Social-Emotional Culture

movement or sensory activities. Teachers can use them as a transition from one activity to another. Brain breaks take only a few minutes of time and give students a little break from what they’re doing to help their brains and bodies get energized and ready to return to learning. For example, at the start of the day, the teacher can incorporate some stretching; or to refocus after lunch, the teacher might play a game like Simon Says. There are lots of great free online resources to get started. Visit https://bit.ly/3gpZBFT for a brain breaks bank.

• Be aware of English learners’ needs. Avoid unnecessary reasons for students to have to speak in front of large groups of their peers. Working with a partner or in a small group might feel more comfortable at first. • Orchestrate study and process partners to support English learners.

When students can get to know a partner, there will be less anxiety about speaking English aloud. Staying with the same study buddy will feel safer. • Notice student stress levels, and work in opportunities for some playful tasks or quiet downtime to reduce anxiety and fatigue. The brain loves novelty so playing a quick game of Charades or Four Corners can be energizing and a great distraction if stress levels are high. For Four

Corners, label each corner as 1, 2, 3, 4 or A, B, C, D. Give students a choice prompt, and have them go to the corner that corresponds with their opinion or selection. • Be aware of students’ fears and stress levels around physical education tasks. Orchestrate ways for students to participate that support their abilities without embarrassing or humiliating them. Team selections can be devastating. Create random team selections or design teams ahead of time. Again, working in small groups or with a partner will feel less intimidating than participating all alone.

Body- and brain-friendly classrooms promote a healthy social-emotional culture. Social-emotional learning (SEL) refers to the process through which students learn and apply a set of social, emotional, and character skills that are necessary to succeed in school, in the workplace, in relationships, and ultimately as citizens. Further:

Social-emotional learning, then, is the first step toward developing a positive school climate, which can lead to fewer behavior problems, stronger social-emotional health, and higher academic motivation and achievement, especially for those populations that are more likely to struggle in school. (Thorton, 2018)

The following sections will discuss how to promote a social-emotional culture when certain elements may trigger stress for students: (1) lack of social and emotional skills; (2) lack of inclusion; (3) bullying, teasing, or put-downs; (4) self-esteem; and (5) cultural unresponsiveness, implicit bias, and stereotype threat. I will also offer body- andbrain-friendly strategies to reduce stress related to a social-emotional culture.

Lack of Social-Emotional Skills

When students haven’t yet developed core social-emotional competencies such as self-awareness, responsible decision making, relationship skills, social awareness, and self-management (see figure 3.1), they may experience frequent stress in classroom situations and lack the skills needed to navigate through the stressors (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2015).

Self-Management Managing emotions and behaviors to achieve one’s goals

Self-Awareness Recognizing one’s emotions and values as well as one’s strengths and challenges

Social Awareness Showing understanding and empathy for others

SocialEmotional Learning

Relationship Skills Forming positive relationships, working in teams, and dealing effectively with conflict

Source: Adapted with permission from CASEL, 2015.

Figure 3.1: Five core competency clusters of SEL.

Responsible Decision Making Making ethical, constructive choices about personal and social behavior

Developing social-emotional learning plays a critical role in promoting student success. Cognitive-regulation and executive-function skills required to focus, plan, and control one’s behavior in order to reach a goal are also included in the core competencies of social-emotional learning. The CASEL guide for middle school and high school adds that social-emotional learning is the “process through which children and adults acquire skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions” (CASEL, 2015, p. 5).

Orchestrating a positive social-emotional climate and culture in a classroom can help prepare students with the necessary skills to understand and manage their emotions, behaviors, and relationships. Schools and classrooms that integrate socialemotional learning play an important role in helping students build a repertoire of skills for success.

Developing social-emotional learning skills and practices can help alleviate some stress from students who experience test anxiety. Research shows that when socialemotional skills are taught, it not only improves achievement by an average of 11 percentile points but also improves student attitudes toward school and reduces depression and stress among students (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Social-emotional learning also increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy).

Lack of Inclusion

The term inclusion can mean many different things in today’s classrooms. Referring to student interactions, inclusion is when one feels a sense of belonging to a small or large group. There can be a sense of inclusion within a project group, and there can be a feeling of inclusion within the classroom community. When students don’t feel respected, included, heard, or acknowledged, they may experience a high degree of stress. Humans are social beings and seek to be in the company of others. Professors Alison Gopnik, Andrew N. Meltzoff, and Patricia K. Kuhl (1999) state that everyone is born with a contact urge. We are a social species with an innate desire to communicate and connect with each other.

