Social Emotional Engagement – Knowledge and Skills is professional learning designed to bring school climate initiatives into the classroom setting. The focus is on increasing student engagement by fostering initiation, independence, and investment within classroom instruction. Based upon the most current social neuroscience related to social emotional learning, our developmental framework provides a mechanism to enhance the provision of educational programming for all students within a universal design for learning framework. Both general and special educators serving diverse learners will benefit from these instructional practices and mentorship techniques.
The project focuses on:
1) Disseminating current social neuroscience related to how students learn and the importance of relationships in the classroom setting,
2) Supporting student engagement by getting the emotional “hook,” providing multiple modes of instruction, and encouraging students to “show what they know,” and
3) Building the capacity of each school system served to sustain practices through teacher-to-teacher mentorship strategies that align with adult learning best practices.
A Framework Informed by Evidence-Based Instructional Strategies and Assessment Protocols
Our Social-Emotional Engagement – Knowledge and Skills (SEE-KS) framework is focused on disseminating the most current social neuroscience related to student active engagement and provides a mechanism to enhance the provision of educational programming for all students by using evidence-based strategies from the universal design for learning (UDL) framework that enhance active engagement. Our focus is on increasing a learner’s engagement by fostering investment (i.e., being “hooked” and staying “connected,” independence (i.e., knowing “what to do”), and initiation (i.e., “sharing with others”) within natural routines as a means to “fuel” learning. At school, supports would be embedded in standards-based academic instruction at the universal Tier 1 level, as well as at higher tiers of instruction. Those participating in professional learning related to SEE-KS will learn how frequent and positive social connections ensure a learner’s brain architecture is forming the neural connections needed for attachment, language and literacy development, academic and social emotional behavior.
A particular focus of our efforts is placed on financial sustainability by supporting the development of internal capacity to sustain and replicate practices learned. SEE-KS includes a set of freely accessible tools that are designed to:
- Measure student active engagement,
- Identify opportunities to increase student active engagement across the day and within standards-based instruction,
- Provide a framework for selecting effective instructional strategies at both universal and higher tiers of support,
- Provide a structured, appreciative inquiry-based process for teachers to mentor one another at the school-based level and a process for state and regional educational agencies to support fidelity at the district level, and
- Collect data related to sustainability of the approach.
The tools provided can be used as part of a statewide, regional, district and/or an LEA’s efforts to implement a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) and professional learning focused on student active engagement, universal design for learning (UDL) classroom instruction, and Specially Designed Instruction (SDI). The goal is to ensure that districts or programs scale up their effort to ensure that all of their students are accessing the academic curriculum by addressing student active engagement.
Our approach focuses on embedding best practices from research-based, adult learning strategies by facilitating teacher-to-teacher mentorship in order to create a sustainable professional learning community at each school site served and the empowerment of mentors at the regional and/or district levels to sustain and replicate the approach in future school years.
Relationships and Social Connections are the Fuel for Learning! 