From the Great Resignation to sobering mental health statistics, the well-being of educators and students has become an increasing priority. According to a 2022 survey conducted by the American Federation of Teachers Union, nearly 2 in 5 teachers plan to quit the profession in the next two years. Data from the National Survey of Children’s Health show a sharp increase in children ages 3 to 17 who experience anxiety and depression. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence has focused its work on helping school communities (leaders, educators, students, and families) to find resilience in the face of uncertainty and to use emotion skills to handle all that comes their way.
Despite strides in managing the pandemic, school communities are still navigating an undercurrent of emotional exhaustion while looking for solutions. The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence continues its work to help them heal. In 2020 the Center launched a free Coursera course entitled Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty and Stress. Now ranked as one of Coursera’s top 250 free courses of all time with over 167,000 learners enrolled, anyone can tap into research-based emotion regulation strategies. Due to the success of the course, the close date (December 31, 2022) has been lifted, and the course will be available indefinitely.
The 10-hour course is designed to help adults better manage their emotions and create supportive learning environments for students. Course participants can start the course instantly and learn at their own pace. With a 4.8-star rating on Coursera, the course’s approach resonates with the current realities of working school staff. “I appreciated the course’s emphasis on improving the well-being of the student as an individual first and then as an educator/school leader. Most programs focus on our professional roles, leaving personal growth to the abilities of the individual student. This course took a radically different approach and presented the information in a way that honored the dignity of the individual,” said one course participant.
After taking the course, some schools deepen their experience by forming course discussion groups. This enables them to engage with colleagues in creating action plans and accountability checks for utilizing the strategies shared in the course. The course discussion guide is also free and available on the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence’s website.
“Research shows that school staff who are better at managing their emotions have greater physical health, well-being, and job satisfaction. They also create more supportive learning environments for students where there’s more engagement, less disruption, and better performance. In general, when children and the adults in their lives are skilled at managing stress and anxiety, life is better for them,” says Marc Brackett, professor at the Yale Child Study Center, director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and co-author of the course.
After almost three years since the initial COVID-19 lockdown, the ripple effects of the pandemic are still being felt in the education system. It is the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence’s hope to continue providing the support school staff need to be their best selves every day for their students.