Social and emotional skills are crucial for the wellbeing and happiness of every child. These basic human capabilities help individuals to manage their emotions, work with others and achieve their goals. Social and emotional skills can be taught, improved, and measured using a blend of different approaches and technologies. They interact with and complement other skills, including academic skills.

Social and emotional learning is one of the most promising areas of educational reforms. SEL initiatives not only provide direct inputs to raise student wellbeing but are also a cost-effective means to improve learning outcomes, employability prospects and social cohesion. Social and emotional skills are therefore central to tackling shared global challenges in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. However, while there is growing interest in this topic among policy-makers, there are too few initiatives to identify and implement best practices to enhance SEL and to monitor the progress of children’s socio-emotional development.

This workshop, which focused on the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) region, brought together experts in SEL from across the formal and non-formal education sectors. The workshop looked at global and regional best practice in social and emotional learning in order to develop and enhance understanding and practice across the region.

This session followed on from the session, Getting Smart: Measuring and Evaluating Social and Emotional Skills in December 2016. An expanded coalition of partners then developed the idea of a series of regional workshops to examine Social and Emotional Skills and Learning from different geographic perspectives. The first regional workshop took place in November 2017 in Santiago, Chile and the second hosted in Jordan (February 2018) and the third will be hosted in Princeton, US (June 6 to 8, 2018) respectively.

The highly interactive program will be structured around an inspiring mix of presentations, cross sector panel discussions, curated conversations, and small group work.

The process seeks to combine theory, policy and practice across sectoral silos, opening up new perspectives and intensive learning opportunities. Participants will explore cross-cutting questions during plenary sessions featuring presentations and discussions led by groundbreaking practitioners. They will also work intensively in smaller focus groups that will meet several times over the course of the program to focus on specific themes and assignments in greater depth.

• Why are social and emotional skills important at this point in time?
• How can SEL be developed in formal and informal education contexts in MENAT?
• What does current practice look like?
• What SEL training will teachers and other educators need?
• How can we create better collaboration and learning across the formal and informal sectors?
  
  

• Participants will jointly develop a Salzburg Statement recommending scalable policies and practices that will help develop SEL practice across formal and non-formal education in the region.
• An impact report will subsequently be published summarizing the program and resulting projects.
• A major synthesis meeting on Mainstreaming Innovations from Social and Emotional Learning Around the World will be held in Salzburg, December 3 to 8, 2018. This will build on insights from the regional workshops held during 2017-18, and provide a series of concrete recommendations for policymakers, employers and interested in skills-building for the 21st century.

Cefai, Carmel, Paul A. Bartolo, Valeria Cavioni, and Paul Downes. Strengthening Social and Emotional Education as a Core Curricular Area Across the EU: A Review of the International Evidence. NESET II Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2018.

Life Skills and Citizenship Education Initiative – Middle East and North Africa.” UNICEF MENA Regional Office, 2018.

Life Skills and Citizenship Education Initiative – Middle East and North Africa. Analytical Mapping of Life Skills and Citizenship Education in the Middle East and North Africa. Amman: UNICEF MENA Regional Office, October 20, 2017.

Life Skills and Citizenship Education Initiative – Middle East and North Africa.Life Skills and Citizenship Education Conceptual and Programmatic Framework: Regional Launch Report. Amman: UNICEF MENA Regional Office, October 10, 2017.

Life Skills and Citizenship Education Initiative – Middle East and North Africa. Reimagining Life Skills and Citizenship Education in the Middle East and North Africa: A Four-Dimensional and Systems Approach to 21st Century Skills: Conceptual and Programmatic Framework. Amman: UNICEF MENA Regional Office, October 20, 2017. [Executive Report: English, Arabic].

Life Skills and Citizenship Education Initiative – Middle East and North Africa. The Twelve Core Life Skills [Pamphlet: English, Arabic]. Amman: UNICEF MENA Regional Office, October 20, 2017.

Middle East and North Africa Out-of-School Children Initiative. Preparing for the Future of Children and Youth in Syria and the Region through Education: London One Year On. Brussels Conference Education Report [English, Arabic]. Amman: UNICEF MENA Regional Office, April, 2017.

Miyamoto, Koji, Maria C. Huerta, and Katarzyna Kubacka. “Fostering Social and Emotional Skills for Well-Being and Social Progress.” European Journal of Education 50, no. 2 (2015): 147-59.

EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW'S WORLD

This series addresses radical changes ahead, recognizing that the way we learn and the future of work will be transformed by the “4th” Industrial Revolution. It focuses on strategies, innovations and institutional changes that can meet societies’ future need and help all learners flourish. The series tackles root causes that undermine societies as well as individuals such as educational systems blockages, failure to tap into the full range of talents; and the exclusion or unfair access to educational opportunities faced by many. Its outcomes connect to Salzburg Global’s health, urban and early childhood programs, supporting collaborative partnerships for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Education for Tomorrow's World series focuses on strategies, innovations, and institutional changes that can meet societies' future needs and help all learners flourish. It draws on cross-sector expertise from education, neuro- and cognitive science, health, technology, and business to explore root causes and blockages in educational systems, and identify breakthrough collaborations and ideas to move forward along the lifelong learning continuum.

This series, launched in 2015, directly supports action to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and takes forward Salzburg Global's commitment to bridge divides and accelerate human transformation. Its topics and outcomes directly connect to Salzburg Global's health, urban and early childhood programs.

For more info, visit: education.salzburgglobal.org