Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Competencies

Tan rounded rectangle labeled “Social Emotional + Behavioral Competencies” with a black two-leaf plant icon.

21st century living requires skills beyond reading, writing and math. In order to be successful at work, school and life, people need to be able to collaborate, problem solve, self-regulate, take the perspective of others and so much more. The good news is that the research shows all of these skills can be taught and cultivated.

Social, emotional and behavioral competencies refer to all of the knowledge, skills, attitudes and actions that promote positive human development and interaction.

What can I expect when we build social, emotional and behavioral competencies?

Explicitly teaching and cultivating these social, emotional, and behavioral competencies as a universal intervention is associated with:

Decreases in behavioral challenges such as misbehavior and aggression (Goldberg et al., 2018)
Improved social, emotional and relational skills essential for success with post-secondary activities such as post-secondary education or employment (Taylor et al., 2017)
Increases in youth ability to manage mental health challenges, such as depression and stress (Durlak et al., 2011)
Improved attitudes about themselves, others and school (Sklad et al., 2012)
Gains in academic achievement (van de Sande et al., 2019)

Essential Elements

Expectations and Procedures

School expectations and procedures prioritize developing social, emotional and behavioral competencies.

Expectations and procedures in a school context refer to the established routines, rules, and guidelines that govern behavior and interactions within the school community. Expectations are the standards for behavior and academic performance that individuals are expected to meet while procedures are step-by-step processes and routines for carrying out the expectations. These expectations and procedures should prioritize a preventative, universal, data-driven instructional approach to social, emotional, and behavioral competencies for students and staff.

Expectations Include:

Behavioral: Respecting teachers and peers, following rules, and resolving conflicts peacefully.
Academic: Completing assignments, participating in discussions, and striving for personal best
Social-Emotional: Demonstrating kindness, responsibility, and self-control
Safety: Following emergency protocols, maintaining a clean environment, and reporting concerns.
Attendance: Being on time and attending school regularly

Procedures include:

Classroom: Walk in quietly, find your seat, take out materials, and begin a warm-up activity.
Technology: Follow digital citizenship guidelines (no cyberbullying, responsible internet use).
Restroom: Wash hands before returning to class.
Playground/Recess: Include others and resolve conflicts peacefully.
Cafeteria: Clean up after eating and dispose of trash properly

Guiding Questions

What expectations and procedures are in place to support SEB competencies for all- students, staff, and caregivers?
What are the SEB expectations at your school? How are those identified and determined? Who is involved in those decisions?
What procedures does your school have that are explicitly SEB focused? How do procedures around SEB have a preventative and universal focus? How are procedures delivered/implemented to students and to staff?
How does everyone participate, advocate and support SEB policies and procedures?
How do you discuss the impact of bias on your school-wide policies and procedures?
How is advancing SEB skills made an expectation for the whole school? What shared language is used around SEBC at school?

Mindsets

Staff understand that just like academics, behavior must be explicitly taught, practiced, and reinforced.
Staff are aware of biases that might influence procedures and expectations around SEB competencies.
Staff are aware of the dangers of implicit bias within school-wide policies and procedures.
Staff believe that SEB competencies can be taught, learned and shaped.
Staff understand that punishment is not effective at skill building and thus does not create long-term change.
School leadership views issues of SEB competencies with a universal, prevention-focused lens.

Skills & Practices

Restorative practices are integrated throughout disciplinary procedures.
Teachers develop shared agreements with students around expected behavior in classes.
Staff discuss issues of SEB competencies with a skill-focused, strengths-based approach.
Essential behavioral expectations are consistent across the school.
Expectations are identified using a collaborative, diverse, team approach that includes students, staff and families.
Parents and caregivers are included in the decision-making process regarding culturally responsive conversations, discipline processes, and the development of SEB competencies at the school level.
Staff regularly have explicit conversations about the possible impacts of bias on the development and implementation of procedures, expectations, and school practices.

Resources

Culture of Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Learning

The culture of the school promotes social, emotional and behavioral learning.

The school culture refers to a group of beliefs, assumptions, values, actions, language, and artifacts which provide the identity of the school and a sense of shared identity among its members. The school culture values, develops and supports SEB learning within and among students, staff and families.

