The Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning (SEEL). His Holiness the Dalai Lama and The Emory University developed this curriculum for K-12 classrooms. It talks about combining the Head, Heart and Hand. The SEEL Framework is based on the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Framework. While in SEL, cultivating positive emotional regulation, self-compassion, and interpersonal skills have been observed to improve both academic growth and individual well-being outcomes during critical stages of childhood development. SEEL adds on another element to it, the element of being ‘ethical’.
SEE Learning is intended to serve as a framework that can be used across countries and cultures, as well as in schools that may be religious or non-religious. Its approach to ethics is not based on any particular religious, cultural, or ethical tradition, but rather on the approach of “secular ethics”. Since it seeks to base its approach on common experience, common sense, and science, SEE Learning is inspired and informed by scientists and researchers in the fields of psychology, education, and neuroscience, who are exploring the nature of basic human values and prosocial emotions and competencies, and how these can be taught and cultivated.
Let us understand the relationship between SEL and SEEL:
Below written are some points that SEL did not cover but suggested as the next steps. SEEL has focused on these elements.
- Cultivating the skill of attention: Attention is a fundamental skill that impacts all aspects of learning. It is obviously the next step of SEL.
- A comprehensive focus on ethics: SEEL talks about ethics grounded in basic human values such as compassion. Growing scientific evidence supports the notion that a compassionate, caring attitude is beneficial not only to others but also to oneself in terms of physical and emotional health.
- SEE Learning incorporates the latest developments in trauma research and trauma-informed care: it is appropriate for all students, including both those who have suffered from trauma and those who have not.
- SEE Learning focuses on increasing awareness of interdependence and systems thinking: Schools recognize the need to prepare students to be global citizens who can navigate an increasingly complex world in a responsible way that can contribute to their own and others’ flourishing.
SEE Learning Framework:
These are the 9 competencies that SEEL is focusing on. The 9 competencies have been divided into 3 dimensions of Personal, Social, and Systems. Below is the framework:
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