Strengthening social-emotional education and student well-being: impact on learning

Abstract

Strengthening social-emotional learning and student well-being has become a fundamental pillar of contemporary educational processes, thanks to its direct influence on students' overall development and learning quality. Social-emotional learning is based on teaching people essential skills to recognize, understand, and, above all, manage their emotions, enabling them to face all the challenges of everyday life. This approach moves away from traditional teaching, considering students not only as cognitive beings, but also as beings with social, family, and ethical needs. The emotional well-being of students in educational institutions must be considered, as this strengthens their second safe, inclusive, and respectful home, which in turn strengthens students' self-esteem by making them resilient. Education programs should focus more on students' emotions to help reduce their current levels of anxiety and, above all, demotivation, which negatively affects student performance. Above all, empathy is needed to foster a favorable environment in the educational setting.