human nature of classroom. Teacher training has done much to improve the general run of instruction, but it can do vastly more if it equips beginning teachers with social insight. For it needs insight to put advanced educational theories into practice when schools and communities are attached to the old and antagonistic to the new. — Willard Waller, 1932”
After 90 decades, this message still rings true now.
The Gallup Panel Workforce Study conducted with 12,319 full-time employees in February 2022 found that K-12 workers have the highest burnout rate at 44% (Gallup, 2022). Within the K-12 employee population, teachers are found to have the highest burned-out rate at 52%.
Closer to home in Malaysia, a study conducted in 2019 with 356 teachers in Klang showed that 43% of the teachers suffered depression, 68% had anxiety, and 32.3% were highly stressed (Othman and Sivasubramaniam, 2019).
Having once been a teacher, and am still actively involved in the fields of education, I can testify that the emotional toll that builds up within have greatly affected me personally, my relationship with my students, and colleagues alike.
When a teacher could no longer withstand the social and emotional pressure of teaching, the classroom climate and students’ performance deteriorate (Marzano, Marzano, & Pickering, 2003, cited in Cohan and Honigsfeld, 2011). As a result of the emotional pressure mounting, a teacher might be reactive and respond punitively which does not encourage self-regulation and will reinforce cyclical classroom disruption.
Emotions, Social Affects and Stress
Experiences caused by exteroceptive senses (vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell) create emotions, which then lead to the expression of feelings (Damasio and Carvalho, 2013). Nevertheless, these are not feelings in and of themselves. Because emotions and feelings are closely intertwined, we often mistake one for the other.
As emotions are affected by external stimuli — be it due to being in love with someone, being angry with another, or being frustrated because of a traffic jam — it has a strong social component to it (DeSteno & Salovey, 1996). Whenever we are in a social setting, we share our emotions through social behaviours like the tone of our voices, our touch and even through shared interests (Hertenstein, 2002; Oatley, 2003; Scherer, Johnstone, & Klasmeyer, 2003). Therefore, emotions influence the way we judge our social circumstances and relationships. Negative experiences through our social encounters might lead to mounting stress when we are not able to handle them well.
The National Institute of Mental Health defines stress as the physical or mental responses to external causes (I’m So Stressed Out! Fact Sheet, 2022). When stressed, the brain turns on the “fight or flight” responses to a perceived threat (Kashouty, 2022). The amygdala is activated which leads to a series of events like the production of the stress hormone cortisol, increased glucose levels and increased heart rate.
Stress itself is actually beneficial to us. It helps us to respond in emergencies, creates a sense of urgency or helps us prepare for danger. However, when the stress level is too high, and we do not know how to manage it, there can be detrimental effects.
The Effects of Chronic Stress on the Brain
When the body is in a constant “fight or flight” mode, the elevated cortisol levels will then cause problems with digestion, sleep and the immune system. A person who experiences this might feel sluggish, unmotivated, irritable or even depressed and anxious.
What happens to the brain when a person is under chronic stress?
High levels of cortisol can deteriorate the brain’s ability to function properly (Bernstein, 2022). It can disrupt the synapse regulation which results in loss of sociability and the avoidance of interactions with people. It can also kill brain cells and reduces the size of the prefrontal cortex, a key area for memory and learning. While the prefrontal cortex shrinks, the size of the amygdala increases, making the brain more receptive to stress. This may cause an endless vicious cycle where the body is in a constant hyperaroused mode.
The Good News: Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Brain Plasticity
Chronic stress can be remediated by behavioural or top-down interventions, which may include cognitive behaviour therapy, physical activity and programmes that promote social integration (McEwen, 2012). Many of the interventions intended to promote plasticities, such as physical activity and social interactions that provide meaning and purpose work within the range of normal behaviour and physiology.
Teaching SEL to students is a recent phenomenon, but if teachers are struggling with their personal emotional conflicts, how can they model and teach the skills to the students?
According to Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), SEL is an integral part of education and human development (What Is the CASEL Framework? — CASEL, 2022). The CASEL Framework addresses 5 social-emotional competencies:
- Self-Awareness
- Self-Management
- Social Awareness
- Relationship Skills
- Responsible Decision-Making
Intervention Suggestions
Going to therapy sessions can be a very pricy attempt. Several cheaper options that one can consider are:
- Self-Awareness:
- Identify and recognize your emotions and feelings.
- Use the Emotional Pyramid of Needs as a guide. Begin with gentle acceptance. Accept one’s current condition, no matter how challenging because this is a prerequisite for positive change.
- Understand and accept that some students may have faced experiences that are at odds with the school systems. Explain the “why” behind what you are doing.
2. Self-Management
- Manage stress effectively via physical activities. Blood flow improves prefrontal and parietal coretex enhancing executive functions (McEwen, 2012). Regular activity like walking 1 hour a day for 5 days a week has shown to increase hippocampal volume.
3. Social Awareness & Relationship Skills
- Social integration and finding meaning and purpose in life have shown to protect the brain against allostatic load and dementia (McEwen, 2012). Spend time with people you can trust and do some physical activities together. Join a cause to meet new people which can expand one’s mindview and perspectives.
4. Responsible Decision-Making
- Identify and analyze problems. If the issue bothers you too much and you can’t handle it, brain-dump it on someone you trust. This person may help you to explore to look at the situation from another angle.
- Solve problems as they arise instead of denying or rejecting it as the mental load that builds up due to it may continuously trigger the amygdala to be in a hyperaroused mode.
Appendix:
The Science of Emotions: Jaak Panksepp at TEDxRainier
Reference List:
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Cohan, A. and Honigsfeld, A., 2011. Breaking the mold of preservice and inservice teacher education. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Education, p.134.
Damasio, A. and Carvalho, G., 2013. The nature of feelings: evolutionary and neurobiological origins. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(2), pp.143–152.
DeSteno, D. A., & Salovey, P. (1996). Jealousy and the characteristics of one’s rival: A self-evaluation maintenance perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 920–932.
Gallup, I., 2022. K-12 Workers Have Highest Burnout Rate in U.S.. [online] Gallup.com. Available at: <https://news.gallup.com/poll/393500/workers-highest-burnout-rate.aspx> [Accessed 20 August 2022].
Hertenstein, M. J. (2002). Touch: Its communicative functions in infancy. Human Development, 45, 70–94.
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McEwen, B., 2012. Brain on stress: How the social environment gets under the skin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(supplement_2), pp.17180–17185.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). 2022. I’m So Stressed Out! Fact Sheet. [online] Available at: <https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/so-stressed-out-fact-sheet> [Accessed 22 August 2022].
Oatley, K. (2003). Emotional expression and experience in the visual and narrative arts. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer, & H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of the affective sciences (pp. 481–502). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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Scherer, K. R., Johnstone, T., & Klasmeyer, G. (2003). Vocal expression of emotion. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer, & H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of the affective sciences (pp. 433–456). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Waller, W., 1932. The sociology of teaching. New York: J. Wiley & sons, inc.