We crave inclusion. Robert M. Sapolsky (1998, 2004), a neuroendocrinologist and professor at Stanford University, observed primates and how they reacted in group situations. If a group was experiencing a high-stress situation, a primate’s stress was lessened if the primate had friends around and the group was inclusive and supportive.

If the primate was in a threatening, unsupportive group, its stress was magnified. Social support is key to reducing stress. This is true in classrooms as well.

I have been greatly influenced by Jeanne Gibbs and the Tribes Learning Community (TLC), a process that was first developed in the 1970s (see https://tribes.com). The Tribes books and trainings have been a terrific resource for brain-friendly group processing and cooperative learning strategies. The Tribes TLC process believes that creating a positive school or classroom environment is the most effective way to improve behavior and learning. Based on neuroscience research, the model includes learning systems that develop positive protective factors such as resiliency, problem solving, and social skills. A key factor is making sure everyone feels included in a caring and supportive community. Numerous school districts have reported that their standardized test scores have improved when the schools adopted the Tribes TLC model (Gibbs, 2006).

Gibbs (2006) explains the stress and anxiety of being new to a group and working with others:

All newcomers to any group feel an initial anxiety and have many unspoken questions.

• I wonder if I’ll like this classroom.

• Will the teacher and other kids like me?

• How will they get to know me? I feel scared.

• Why am I nervous?

• What will we be doing?

• I wish this were the end of the day, not the beginning. (p. 73)

Inclusion is a basic human need. Not feeling included can cause students to feel shy, vulnerable, and possibly defensive. Lack of inclusion may also trigger stress-related physical symptoms such as headaches and upset stomachs.

Bullying, Teasing, or Put-Downs

Students frequently experience stress at school from a wide spectrum of teasing to bullying, from so-called jokes and put-downs, to flat-out harassment. Put-downs are when students treat others unkindly by saying negative remarks, calling them names, teasing them, making hurtful gestures, or behaving disrespectfully. According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Education (Gladden, Vivolo-Kantor, Hamburger, & Lumpkin, 2014):

Bullying is any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youths who are not siblings or current dating partners that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated. Bullying may inflict harm or distress on the targeted youth including physical, psychological, social, or educational harm. (p. 7)

The damage that bullying, teasing, or put-downs can do to a student’s self-image, social interactions, or school performance can be severe and long lasting.

Frequent aggressive or disrespectful behavior in the classroom interferes with creating a positive learning environment. A classroom atmosphere that fails to vigorously prevent and address teasing and bullying can become quite toxic. The bullied students experience stress and trauma, and students who are bystanders and witnesses of bullying behaviors can also be affected.

Teachers dealing with frequent teasing, bullying, and other behavior issues have found that using restorative justice can be an effective way to handle conflicts. “Restorative justice is a theory of justice that focuses on mediation and agreement rather than punishment” (We Are Teachers, 2019). Community building is considered a powerful preventive measure and daily circles of sharing help the class develop a sense of inclusion and respect. Classroom rules and agreements are co-created with students and to promote respect, accountability, and harmony. When agreements are broken, the students use discussions, mediation, and conflict resolution strategies to see if the damage can be fixed without disciplinary actions. Schools that have invested in establishing restorative discipline practices report that classroom behavior improves dramatically, and it keeps students on track with their education (We Are Teachers, 2019).

Self-Esteem

In my many years of teaching, I’ve had a variety of K–12 students who have celebrated their uniqueness and have made sure they stand out in a crowd. I remember a fifth grader who wore an assortment of wacky hats every day; a sixth grader who always had some kind of battery-powered toy or tool that he had built and wanted to show everyone; and my seventh-grade student who morphed during the year into a pretty intimidating goth character. They were each unique individuals. They had relatively high self-esteem and confidence and were not afraid to make a statement through their dress, actions, or quirky behaviors. However, there are also students who would like to be noticed but have lower self-esteem and confidence. They often struggle with making it happen and may act inappropriately and display attention-getting behaviors. Dealing with anonymity and being overlooked can be constant sources of stress. Then there are

students who dread the idea of standing out in a crowd. Students’ self-esteem plays an important role in how they experience stress. In general, students who have developed higher self-esteem can better manage stress and, therefore, have better academic performance (Galanakis, Palaiologou, Patsi, Velegraki, & Darviri, 2016): “Self-esteem is a psychological trait related to a person’s image of self-value and self-confidence in total aspects of human activity. Studies all over the world have associated self-esteem with human health and psychological well-being” (p. 688).

