The Role of Virtual Social and Emotional Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic for Elementary School Children
By: Graciela Urias
Department: Psychology
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Jae Paik, Dr. Shinchieh Duh (SJSU), Dr. Rita Rodriguez
In this study, we present a virtual SEL that was implemented and evaluated during the pandemic (Spring 2021) with six kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms at an elementary school in Northern California. Community-based participatory research was applied and while collaborating closely with school leaders and six classroom teachers, key areas of social and emotional competencies (e.g., impulse control, emotion knowledge, perspective-taking, empathy) and implementational methods were established that were direct reflections of teaching and learning during the pandemic. To foster peer interactions and individualized attention–two major concerns raised by the teachers–trained Psychology undergraduates (SEL Coaches) provided 12 weeks of multimodal SEL lessons (e.g., interactive readings, discussions, hands-on activities, and mindfulness practices all related to the theme of each lesson) were presented weekly in 30-40 min zoom breakout room sessions (4:1 student to SEL Coach ratio). Overwhelmingly positive teacher surveys at the end of the program suggest such community collaboration could be an effective solution for tackling social, emotional, and educational needs.