Guiding Questions

How does the climate and culture of the school support and cultivate SEB competencies for all?
How do your staff teach SEB skills? When? Where? Are these skills taught continuously, or only when a crisis emerges?
How is discipline handled in your school/district? In what ways do discipline practices foster the development of SEB competencies and meet the various social and emotional needs of students and staff?
How are staff encouraged to show/model their authentic selves & experiences?
How do staff talk about student performance? How do staff discuss individual students' SEB skills?
How do staff know what are developmentally appropriate SEB skills for their students? What supports are in place for staff as they support youth skill development?
In what ways does school leadership treat the staff the way staff are expected to treat the students?

Mindsets

All staff believe that advancing SEB competencies is part of role of the school.
Staff believe that learning includes mistakes and failure.
Staff believe that school is a place to practice.
Staff are curious about the behavior of others and believe it is important to learn more about the function of others' behavior.
Staff understand how SEB competency building is clearly connected with trauma-responsive, culturally-responsive, and restorative practices.
School staff and families understand how SEB competencies relate to academic performance.
Staff understand that it is important to model SEB competencies with students which includes showing emotions and modeling emotional regulation.
Staff understand that SEB skill development is individualized.

Skills & Practices

Staff set aside time in the day for SEB learning, such as morning meeting, homeroom, restorative circles, etc.
Staff integrate instruction around SEB competencies during all academic subjects.
Staff receive ongoing training around social emotional skill development.
Discussions of individual or aggregate student performance includes discussion of student SEB competencies.
All students are discussed in terms of their SEB competencies, not just those with behavioral challenges.
Staff show and model SEB skills by being authentic and transparent with their students.
School leadership show and model SEB skills when interacting with staff.

Resources

Understanding and Cultivating a Positive School Climate (CDE and Colorado State University)
Instructional Practices that Supports Social-Emotional Learning in Three Teaching Evaluation Frameworks (Center for Great Teaching and Learning - AIR)
Resilience in Schools and Educators (RISE) Program (University of Colorado - Center for Resilience and Well-Being)
Restorative Justice Practices and Racial Justice (Restorative Justice Colorado)

Positive Behavior Support Practices

Adults use positive behavior support practices.

Positive behavior supports refer to evidence-based strategies used to teach, model, reinforce and monitor prosocial skills that enhance students’ social, emotional and behavioral competencies while decreasing undesired or unwanted behaviors that inhibit learning and exclude students from learning environments. When integrated into a prevention-based framework, positive behavior supports create positive, predictable, equitable and safe learning environments, as well as improve social-emotional competence, academic success, and school climate.

Guiding Questions

How do adults in the school community support student behavioral skills?
What positive behavior supports are implemented schoolwide?
How do educators measure, recognize and celebrate student progress and growth related to SEB competencies?
How do educators get help (mentoring, training, etc.) with using effective positive behavior support practices in their individual classrooms?

Mindsets

Staff believe that reinforcement is more effective than punishment.
Staff believe that behavior can be taught.
Staff understand that all behavior is communication. Behavior often communicates an underlying unmet need or underdeveloped skill.
Staff understand that maladaptive behavior is often the result of students lacking the skills to meet expectations ("can't do vs. won't do" mindset).

Skills & Practices

Staff provide, teach, and reinforce clear explicit expectations with students.
Staff use, teach, and reinforce predictable routines.
Staff create classroom environments that support positive behavior, including but not limited to developing consistent routines, providing redirections in private conversations with students, using proximity to address behavior.
Staff carefully supervise and engage all students.
Staff provide positive reinforcement for expected behavior.
Staff use redirection and corrective feedback for unwanted behavior.
Staff acknowledge students for adhering to expectations and procedures more often than correcting them for engaging in unwanted and undesired behaviors (e.g., 5:1 correction ratios).
Professional development is regularly offered to staff regarding positive behavior supports, including but not limited to formal and informal trainings, access to refresher materials, mentoring/coaching.
Staff use restorative discipline practices.
Staff collaborate to solve problems.

Resources

Skill-Building for Educators

Schools provide social, emotional, and behavioral skill-building opportunities for educators.

Social, emotional, and behavioral competencies refer to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and actions that promote positive human development and interaction.

Skill-building opportunities include training, supported practice, mentorship, reinforcement, and ongoing coaching.

