| 摘要 | Key Points
Advocates of social and emotional learning (SEL) can learn much from the travails that bedeviled Common Core.
A close look at Common Core offers a number of telling parallels that SEL proponents would be wise to study.
Specifically, advocates should take care to define what they mean by SEL, relentlessly focus on doing it well, and welcome constructive criticism while carefully scrutinizing bandwagon-jumping frauds.
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Introduction
Vern Law, a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1950s and 1960s, is known for saying that “experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.”
In recent years, advocates have begun promoting explicit social and emotional learning (SEL) instruction in schools. This means formally promoting skills such as self-awareness, self-discipline, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.1
SEL advocates have picked a ripe time to rethink our schools’ priorities. A 2016 survey conducted by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning found that educators across the country want schools to actively promote SEL.2 This desire from educators to teach more nonacademic skills is fusing with a general perception that schools have been too focused on narrow math and reading test preparation in recent years. In the 2015 Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup poll, 64 percent of Americans surveyed said there was too much emphasis on standardized testing.3
This effort has received broad support. The National Education Association argued that “social and emotional skills are critical to being a good student, citizen, and worker.”4 The Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development declared, “Now is the time to move beyond debate as to whether schools should address students’ social and emotional learning to focus, instead, on how schools can effectively integrate social, emotional, and academic development into their daily work with students.”5 The 2018 ExcelinEd conference (a yearly gathering of education reformers from across the country) featured a panel on integrating social and emotional learning and academic development that promised to present “examples of how state and district policies can integrate social emotional learning and academic development.”6
SEL has received glowing support from both education reformers and traditional education interest groups, and broad bipartisan organizations have come out in favor of it. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
If echoes of Common Core are ringing in your ears, you are not alone. Remember, both major teachers unions supported Common Core at its outset, only to sour on the endeavor later. It was the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) that spearheaded the push for Common Core standards, much like the Aspen Institute’s commission is doing now. The parallels go on.
It’s fair to say that the implementation of Common Core did not live up to advocates’ expectations. Paul Peterson and the pollsters at Education Next summed up the trajectory of the initiative back in 2016.
In 2016, 50 percent of all those taking a side say they support the use of the Common Core standards in their state, down from 58 percent in 2015 and from 83 percent in 2013. Republican backing has plummeted from 82 percent in 2013 to 39 percent in 2016. The slip among Democrats is from 86 percent to 60 percent over this time period. Eighty-seven percent of teachers supported the initiative in 2013, but that fell to 54 percent in 2014 and to 44 percent in 2015, stabilizing at that level in 2016.7
Republicans, Democrats, teachers, and the general public all soured on the Common Core in a few short years. If SEL advocates do not wish to see their efforts meet the same fate, there are lessons that they can learn from Common Core. Experience is a hard teacher, but it can impart important information.
For those who don’t remember the ins and outs of Common Core, let’s start with a quick overview. After that, I’ll tease out some of the most pertinent lessons.
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