Stress and self-esteem have a strong relationship. A stressful environment or encounter can contribute to low self-esteem. Low self-esteem can generate negative looping thoughts, which in turn bring on more anxiety and stress, which can lead to poor performance and failure. It can be a vicious cycle for many students (see figure 3.2).

Poor self-esteem and confidence

Self-blame

Vicious Cycle

Negative thought loops

Poor performance and failure Increased stress and anxiety

Figure 3.2: The vicious cycle of stress and low self-esteem.

Especially as puberty begins, the rapid and often overwhelming changes in one’s body create concern and worry and may contribute to low self-esteem (Galanakis et al., 2016). Students in their teen years have unique vulnerabilities. Middle and high school students often fear getting ridiculed or being judged. The teenage brain has difficulty handling perceived or real peer rejection. Fortunately, as teenage students become young adults, they will usually become less susceptible to issues of peer approval and

rejection. The more developed young-adult brain is better equipped to handle these sensitive issues.

Cultural Unresponsiveness, Implicit Bias, and Stereotype Threat

Students who have an ethnic or racial background different from that of the teacher or most other students at a school may experience many forms of stress and frustration in their classroom—if the teacher does not orchestrate a culturally responsive learning environment (Hammond, 2015). Being culturally responsive in the classroom consists of using cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and frames of reference to make learning more effective and relevant for all students. The United States is quickly becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. D’Vera Cohn and Andrea Caumont (2016) of the Pew Research Center estimate that by 2055, the United States will not have a single racial or ethnic majority. In Canada, by 2036, people of color are projected to be one-third of the population (Catalyst, 2020). As our classrooms become increasingly more diverse, a culturally responsive learning environment is essential. In her book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, Zaretta Hammond (2015) defines cultural responsiveness as:

An educator’s ability to recognize students’ cultural displays of learning and meaning making and respond positively and constructively with teaching moves that use cultural knowledge as a scaffold to connect what the student knows to new concepts and content in order to promote effective information processing. All the while, the educator understands the importance of being in a relationship and having a social-emotional connection to the student in order to create a safe space for learning. (p. 15)

Zaretta Hammond (2015) also reminds us that dependent learners who feel marginalized or unsupported because of their race, gender, or language may “experience a great deal of stress and anxiety in the classroom as they struggle with certain learning tasks” (p. 50).

At the most basic level, cultural responsiveness requires teachers to: • Acknowledge the existence of the student’s ethnicity and culture • Show interest in the student’s ethnicity and culture • Demonstrate knowledge of the student’s ethnicity and culture • Express appreciation for the student’s ethnicity and culture

Many teachers may still unintentionally demonstrate implicit bias—unconscious attitudes and stereotypes that shape our responses to various ethnic and racial groups. Even with lots of training and awareness about cultural bias, our brains have been wired for years with these stereotypes, and on occasion, even a well-intentioned teacher may demonstrate bias. A cultural divide between a teacher and his or her students can lead students to develop a poor self-concept, feel disrespected and not understood, and ultimately have poor achievement results (Louisiana State University Shreveport, 2017). Stereotype threat is a phenomenon in which a student’s anxiety about possibly confirming a negative stereotype actually leads that student to underperform on a challenging assessment or test (Center for Teaching and Learning at Washington University in St. Louis, n.d.). This worry about performance increases a student’s likelihood of experiencing a stress response.

Strategies to Build a Positive Social-Emotional Culture

Consider the following body- and brain-friendly strategies to build a positive socialemotional classroom culture.

• Integrate social-emotional learning opportunities every day to help students build a repertoire of skills for success. Establish daily check-ins, reflection journal prompts, and class meetings as established routines. • Use daily partner and group processing activities to build inclusion and classroom community. Assign study buddies, reading pairs, lab partners, and so on to make sure students can develop personal connections with other classmates.

• Emphasize cooperative group learning tasks, and explicitly teach social skills. Establish group agreements. For example: ¶ Attentive listening—We pay close attention to others and let them know they have been heard. ¶ Participate fully—We have the right to share or the right to pass while participating. ¶ Appreciation—We show kindness and respect. We avoid negative and hurtful comments. (We don’t use put-downs, even as a joke!) ¶ Mutual respect—We recognize and appreciate our differences and similarities. Show respect for yourself, others, property, and the environment.