THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Poor grades and dropping out of school can frequently be traced to lack of social-emotional skills. Social competence and appropriate behavior are strong and consistent predictors of academic outcomes, and the social climate of the classroom appears to be a powerful motivator of academic as well as cooperative classroom behavior.
In fact, social and emotional variables predict achievement as well as or better than intellectual ability, sensory deficits, or neurological factors (Horn and Packard, 1985). Recent research shows a strong link among social-emotional and conflict resolution skills, traditional intellectual skills (reading, writing, and math), and success in the adult workplace (Deutsch, 1993; Gardner, 1993; Goleman, 1998; Gottman, 1997; Jensen, 1998; Shore, 1997). Social-emotional and conflict resolution skills are based on cooperation, communication, sense of community, appreciation of diversity and values, empathy, perspective taking, self-control, concentration, self-efficacy, creativity, and problem solving (Jensen, 2003; Sylwester, 2000).As described in this chapter, the pedagogical approach to social-emotional learning emanates from a multidisciplinary perspective that integrates the most compelling findings from the fields of neuroscience, education, and psychology concerning developmental, cognitive, and individual personality traits. One conclusion, however, clearly stands out from the converging evidence on social- emotional skills development: early childhood is the time when the building blocks for all later development and intellectual growth are set in place. Most conflict resolution programs for children concentrate on middle childhood or adolescence because conflict, bullying, and other forms of violence occur more frequently at these ages (Warner, Weist, and Krulak, 1999). I will emphasize early childhood and the need for a broader and different instructional perspective for children at this stage of development.
In this chapter, the rationale for developing social-emotional skills in children will be presented within the framework of conflict resolution training, a social skill of particular importance for children and adults.
Conflict is a desirable opportunity for learning in a classroom because its effective resolution requires successfully acquiring all the skills usually defined within the social-emotional learning lexicon. How we learn to handle conflict determines the positive or negative role it has in constructing our feelings, our intellect, and our personality.Although there are many ways to settle a conflict (litigation, arbitration, distributive bargaining, integrative negotiation, and the like), I refer to constructive or principled negotiation throughout this chapter. This reflects our view that this type of conflict interaction best promotes emotional and cognitive growth in children and adolescents.
Most people are well aware of the general differences among preschoolers, elementary school-age children, and adolescents; however, not everyone has a solid understanding of all the important cognitive, emotional, and physical capabilities that differentiate these groups. In addition to our discussion of early childhood, I also briefly cover developmental issues and conflict management in middle childhood (ages six to twelve) and adolescence (ages twelve or thirteen to approximately twenty-one), and adulthood. The discussion at each level focuses on how developmental differences should guide our approach to teaching children age-appropriate skills.
In most sections, conflict resolution programs that are useful for the relevant age group are discussed. The final section assesses how well we are doing currently in our efforts to reach children and adults effectively and suggests future directions in conflict resolution programs as well as improvements to be made in terms of curricula and systematic evaluation.