Teaching the Whole Child

Social-emotional learning is critical to the introduction of college- and
career-readiness standards, which increase the demands on students’ ability to
engage in deeper learning and shift the focus and rigor of instruction (National
Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA Center] & Council of Chief
State School Officers [CCSSO] 2010a; NGA Center & CCSSO, 2010b).

To aid this critical work, this Research-to-Practice Brief aims to do the following:

1. Identify the instructional practices that promote student social-emotional
learning, which in turn are critical for student academic learning.
2. Showcase how three popular professional teaching frameworks embed
practices that influence not only student academic learning but also student
social and emotional competencies.

The brief begins by providing a definition of social-emotional learning and a discussion
of why it is important.