In elementary school, I had a favourite teacher, Mrs. Parker. I (and my parents) requested that Mrs. Parker be my teacher for as long as possible; she taught me for two years in a row. The experience was superb for everybody involved: I arrived early each day, engaged earnestly in activities, and had meaningful and frequent chats with Mrs Parker.
This changed in high school. In grade 8 (1997), I became withdrawn and experienced mild depression. Of course, puberty played a role in this. Nevertheless, I believe my school’s lack of formal social and emotional learning extended and intensified this damaging experience (bullying was thankfully not a factor). Progressing through to Grade 12, formal social emotional learning became scant, substituted by content acquisition for high-stakes tests. This is, at first glance, a logical progression (schools must prepare students for the outside world). On further reflection, however, I strongly believe the outside world needs more compassionate citizens who have a high degree of awareness of self and others. My inquiry project seeks to explore ways to create socially and emotionally supportive senior-level classrooms, particularly in the context of the new BC curricula. I will assess their usefulness by also examining how SEL links to student wellbeing, academic performance, and quality of life in adulthood.
Inquiry Question
What strategies can teachers use to enhance social emotional learning in senior high school classrooms, in particular Business Education?
Why research this topic?
I want my students to be well.
This purpose statement arose from self-interest: happier, more self-aware students will make my education career enjoyable. The teaching journey I embarked on just a few months ago has already provided insight into conventional teaching methods, which indirectly foster student wellbeing (for example, through fair assessment and classroom management). So much education research focuses on students with labels. Being a slightly oppositional and defiant individual, I wanted to explore the typical student’s education experience, the one without a label, and find out how to make their high school years exceptional. Social emotional learning techniques provide a proven and relatively benign avenue for exploring how to directly improve most students’ wellbeing (Lyndsay, 2013). Blum & Libbey state that “many students…become less connected to school as they progress from elementary to middle to high school, and this lack of connection negatively affects their academic performance, behaviour, and health” (2004, from Durlak et al, 2011). Throughout this inquiry and the next thirty years, I will continuously keep abreast of research on the subject.