Focus on SEL for an Inclusive Classroom
Introduction — The complexity of different learning needs
As a person with dyslexia, I always make careless mistakes, no matter how often teachers and friends remind me. To avoid embarrassing myself, I avoided reading and writing. I also developed the belief that I am never going to write well.
To be fair, teachers and friends meant well when they told me about my mistakes. But if you are always in the “limelight” for making the most mistakes, you will develop the habit of avoiding them.
In a class of students with diverse learning needs, dyslexia is only one of the many issues that make up the complexity. As such, using differentiated instruction (DI) strategy alone may not help the students learn.
For example, student A, who was in the low readiness group, constantly made careless mistakes, although the tasks were considered easy for him. The fear of embarrassment made him want to avoid continuing the practice, which upset the teacher.
Student A decided to talk to student B instead of practising. The teacher scolded A for talking in class. Many students in the class started judging both of them, making them dislike the class more.
What would happen to A if this scenario happened repeatedly for months? Would it reduce his self-efficacy and motivation to study? What happens if ten other students also have difficulty following the lesson?
Developing their social-emotional competencies first
“Social and emotional learning (SEL) provides a foundation for safe and positive learning and enhances students’ ability to succeed in school, careers, and life.”
— (Weissberg, 2016)
This year, Michelle collaborated with me to understand more about differentiated instruction. She believes teachers should first develop the students’ social-emotional competencies (SEC) to create class equity.
The reason is simple: for improvement to happen in any skill, you need to practise. When you practise, you will fail. Sometimes, the failure can be embarrassing because you might be the only one who fails.
When you fail, you must have the right mindset to continue the practice. You must continue to believe in yourself and must continue the practice to see improvement. And you might even fail many more times before you finally see improvement.
As such, you need to develop the competencies of self-awareness, self-management and responsible decision-making.
The people around you should also not judge you just because you fail. They should have the empathy to understand your challenges. They should also think of ways to help you overcome your challenges so that all of you can meet the learning goal.
As such, you and your friends must develop social awareness and relationship management competencies.
“Having strong social-emotional competencies can improve your child’s school performance.”
— (Ministry of Education, Singapore, n.d.)
As we observed Michelle’s badminton lesson, we were often surprised by the safe learning environment during the lesson. Students were unafraid of making mistakes, and everyone worked together to meet the learning goal.
Michelle’s strategy for making the learning environment safe is to develop the students’ SEC. This makes any DI strategy, such as peer coaching or tiered grouping, seem easy to employ.
Developing Self-Awareness and Self-Management
“You never teach a subject. You always teach a child.”
— Dorothy Height
Michelle often reminded the students to know their own abilities, set realistic targets and practise a lot. Upon reflection, I realised I do not give such reminders, although it seems obvious.
Many students hope to do well but fear we will judge them if they make mistakes. Their experiences show that every positive affirmation comes with corrective feedback. For example, if you praise them, they know a “but” or “however” will follow.
When that happens, they are further convinced that they are not talented enough to learn sports. Only a few students with high self-efficacy would believe that failures are just part of learning.
Like how some of us will always tell people we are not talented in art. But if we think back, how often did we draw? Was it because our occasional drawings looked ugly, we decided we were not talented?
On the other hand, if you have the self-awareness that your drawing looks ugly because you hardly draw, you will know that you just need to manage your expectations and make the decision to practice more.
As Michelle continued to remind the students throughout the lessons, we could see that they understood the intention of every practice — progress.
By always affirming the effort and not the outcome, Michelle is conditioning the students not to fear losing or embarrassing themselves because they knew perfection was never the intention in the learning process.
For example, the badminton lesson would always start with a warm-up of “Hit as many shots as you can with your partners”. She would make sure that the students decide on the target themselves.
As teachers, we want to give bite-size instruction, so students have more time to practice. As such, we might prefer to use the limited time to give corrective feedback instead of telling them to try again.
However, when we talk more about the effort than the outcome, the students would not be afraid to make mistakes because they know we are looking out for practice and can trust them to make the adjustments themselves.
Social Awareness and Relationship Management
“When students feel safe and supported, they are truly ready and able to learn”
— Laura Weaver & Mark Wilding
We often notice that students always help their friends if they need help. And that happens without Michelle telling them to do so. So, it is always nice to see everyone working together to meet the learning goal.
For example, if the practice tasks are challenging, we often see students cheering and helping their friends find strategies to overcome their challenges. It is tempting to say that Michelle is lucky to have a class of helpful students. But as we probe further, this is not the case.
Since the start of the year, Michelle has been working hard to develop the mindset that everyone is responsible for making the class a safe learning environment. She constantly sets high expectations for them in this aspect.
For example, they must help set up the lesson area, remind one another to turn off the classroom lights and lock the door, and help their friends achieve their learning goals.
She also ensured they did not always practise with the same partners. She constantly explained to them that everyone should work with different people so that they can understand the challenges of other classmates.
The effort was worth it because every time we observed the lesson, the environment seemed so welcoming for everyone to learn.
Responsible Decision-Making
“The research is clear: emotions determine whether academic content will be processed deeply and remembered.”
— Marc Brackett
It is difficult for teenagers to make the right decision, especially when learning seems daunting for many. Playing in a team game is even more daunting, especially when they often make mistakes, causing the team to lose.
If you have heard of the fight-or-flight response (Cherry, 2022), you will understand that the amygdala in the brain may produce such responses unintentionally whenever you feel a threat.
As discussed above, students could feel threatened in any practice task or game. What would a fight-or-flight response look like?
In a fight response, they may quickly blame their partners or hit even harder, which worsens the errors. In a flight response, they might let their partners do most of the work to avoid making more mistakes.
Michelle is always quick to point out the “unacceptable behaviours” to the students because the environment becomes unsafe if students develop bad learning habits, such as giving up or blaming one another.
She constantly explains why such behaviours would slow down learning and create an unsafe environment for the classmates to learn.
To condition them to make the right decision, she guides them verbally or by demonstrating what to do when things are not going well. For example, they can slow down the practice or modify the task so that they can see more success.
Conclusion
“Having strong social-emotional competencies can improve your child’s school performance.”
— (Ministry of Education, Singapore, n.d.)
Having collaborated with many teachers, I concluded that having a class of motivated students who care for one another is definitely not by chance. There is also no “magic bullet” to creating such a learning environment.
From observing the lesson to conversation to understanding how Michelle teaches, we had a deeper understanding of the benefits of social and emotional learning in the classroom, especially when the learning needs are so diverse.
The collaboration also helped me improve my parenting. Instead of giving my daughter corrective feedback all the time, I now spend more time teaching her how to manage her expectations and her emotions when things do not go well.
I also constantly encourage her to try to understand her friends’ emotions before judging them and to help them whenever she can. By always encouraging and helping others, she has recently started to see some success in her studies and sports!
References
Cherry, K. C. (2022, November 7). What is the Fight-or-Flight response? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-fight-or-flight-response-2795194
Ministry of Education, Singapore. (n.d.). Social and emotional learning. Ministry of Education (MOE). https://www.moe.gov.sg/education-in-sg/our-programmes/social-and-emotional-learning
Weissberg, R. (2016, February 15). Why social and emotional learning is essential for students. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-sel-essential-for-students-weissberg-durlak-domitrovich-gullotta