Staff skills to focus on include:

Self-awareness
Emotion labeling
Emotional understanding
Emotional acceptance
Emotion regulation and coping strategies
CASEL 5

Staff skill building includes:

Explicit training
Supported practice
Mentorship
Reinforcement
Ongoing coaching

Guiding Questions

How are social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) competencies taught to all staff?
How is embodiment/modeling by adults an explicit focus of your SEB competencies teachings?
What curriculum/materials/models/frameworks are being used to support SEB competencies for staff?
How does staff learn about the impact of trauma on SEB competencies for both youth and adults?
In what ways do staff incorporate culturally responsive, equity-centered practices into your instruction of SEB competencies?
How are staff taught to support the SEB competencies of all students?
How are staff taught to build and support SEB competencies for individual students?

Mindsets

Skills & Practices

Teachers receive training on how to explicitly teach SEB skills during whole group instruction (Tier 1).
Some staff receive training on how to explicitly teach SEB skills during small group instruction (Tier 2).
Staff receive explicit training on SEB skills for themselves.
Throughout the school day, staff explicitly model/embody SEB competencies in a variety of ways. (Examples: metacognition around their self-regulation process, transparency around their own emotional state and modeling of self-regulation, modeling use of effective problem solving strategies, etc.)
Staff receive opportunities for practice and feedback on their own SEB skills.
Staff receive training on trauma-responsive instruction, including how trauma might impact an individual’s SEB competencies.
Staff receive training on being culturally responsive with regard to SEB competencies.
Staff receive training on how to support SEB competencies in individual students, through coaching, mentoring, collaborative problem solving, etc.

Resources

Mental Health Literacy Implementation Resources (CDE-Project AWARE)
Strengthen Adult SEL - CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL (CASEL)
Social and Emotional Learning Coaching Toolkit (American Institutes for Research (AIR))
Implement Universal Trauma-Informed, Resilience-Oriented Schools Practices and Processes (Trauma-Informed, Resilience-Oriented Schools Toolkit)
Making SEL Culturally Competent (Edutopia)

Explicit Social, Emotional and Behavioral Instruction

Social, emotional and behavioral skills are explicitly taught to students.

Social, emotional, and behavioral competencies refer to the knowledge, skills, attitudes and actions that promote positive human development and interaction. Students require explicit instruction in these areas, including opportunities for direct instruction, supported practice, reinforcement and ongoing coaching.

Example student SEB skills include:

Self-awareness
Self-regulation
Empathy
Emotion identification and labeling
Perspective taking
Responsible decision making
Social awareness

Student skill building strategies includes:

Direct Instruction
Supported practice
Mentorship
Reinforcement
Ongoing coaching
Peer support

Qualities of effective SEB instruction:

Referred back to regularly
Modelled consistently beyond explicit instruction
Connections are developed between SEB instruction and other classroom activities (woven throughout)

Guiding Questions

How are SEB competencies taught to all students? Does your school have a set of SEB skills for students?
What curriculum/materials/models/frameworks are being used for SEB competencies for students? What is the scope and sequence? What skills are covered, and how do they align with your school expectations?
How do staff promote SEB competencies beyond the SEL curriculum? In what ways do staff support SEB competencies through daily interactions with youth?
In what ways are you incorporating culturally responsive, equity-centered practices into your instruction of SEB skills?
How are opportunities for individual practice embedded into the school day? How are opportunities to practice SEB competencies appropriately scaffolded for students age, ability, etc.?
If universal interventions around SEB competencies are not meeting the needs of an individual student, what other supports (Tier 2, Tier 3) are available at school?

Mindsets

Staff believe that social, emotional and behavioral skills can be taught/learned ; they are not just innate.
Staff believe that SEB skills are important enough to be taught, practiced and prioritized.
Staff believe that SEB skills require explicit instruction rather than implied structures, expectations, or rules.
Staff believe that social, emotional, and behavioral skills are all interconnected; you can't teach one without the others.
Staff believe that prevention work matters; it is important to teach these skills before we see a deficit.

Skills & Practices

Staff integrate instruction around SEB competencies during all academics.
Staff also receive SEB competencies specific curricula, including training on its effective implementation.
Staff interact with students individually and promote SEB skills through coaching, mentoring, collaborative problem solving, etc.
Students have opportunities to practice and receive feedback on their SEB competencies throughout the school day (examples: group work, think-pair-share, practicing self-regulation strategies as a class, restorative circles, morning meetings, mediation, etc.).
More intensive individual mental health, behavioral supports and social instruction are available for students within the school setting.