The Effects of SEL Implementation in High School Biology Classrooms

There has been a recent increase in teachers’ attempts to incorporate Social Emotional Learning (SEL) into their school classrooms. Many have chosen to follow the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) theoretical framework, focusing on the five competencies that SEL implementation has an effect on. In addition, schools represent a natural setting to teach and learn cognitive skills, but they also provide a natural opportunity for students to learn social and emotional skills (van de Sande et al., 2019). Similarly, the teacher conducting the self-study aimed to incorporate SEL practices into their high school science classroom in order to foster student engagement, increase classroom community, and promote student achievement. Students were presented with self-reflections and surveys in order to provide meaningful responses and personal insight to their social and emotional well-being and thought. The teacher also collected data through observation and field notes which provided immediate notes on classroom community and student achievement. The collection of multiple different sources of data aided the teacher in analyzing and drawing conclusions from the effects of the SEL implementation in their high school Biology classroom. Additionally, implications towards data collection may have been present due to the efforts of the teacher attempting to implement SEL into their daily lessons.