Emotions, Environments, and Elections: All Things New from the Education Collaboratory at Yale!
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We are grateful for your partnership as we work together to advance the science of learning and social and emotional development. Here are some updates from our team on what we’ve learned, and where we’ve been living our commitment to promoting equitable and inclusive SEL research, practice, and policy.
We look forward to our continued learning and growth, together.
In community,
Chris
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In the wake of a polarizing election, emotions are running high in our schools, homes, and communities. Emotion regulation—the ability to manage our affective responses in useful and healthy ways—is critical to charting a path forward. Here are three new papers from Education Collaboratory scientists unpacking and evolving the importance of emotion regulation for students and school personnel.
1. While cell phones are a major source of distraction from learning, let’s not forget that students will be distracted at school with or without cell phones- and that’s not always a bad thing. Learn the science behind distraction as a productive emotion regulation strategy for students to feel and do better in school in this recent guest opinion essay in Education Week, The Hidden Benefits of Distraction in the Classroom, by Eliyah Ahmad and Dr. ZJ Ng.
Check out the full article here. Ahmad, E., & Ng, Z. J. (2024, October 23).
2. In Understanding Students' Emotion Regulation Strategy Selection Using Network Analysis, now available for free in Personality and Individual Differences, our work — led by Dr. Cheyeon Ha, and supported by Drs. ZJ Ng, and Chris Cipriano — explores the strategies children and adolescents choose as they navigate their emotions in school across grades 1-12. We used network analysis to identify and describe the dynamic interconnections among students' use of eight different emotion regulation strategies (avoidance/escape, distraction, emotional support-seeking, acceptance, problem-solving, reappraisal/reframing, rumination/repetitive thinking, somatic relaxation) to differentially manage common emotions (anger, sadness, anxiety, boredom) and situations (academic, social, socio-academic, other) in school. Implications for practice include (1) the need for supporting a wider array of strategy options early and often across a student's academic career, and (2) the strategies adolescents prefer to use in school are not always if ever the strategies schools are most likely to teach (i.e., somatic relaxation (breathing). Let's commit to evolving how we support student emotions in school so that we maximize supporting ALL our nation's students to thrive.
3. A new large-scale study from the Education Collaboratory at the Yale Child Study Center reports on the affective experiences of more than 8,000 school personnel representing all 50 states and territories. This paper is the first first-author publication from Miranda Wood, who completed these analyses while she was a post-graduate associate at the Yale Child Study Center under the mentorship of Dr. Christina Cipriano. Miranda is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri. The team was supported by Drs. Cheyeon Ha and Marc Brackett.
The participants, ranging from educators, support staff, and administrators, were asked to reflect on their feelings, sources of stress and joy, and their perceptions of support during the turbulent year. The study focuses on the critical intersection of personal well-being and the broader sociopolitical environment, providing insights into how systemic issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and political polarization affected the emotional experiences of school staff. Personnel experiences were analyzed in cohorts based on critical events of the calendar year 2021, including fully remote instruction, the January 6th insurrection, the roll-out of the first vaccines, summer vacation, and returning to in-person instruction.
Implications for Practice Include:
Sociopolitical Influence: Personnel in Republican-voting states reported higher COVID-19-related stress, while those in Democrat-voting states identified uncertainty and technology issues as more frequent stressors. Political context significantly impacted the different educational challenges reported by teachers that their schools faced during 2021.
Stressors and Racial Disparities: Major stressors reported by personnel included lack of resources, heavy workload, and COVID-19 concerns, with notable racial disparities; Black and African American personnel reported COVID-19 as the top stressor and this pattern was significantly different from stressors reported across all other racial groups.
Sources of Joy: Students remained the primary source of joy for educators, across all demographic groups and political affiliations, across the entire year, followed in impact by coworker relationships.
Emotional Challenges and Resilience: School personnel experienced heightened anxiety, stress, and feeling overwhelmed in 2021 academic year, with positive emotions like happiness increasing toward the year’s end, indicating some resilience in adapting to challenges.
Need for SEL Support: Findings highlight the critical need for social and emotional learning (SEL) support for school personnel, as emotional well-being directly impacts their ability to manage classrooms and support student development.
For further details, check out the full publication, open access, here.
Full citation: Wood, K., Ha, C., Brackett, M., & Cipriano, C. (2024). Examining the Affective Experiences of U.S. School Personnel within the Sociopolitical Context of COVID-19. Education Sciences. 14(10), 1093; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14101093
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As 2024 comes to a close we are thrilled to share that Education Collaboratory science was the top TWO downloaded articles in the Journal of Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy!
It's time for the field of SEL to move from "what" to "how".
Led by Dr. Almut Zieher, and supported by Drs. Chris Cipriano, Mike Strambler, & Craig Bailey, and future Drs. Krista Smith and Tessa MacNaboe, the top downloaded article introduces a Framework for the Pedagogies of Social and Emotional Learning, open access, here: https://lnkd.in/e4KDF78f
This work is generously funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (R305A210262) and the corresponding FREE school-based classroom observation tool is coming soon. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is more than content; how SEL is taught also has powerful influences on its effectiveness. We apply principles of learning to how teachers can more effectively help students develop declarative, procedural, and conditional SEL knowledge using five pedagogies of SEL: modeling by narrating thoughts or demonstrating SEL behavior; practice promotion by having students repeat SEL information or behaviors; elaboration by providing nuanced SEL information; transfer promotion by discussing and helping students use SEL in varied situations; and validation by affirming diverse perspectives and experiences. By applying the pedagogies of SEL, teachers can improve the effectiveness of SEL in service of all students.
Led by Dr. Chris Cipriano, and supported by Drs. Cheyeon Ha, Michael McCarthy, and future Drs. Miranda Wood, Sehgal Kaveri, and Eliya Ahmad, A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of universal school-based SEL programs in the United States: Considerations for marginalized students, explores the latest available evidence of the effectiveness of SEL programs for students at the intersection of identity. This work was generously funded by the Oak Foundation. Check out what we’ve learned and what we need to learn!
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Our approach emphasizes community partnerships and collaborative engagements with schools and communities, designed to balance rigor, relevance, and reality in SEL design, implementation, and evaluations to support all students, schools, and communities, to benefit.
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Postdoctoral Associate in the Child Study Center
Send a big congratulations to Dr. Michael McCarthy, who recently defended his dissertation focusing on social and emotional development within families of children with intellectual disabilities. His research specifically examines the emotional intelligence and functioning of neurotypical siblings, with the goal of deepening understanding of family dynamics and supporting well-being. Additionally, he explores inclusive higher education experiences for students with intellectual disabilities, as well as international early childhood development and peacebuilding.
Prior to joining the Education Collaboratory, Michael contributed to various research initiatives, including work with the Early Childhood Peace Consortium, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and the Motivation, Emotion, Disability, and Inclusion (MEDIL) Lab at the University of Rochester. His research has taken him to South America, East Africa, and the Middle East, where he investigated disability, education, and peacebuilding efforts. He has also developed and taught interactive summer programs for elementary and middle school students at the Wakeman Boys and Girls Club.
Mike earned his B.A. in History with a minor in Human Rights from the University of Connecticut and his M.A. in Global Development and Peace from the University of Bridgeport.
Read more about him below!
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