Rethinking How We Teach Emotion in Schools

When people talk about SEL, they usually focus on the immediate outcomes, which are the skills. Our focus in this research is on understanding how to best teach and support those skills in classrooms.

SEL is fundamentally a series of learning processes. Programs and teaching methods help organize these learning processes in schools. If we only talk about the skills and not the processes that develop them, we miss an essential part of what makes SEL effective.

The field often uses terms like SEL, emotional intelligence, competencies, and programs interchangeably, and that imprecision shapes both research and practice. When definitions are unclear, it becomes harder to evaluate programs or design instruction that are tightly aligned with learning goals.

We argue for two things:

1. Programs and practices are separate from skills like emotional intelligence.
2. If we want to teach social and emotional skills, be precise in defining those skills.

Clarity in these two areas helps us ask better questions:

• What exactly do we want students to know?

• What do we want them to be able to do?

• How can we teach and support those things?

One helpful approach is to take a specific skill and break it down into different types of knowledge.

There is declarative knowledge, which involves understanding concepts and facts; procedural knowledge, which involves performing a skill; and contextual knowledge, which involves knowing when and why to apply it.

In SEL, there is often strong attention to declarative knowledge, but less emphasis on procedural and contextual learning.

Start with a clear skill, break it into parts, and design teaching methods to support each part. This helps make sure instruction matches learning goals. It also provides a way to evaluate whether programs are teaching what they intend to teach.

I hope it encourages people to look both within and beyond the SEL field. Other areas of education—such as mathematics and literacy—have long traditions of defining skills precisely and planning instruction backward from learning objectives. SEL can learn from those disciplines.

I also hope this work prompts reflection among researchers, educators, and program developers. Discussion, reflection, and disagreement are valuable to move the field forward.

Ultimately, the goal is not to replace existing frameworks, but to deepen the conversation about how social and emotional skills are taught and how we can bring greater clarity and rigor to that work in schools.

RULER, the evidence-based approach to SEL developed at our Center, is a framework that teaches the skills of emotional intelligence. The definition of emotional intelligence (EI), according to YCEI, is the ability to navigate our own and others’ emotions to achieve meaningful goals. It involves the skills of recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotions. Improvements to RULER are ongoing. Researchers and practitioners are exploring the “how” of teaching emotional intelligence in schools to strengthen the RULER preK-12 curriculum.