The Evidence Base for How We Learn
Supporting Students’ Social, Emotional, and Academic Development
This brief recognizes the deep connections among these areas and the importance of each one, but the focus in particular on the body of evidence that highlights a set of skills and competencies, primarily social and emotional, that are often left out of conversations about academic learning. In this document, the reference to social and emotional learning and development encompasses cognitive, social, and emotional processes, skills, and competencies. Not only do these important skills facilitate academic learning, but it is known that the quality and depth of student learning is enhanced when students have opportunities to interact with others and make meaningful connections to subject material. Promoting social and emotional development includes enhancing the skills that students and adults in schools and in other settings possess and deploy, and depends on features of the educational setting itself, including its culture and climate.