Social and Emotional Learning in the Classroom
Abstract
This study addressed whether the implementation of the Harmony curriculum for
social and emotional learning would increase positive student participation and
engagement in the classroom. This was carried out in a high school with sophomore
level students, using control and experimental groups. Tallying was to document the
student’s participation and engagement before and after the Harmony lessons. There
were two t-tests performed. The first test demonstrated that the Harmony curriculum
was making a positive impact on the students and their participation and engagement,
compared to the control group. A second t-test was performed to determine if the
experimental groups on task behavior changed significantly from week one to week two.
The second t-test identified the change from week two and week one in just the
experimental group and did not indicate significant change in performance from week 1
to week 2. Conducting both tests were necessary for proper analysis because it
compared two separate groups to see if the Harmony curriculum made a positive impact
on student participation and engagement. This provided the researchers with the
understanding that the difference between groups was significant, but that the gains
made may not have been meaningful.
Subject
special education
high school
social emotional learning
SEL
participation
engagement