סוג פעילות: Consensus Committee
מרכז פעילות: Dr. Tali Friedman
תקופת הפעילות: 2017-2020
Today, cultivating socio-emotional learning (SEL) is
considered an important and inseparable aspect of educational and learning
processes, this, partly in response to the accelerated technological
development and social and cultural changes which characterize the 21st
century.
Imparting and acquiring socio-emotional skills are meant to
eventually be reflected in improved academic achievement, positive social
functioning, ability to adapt to complex situations, decrease in behavioral
problems and emotional distress. Mastering these skills is manifested over time
in behavior shaped by internal beliefs and values and is accompanied by
“seeing” the other, as well as accepting responsibility for one’s choices and
behavior. In the broader context, it was found that there is a connection
between these skills and successful personal, social and occupational
functioning.
Most of the SEL programs running today in Israel and
worldwide were intended to build and strengthen five interconnected skill sets
among students: self-awareness, self- regulation, social awareness,
relationship management, and taking responsibility.
The Ministry of Education
administration recognizes the importance of socio-emotional skills and handles
the issue in diverse ways, with the common denominator being the perception
that the school arena serves as the “training ground” for students’
socio-emotional development. It is an inseparable part of their mental well-being,
their cognitive development and of broadening their world of knowledge. The
thinking at the Ministry of Education is that these socio-emotional
competencies are acquired skills – they can be taught and trained for.
Currently, in the education system, the Psychological Counseling Service is
responsible for teaching and developing social and emotional skills and it does
so on several fronts, the major one being through the Life Skills Program.
Nonetheless, in order to expand and
deepen the learning of these skills and to optimally impart them to all
students, the Ministry of Education requires a scholarly compendium of the
knowledge developing worldwide in the field and of the experience accumulated
in Israel. Such information would be able to help the decision-makers at
headquarters and in the field and serve as a basis for development and
implementation, and to stimulate public discourse on the topic.
With these objectives in mind, the
acting chief scientist at the Ministry of Education turned to the Israel
Academy of Sciences with a request that the Initiative for Applied Education
Research establish an expert (consensus) committee. In the course of its work,
the committee will raise central topics and questions, will amass and study
critiqued empirical knowledge from Israel and the world, will learn from the
experience of professionals and academicians and will, at the end of the
process, publish a final report of its findings, conclusions, and
recommendations for future policy. The final summarizing report is expected to
be published in the spring of 2020. The Ministry of Education (MOE), through
the Psychological Counseling Service and the Chief Scientist’s Office will
place at the committee’s disposal the most comprehensive data they have
available about practice in Israel. At the committee’s request, MOE
representatives will prepare written and oral situation reports about the areas
of their responsibility relevant to the committee’s work. Yad Hanadiv is
interested in assisting the MOE in promoting topics it deems important and
supports the MOE’s engagement with the Academy in this aim.
The
committee will carry out its work while conducting ongoing discourse with two
other currently active Initiative committees which interface with the areas it
is pursuing: the Committee to Adapt Curricula and Study Materials for the 21st
Century and the Committee for Optimal Management of Professional Development
and Training in the Education System.
Examples
of topics the committee will address:
- In
Israel and abroad, what are the main motivations for cultivating emotional and
social skills?
- What
are the possible implications of learning skills?
- What
kinds of modifications are made with respect to different age groups? Different
social and cultural groups?
- Can the
emotional and social skills the education system promotes and cultivates be
chosen? And if so, how can this be done?
- What is
known about teaching methods found to be useful for cultivating these skills
and about teachers’ characteristics and professional development that were
found to be beneficial? What is the relative contribution of teaching these
skills as a separate “subject area” (for example, a “Life Skills Program")
as opposed to incorporating them when teaching other subjects in the
curriculum? In the context of mapping and analyzing measurement tools to assess
emotional and social parameters and to measure the level of the student in the
school: is it possible to define measurable standards and norms for these
skills and if so, how? Can such measurement be integrated into existing
accountability systems?