Professional Development
How can we use professional development within SEAL?
Schools need to develop a targeted professional development programme to address their particular needs in relation to social and emotional skills. It is anticipated that a substantial number of professional development activities will be used to promote learning about social and emotional skills.
Work on social and emotional skills can be sensitive and arouse strong feelings. The following steps can help create a safe and supportive environment in which people feel comfortable enough to express their ideas and feelings and take some risks.
- Negotiate, set and reinforce ground rules, for example about tolerance, not being judgemental, confidentiality and not being obliged to disclose things.
- Set specific and time-limited tasks, so people are clear what they have to do and know there are safe boundaries.
- Ensure that the rationale for the activities is made explicit so people understand what they are being asked to do and why.
- Give sufficient time for any activities, including time for reflection.
- Provide activities and learning opportunities that have a clear and logical sequence.
- Refer to, and build upon, the participants’ work in previous sessions, so they feel engaged and have a sense of progress.
- Use a range of active methods for engaging learners and appealing to different learning styles.
- Allow time to reflect upon and review learning and consider how learning might be applied.
4.3.1 Activity