Laura Poy Solano
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 3, 2024, p. 8
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called on teachers to Go beyond assessment and delve deeper into the impact of social-emotional skills (SES) on student learning
which includes the development in the classroom of empathy and the ability to listen to others.
In the virtual seminar Socio-emotional skills and their learning at schoolIsidora Cortese, a psychologist specializing in school coexistence and socio-emotional learning, and Violeta Meyer Romero, a specialist in the development of teaching materials, highlighted that the school It is a privileged space
for learning HSE, but few teachers have a concrete idea about them.
They indicated that it is estimated that only 27 percent of teachers in the region have a clear idea of the HSE that should be taught, in addition to the fact that there are at least six different explanatory models on these skills and how they should be brought to the classroom, which implies an enormous diversity of theoretical approaches.
Specialists from the UNESCO regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean highlighted that in the methodological proposal of that organization, three dimensions of HSE are recognized: the interpersonal (individual), which involves connecting with one’s own emotional world and self-regulating our behavior.
The interpersonal dimension, which includes expressing and appropriately interpreting information from other people and towards ourselves, and the cognitive dimension, which involves reasoning and information processing (memory, critical thinking and creativity, among others).
UNESCO, they indicated, proposes as a definition of HSE those that They make up the repertoire of capabilities that people can develop throughout their lives and that determine their ability to connect and understand their own emotions, thoughts and behaviors.
.
In addition, it implies connect with and understand the emotions, thoughts and behaviors of others, and function in a given context in an adaptive manner
.
At the virtual meeting, which brought together educators from various Latin American countries, including Mexico, the specialists highlighted that HSE can be taught, since they can be modeled, promoted and practiced
in the classroom.
In addition, they are sensitive to context, since they depend on situational contexts to be able to learn them. And they warned that there is a critical period
for learning, since they can begin to be acquired from the first year of life, and are usually subject to a consolidation process during adolescence.
