Implementing Social-Emotional Learning in the Virtual Environment for K-12 Classrooms

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated several mental health effects on people such as stress, depression, irritability, anger, and confusion. Especially affected were school-aged children whose daily routines were disrupted by school closure and isolation. Hamilton et al. reported that the social-emotional health of 30-40% of students in the USA was impacted negatively, especially those learning remotely and historically marginalized. The virtual learning environment for students needed an intervention to help alleviate the impacts of isolation during remote and virtual learning. Social emotional learning curriculum was implemented in the virtual learning environment for students in a seventh grade English class. Theories of mindfulness and social emotional learning are addressed to show the academic and mental health benefits for implementing social emotional learning in the classroom for adolescents learning in the virtual environment.