Beyond Content:Incorporating Social and

Emotional Learning into the Strive Framework

16 Main StreetAccord, NY 12404

845-626-2126Fax 845-626-3206

The Strive Task Force and Philliber Research Associates

Our charge:choose competencies that are related to

academic achievement and particularly to Strive benchmarks

Then--• define them• report whether they are malleable• find measures for them

The Result

Three volumes:

1. Social and Emotional Competencies and their Relationship to Academic Achievement

2. A Summary of Measures by Competency and Stage of the Cradle to Career Continuum

3. A Compendium of Social and Emotional Competency Measures

What did we find?

• A bit of a conceptual mess e.g., academic self-efficacy, academic self concept, outcome

expectations, confidence, perceived ability, perceived academic control

What did we find?

• Different groupings

e.g., academic mindset might include passion and purpose, grit, growth, identity as part of an academic community,

mastery orientation—

Or it might not

What did we find?

• Different numbers of important competencies

e.g., one author might name 5 important competencies, another might name 4 and they might not overlap

What does that conceptual confusion lead to?

• Measurement confusion

Or more positively thought of—

• Lots of measurement choices

Academic Self-Efficacy

• Belief in being able to succeed in academic or learning situations

• There are specific kinds e.g., math self-efficacy

• More specific measures lead to better predictability and clearer measures

Academic Self-Efficacy

Positively related to:• College retention or persistence• GPA• Adjustment to college• Work performance

Academic Self-Efficacy

Is malleable—• Beginning in childhood by giving children a sense they

can succeed• Modeling, goal setting, and performance feedback• In the workplace when workers understand a task, get

training, and feedback• AND, leads to greater persistence.

Growth Mindset

• Your brain is like a muscle—it will grow and improve if you use it.

• Children with a mastery orientation are motivated to master material and thus, seek challenge—rather than being motivated to avoid failure.

Growth Mindset

Positively related to:• Higher grades in junior high school• Higher science and math grades• Higher test scores• Lowering aggression and stress

Growth Mindset

Experimental studies have deliberately manipulated subjects’ beliefs about whether intelligence can be changed

--tell them it can change --blame temporary or external causes for failure --deliberately incorporate content instruction with mindset development

Grit or perseverance

• A “stick with it” attitude

• Passion for long term goals

• Staying focused on a goal despite obstacles or distractions

Grit or Perseverance

Positively related to:• Grades• SAT scores• Faster growth in reading and math• Less anxiety

Grit or Perseverance

Some believe this is a stable personality characteristic—not easily malleable.

Others argue that you can increase perseverance by raising academic self-efficacy (I CAN do it) or increasing community belongingness, or mastery orientation

Emotional Competence

Learning to recognize and manage emotions, care about others, make good decisions, behave ethically, develop positive relationships and avoid negative behaviors.

Accuracy of identifying emotions, regulating behavior, empathy, work cooperatively

Emotional Competence

Positively related to:• Literacy achievement in 1st, 3rd and 5th grades• Reading and spelling at age 10-11• Self efficacy, problem solving, math grades• Academic and clinical competence of medical students

Emotional Competence

Is malleable through—• Programs like Second Step, Roots of Empathy• Courses for business people• Training on how to “read people”• Parents, teachers, and peers helping children to

resolve conflicts

Self Regulated Learning/ Study Skills

Overlaps with self-management, self-evaluation, self direction, time management and self control

Cognitive regulation (e.g., planning ahead) and emotional regulation (e.g., delayed gratification)

Overall management of attention and emotion to use appropriate study skills

Self Regulated Learning/ Study Skills

This competency is the most proximal factor to student academic performance

“Study habit and skill measures improve prediction of academic performance more than any other non-cognitive individual difference and should be regarded as the third

pillar of academic success” (with test scores and grades)—Crede & Kuncel, 2008

Self Regulated Learning/ Study Skills

Positively related to:• College retention• College GPA• Math and literacy achievement • Grades (more strongly than IQ)• Credit accumulation• Grade promotion• Test scores

Self Regulated Learning/ Study Skills

Is malleable through—• Direct self regulation training• Goal setting• Feedback loops• Teaching study skills within content areas• Teaching students to use “self-talk”

A word about critical thinking

• Is this non-cognitive?

“…purposeful self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation and inference…” The National Research Council called this a cognitive 21st Century skill

• Is non-cognitive a useful term?

Another word about critical thinking

Some studies show this to be related to academic achievement while others argue it is not as important as self-regulated learning and good study skills.

It is malleable by• Direct teaching• Teaching of good communication skills

A word about creativity

• Big C (Mozart) and Little C (you in the kitchen)

• Not consistently related to academic achievement

• Often not valued by teachers

• It is malleable

What about measures?

• 32 for academic self-efficacy

• 12 for growth mindset

• 13 for grit or perseverance

• 44 for emotional competence

• 28 for self regulated learning and their subparts

These measures include--

• Self reports

• Teacher ratings

• Parent ratings

• Clinical professional ratings and --are available for all age groups.

Other parts of the work

• Summaries of studies relating the competencies to academic achievement

• Experimental studies of attempts to alter the competencies

• The measures that authors would share

• Bibliographies of the literature reviewed

So that’s what we did at camp last summer!

Questions?Comments?