In Australia, the intentional teaching of social and emotional competencies and the implementation of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs have increasingly engaged early childhood educators over the last decade. Disruptions to normal routines from fires, floods and the COVID−19 pandemic have heightened the need to support children, families and educators, and have made SEL an essential part of curricula (Cahill et al., 2020). This chapter establishes the broad rationale and key concepts associated with SEL, and also details recommended approaches and evidence-based practices relevant to teaching for SEL. It also considers the crucial role that educators play in supporting young children during troublesome times.

In the chapter, five questions guide discussion and reflection on teaching for social and emotional learning (SEL) in the early years classroom. First, social and emotional competencies are described in teacher-friendly language. Second, a rationale is given for prioritising these competencies in early years classrooms. Third, the nature, types, and uses of frameworks with particular connections to SEL in Australia are introduced. Fourth, an overview of the four major approaches and related practices that contribute to successful teaching for SEL comprises the largest section of this chapter. Fifth, the chapter concludes with an examination of the essential role that professional learning and development plays in improving wellbeing in a school community, student learning outcomes, and professional sense of efficacy.

In the chapter, five questions guide discussion and reflection on teaching for social and emotional learning (SEL) in the early years classroom. First, social and emotional competencies are described in teacher-friendly language. Second, a rationale is given for prioritising these competencies in early years classrooms. Third, the nature, types, and uses of frameworks with particular connections to SEL in Australia are introduced. Fourth, an overview of the four major approaches and related practices that contribute to successful teaching for SEL comprises the largest section of this chapter. Fifth, the chapter concludes with an examination of the essential role that professional learning and development plays in improving wellbeing in a school community, student learning outcomes, and professional sense of efficacy.

Introduction

Teaching in the twenty-first century values social and emotional learning (SEL) as an integral part of student learning and success across the school years and into adult life. Community recognition of the substantial difficulties in coping faced by young people in our rapidly changing society is magnifying this value. Policy recognition from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA, 2013) has converted these values into expectations for educational activity. By specifically embedding SEL content into the core curriculum, ACARA is acknowledging that students need to achieve social outcomes alongside academic success. However, the current status of Australian school efforts to deliver SEL instruction to all students is unknown because the action research is quite scattered and limited to social skills training (see, for example, Davies et al., 2015). At this time, therefore, there is little local evidence to inform and guide Australian teachers in understanding SEL content and integrating it into the teaching-learning process for their class of diverse learners.

In order to meet these community values and curriculum expectations, teachers are being pressed to ensure that their students experience social connectedness and emotional wellbeing as part of participating in learning, acquiring a sense of personal competence, and using self-management strategies during classroom activities. Attending to tasks, regulating self, and engaging with others are pivotal skills threading throughout daily classroom activities and routines. Many teachers need the knowledge and confidence to adopt a more strategic process for responding to the social and emotional challenges that some students face in mastering core learning tasks related to this attend-regulate-engage skill set. Assessing classroom difficulties in social and emotional learning provides a necessary starting point to identify adjustments across the classroom curriculum and embed these adjustments into the plan-implement-evaluate teaching cycle.

The focus of this chapter is threefold. First, we tap into the rich research on SEL from the USA. The translation of this knowledge into Australia has had some influence on ACARA but needs to be better disseminated to end users such as teachers. This research has clear application to teacher activity especially with respect to knowing students and how they think, feel, and learn (i.e. Standard 1 of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (2010)) and also with respect to making classroom environments more supportive for all students (Standard 4).