Month: November 2021

In conjunction with the release of White Paper 1 this week – A Framework for Socio-Emotional Skills, Quality, and Equity – we want to mention a few of the highlights:

What are socio-emotional skills? In our view, a person’s socio-emotional skills are integrated sets of mental and behavioral parts and processes (i.e., schemas, beliefs, and awareness); these integrated systems are socio-emotional skills and produce both basic and advanced forms of agency.

Why are socio-emotional skills important? Socio-emotional skills have a compounding effect on many developmental outcomes that has been described as dynamic complementarity (Heckman, 2007); that is, socio-emotional skills beget other types of skills. Children and adults operating at high levels of SEL skill can more easily get on to the business of learning what the context has to offer. Settings that do not address SEL skills can become a further cause of educational inequity.

Why are organizations and policies struggling to implement socio-emotional skill reforms? A recent review found over 100 different frameworks describing SEL skills and supports (Berg et al., 2017). This cacophony of words and concepts undermines the shared understanding and language necessary for coordinated action, both within organizations doing the work and among evaluators producing the evidence.^[i] Confusion about what constitutes SEL skill, and how “skill” may or may not differ from many other concepts – such as, competence, abilities, traits, attitudes, and mindsets – undermines scientific progress and slows policy processes that rely on at least approximate consensus around shared meanings and objects of measurement.

How can the QTurn socio-emotional skills framework help increase the effectiveness of reform? By defining, naming, and sorting out the key parts of integrated SEL skill sets, we can much more effectively measure and model both changes in socio-emotional skills and, ultimately, impacts on outcomes and equity. In White Paper 2, we extend from the socio-emotional skills framework described in White Paper 1 to corresponding guidance for measuring socio-emotional skills with increased precision, accuracy, and sensitivity.

We’ll be back with more soon…

We, at QTurn, are pleased to share the first three, in a series of four, white papers. White Paper 1, Socio-Emotional Skills, Quality, and Equity (Peck & Smith, 2020), provides a translational framework for understanding our relatively unique view of the key parts of a socio-emotional skill set. In short, we develop a case for supplementing the traditional focus on student beliefs and behavior with a much more extensive focus on students’ emotional life and the attention skills necessary for becoming the primary authors of their own development.

You can download White Paper 1 from our website or ResearchGate. We’ve also published a blog describing what we think are some of the important points and implications of White Paper 1.

Although our work is anchored in the wide and deep range of developmental supports that are currently evident in the out-of-school time (OST) field, we view the “neuroperson” model described in White Paper 1 as applying to all adults and children in all settings. Quoting from the paper:

We introduce a theoretical framework designed to describe the integrated set of mental and behavioral parts and processes (i.e., schemas, beliefs, and awareness) that are socio-emotional skills and that produce both basic and advanced forms of agency. With improved definitions and understanding of SEL skills, and the causes of SEL skill growth, we hope to improve reasoning about programs and policies for socio-emotional supports in any setting where children spend time. Perhaps most importantly, we hope to inform policy decisions and advance applied developmental science by improving the accuracy and meaningfulness of basic data on children’s SEL skill growth. (p. 3)

The series of white papers will define what exactly we do and believe at QTurn. After the translational framework is explained in White Paper 1, White Paper 2 – Measuring Socio-Emotional Skill, Impact, and Equity Outcomes (Smith & Peck, 2020a) – provides guidance for selecting feasible and valid SEL skill measures. White Paper 3 –  Realist(ic) Evaluation Tools for OST Programs – integrates the SEL framework and measures with a pattern-centered approach to both CQI and impact evaluation. White Paper 4 – Citizen Science and Advocacy in OST (Smith & Peck, 2020b) – presents an alternative evidence-based approach to improving both the impact and equity of OST investments. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing blogs related to White Papers 2 and 3.

We’ll also be updating our website as we go along and hope to be joined in the blogging by a couple of expert clients in Flint and London. That’s it for now. We look forward to sharing further information in the coming months and would love to receive any feedback you think might help further the cause of supporting OST staff and students.