PACT/TPAC and the social-emotional dimensions of teaching and learning: what can we assess?

PresentorsNancy L. Markowitz, Professor

Director, SJSU Center for Reaching & Teaching the Whole Child

Patricia Swanson, Associate Professor

San José State University

Department of Elementary Education

Prompt

Directions: Take 2 minutes to write down your response to the following question.

What do we mean by social-emotional development?

What Is Social and Emotional Learning

(SEL)?SEL is the process of acquiring the competencies to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, establish positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle challenging situations effectively. These competencies provide the foundation for positive health practices, engaged citizenship, and academic achievement.

CASEL at UIC

SJSU Connie L. Lurie College of EducationCenter for reaching & teaching the whole

child(CRTWC)

At SJSU we are studying how to embed and how to assess

the social-emotional dimension in the preparation of

Multiple Subject Credential program Candidates.

(funded by Morgan Family Foundation)

Why attend to the social-emotional dimension in pre-service education?

Research highlights from the Collaborative

for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning

(CASEL), the Search Institute, and

Massachusetts General Hospital…

Research from Collaborative on Academic, social, and emotional

learning (CASEL)

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs…

• Improve students’ social-emotional skills, attitudes about self and others, connection to school, and positive social behavior; and reduce conduct problems and emotional distress.

• Improve students’ achievement test scores by 11 to 17 percentile points.

Meta-analysis of 213 school-based, universal social-emotional learning programs involving 270,034 kindergarten through high school students.

Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki & Taylor, Schellinger (2011).

Search Institute

Developmental Assets: Essential Building

Blocks of Child and Youth Development:

• Support

• Empowerment

• Boundaries and expectations

• Constructive use of time

• Commitment to learning

• Positive values

• Social competencies

• Positive identity

Search Institute National Results –

GPA & Asset Levels

• Kids with 10 assets or less . . . . . . 2.1 GPA

• Kids with 11-20 assets . . . . . . . . . 2.7 GPA

• Kids with 21-30 assets . . . . . . . . 3.0 GPA

• Kids with 31-40 assets . . . . . . . . . 3.2 GPA

Search Institute data 2009

Research on Mindfulness

. “Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress.”

In January 30, 2011 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain's grey matter

Context of our work

• Department of Elementary Education at San José State University

• Preliminary Multiple Subject teaching credential program

• Roughly 200 candidates per year

Goals of Self-study

Needs assessment to identify how/if we attend to SEL in teacher preparation:

• Examined program-wide curriculum

• Defined outcomes in terms of assessments

• Focused on signature assignments and PACT

• Identified gaps and ways to build the curriculum to embed the social-emotional dimension

Categories we used

• Indirect attention: Assesses candidate effectiveness in attending to factors associated with SEDTL, but doesn’t directly address SEDTL

• Explicit assessment prompt: Prompts candidates to address SEDTL

• Explicit assessment: Prompts candidates to address SEDTL, and assesses effectiveness framed in terms of SEDTL

Note: all assessments related to teacher addressing student social-emotional skills, not teacher social-emotional skills.

• Mark Felton and Nancy Markowitz, 2011

CRTWC approach

The Social-Emotional Dimension of Teaching and Learning (SEDTL)

• Teacher’s own SEL competencies

• Teacher’s ability to manage the social and emotional context of the classroom

• Teacher’s ability to foster SEL in students

Teacher practices Indirect Assessment

Explicit prompt Explicit assessment

Clearly articulated assessment

Understanding students and their context

102, 103, 108A, 108B, 108C, 108D, 162, 143A, PACT

103, 108A, PACT 103, 108A, PACT 103,

Identifying or assessing students’ needs

102, 108A, 108B, 108C, 108D, 143A, 162

108A, 108B, PACT 108B, PACT

Planning to support students

102, 103, 108A,108C, 108D, 162, 143A, PACT

103, PACT 103, PACT 103

Planning to foster growth

102, 103, 108A, 108C, 108D, 162, 143A, PACT

103, PACT 103 103

Enacting plans and monitoring progress

108A, 108B, 143A, PACT

108B, PACT

Collecting, communicating and reflecting on outcomes

108A, 108B, 143A, PACT

108B, PACT PACT

Setting goals and planning next steps

108A, 108B, 143A, PACT

108B, PACT

What we found:

In PACT:

• Indirect & explicit assessment evident in several prompts

• Explicit assessment in rubric not present

In TPAC:

• Explicit prompts and explicit assessment evident in SEL dimensions of social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.