Social and Emotional Learning Curricula and Academic Integration

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, packaged SEL programs, cognitive thinking errors, and implementation frameworks from Chapters 2 and 4.

Packaged Curricula

Structured, commercially assembled programs specifically designed to improve students' social and emotional functioning, typically supported by an empirical evidence base.

CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning)

An organization that published a comprehensive implementation rubric and flowchart outlining three key phases (readiness, planning, and implementation) for selecting and sustaining SEL programs.

SEL Implementation Flowchart

A three-phase cyclical model adapted from the CASEL rubric that guides schools through the stages of Readiness, Planning, and Implementation to systematically select and sustain SEL programming.

Readiness Phase

The first phase of the CASEL implementation cycle, in which the school principal commits to SEL as a framework and a steering committee of school and community stakeholders is formed.

Planning Phase

The second phase of the CASEL implementation cycle, involving outlining a vision for SEL, conducting a needs assessment, creating a data-driven action plan, and selecting evidence-based programs.

Implementation Phase

The third phase of the CASEL implementation cycle, consisting of personnel training, classroom program delivery, ongoing adaptations by staff, and evaluation to accommodate student needs.

Efficacy Research

Research evaluating program outcomes that is conducted under highly controlled scientific conditions or laboratory field trials.

Effectiveness Research

Research evaluating program outcomes that is conducted under real-world, naturalistic conditions in classrooms using typical practices.

Caring School Community

A kindergarten through grade 6 SEL program developed by the Developmental Studies Center targeting school climate through class meetings, cross-age buddies, family involvement, and schoolwide community activities.

I Can Problem Solve (ICPS)

A violence prevention curriculum developed by Shure for preschool through grade 6 that teaches interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills using contrasting word pairs, puppets, and hypothetical scenarios.

Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS)

A universal pre-K through grade 6 prevention program developed by Kusche and Greenberg targeting emotional literacy, self-control, interpersonal problem solving, and relaxation through deep breathing.

Raising Healthy Children

A multicomponent program developed by the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington that utilizes teacher training, reading strategies, and parent support to promote resilience and reduce adolescent antisocial behavior.

Safe and Caring Schools: Skills for School, Skills for Life

A pre-K through grade 8 SEL program by Petersen organized into monthly themes across sequenced manuals, recognized as promising based on proven principles rather than published outcome studies.

Second Step: A Violence Prevention Curriculum

A widely implemented program by the Committee for Children (preschool through grade 9) designed to reduce aggression and foster prosocial skills across three domains: empathy, problem solving/impulse control, and emotion management.

Social Decision Making/Social Problem Solving (SDM/SPS)

An evidence-based curriculum for grades K–8 developed by Elias and Bruene Butler that emphasizes overlearning social decision-making skills and applying an eight-step clear thinking framework.

FIG TESPN

The eight-step social problem-solving mnemonic used in SDM/SPS: Feelings identification, Identify problem, Goal setting, Think of solutions, Envision consequences, Select best solution, Plan it/try it, and Notice what happens.

Thinking, Feeling, Behaving

An emotional education curriculum by Vernon for grades 1–12 based on rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) principles, where students identify feelings, challenge irrational beliefs, and manage consequences.

Strong Kids Curriculum Series

A brief 10- to 12-lesson, skill-based SEL curriculum developed at the University of Oregon designed to build resilience and target internalizing symptoms such as depression and anxiety across pre-K through grade 12.

Cowen's Five Pathways to Psychological Wellness

The theoretical foundation of the Strong Kids series: promoting early attachments, building age-appropriate competencies, creating wellness-promoting environments, fostering empowerment about the future, and developing stress-coping skills.

Common Thinking Errors

A cognitive restructuring instructional component of Strong Kids that teaches students to identify six primary cognitive distortions associated with uncomfortable emotions.

Binocular Vision

A cognitive thinking error in which an individual looks at things in a manner that makes them appear significantly bigger or smaller than they actually are.

Black-and-White Thinking

A cognitive thinking error characterized by viewing situations exclusively in extreme or opposing categories, such as good versus bad, always versus never, or all-or-none.

Dark Glasses

A cognitive thinking error characterized by selectively focusing exclusively on the negative elements or outcomes of a situation.

Fortune-Telling

A cognitive thinking error involving making definitive negative predictions about future occurrences without sufficient evidence.

Making It Personal

A cognitive thinking error in which an individual blames themselves for negative events that are not their fault.

Blame Game

A cognitive thinking error that involves shifting fault to others for actions or consequences for which one should take personal responsibility.

Internalizing Symptoms

Inward-directed emotional and behavioral difficulties, such as depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, and somatic complaints, which can negatively affect school performance.

Inoculation Model (in SEL)

The universal delivery of small doses of social-emotional skills instruction to all students to provide protective skills against inevitable future environmental stressors.

Student–Teacher Relationship

An ecological classroom factor characterized by warmth, low conflict, and encouragement that promotes adaptive student behavior, emotional regulation, and enhanced academic engagement.

Overlearning

The educational practice of practicing SEL concepts across varied situations to high levels of mastery so skills can be applied automatically and fluently even under high stress.