Andy Vaughan
andyv@isb.ac.th
Over the past month our HS Advisory groups have been learning a new practice that we are integrating into our HS advisory curriculum called the “The Open Session”. All advisory’s will experience this every month during their Advisory period for the rest of the year and into future years. We hope that its benefits will meet your child’s need to connect with each other over “real life” issues and that the result of experiencing The Open Session will be greater empathy, SEL ability, and community.
Due to the nature of the topics students will address, and the fact that many of their issues will be submitted anonymously, we ask that you not ask specific questions about what was shared, following Open Sessions, but rather allow your child space and time to share generally with you about all of the excellent ideas and support that will no doubt come their way as a result of participating in this format.
WHAT IS OPEN SESSION?
The Open Session was created by facilitators from Institute for Social and Emotional Learning (IFSEL), whom ISB has been working with this year to review and improve our advisory program. In The Open Session, a group of adolescent peers engage with each other by “collectively wondering” about decisions, dilemmas, personal and social concerns going on in their everyday lives, as well as joyful moments. Throughout their 30 minute Advisory, in groups of about 12-14 students, teachers facilitate and students practice three specific types of SEL responses: seeking clarification, providing support and encouragement, and generating solutions, often from their “real life” wisdom. These skills flow naturally into application within students’ lives inside and outside the classroom and promote a host of positive responses.
As students develop increased emotional self-awareness and self-regulation and as positive communication skills and social awareness skills increase, they will self -advocate and seek support. When the personal stress of young adolescents is lowered, practices of empathy, resilience, and advocacy for diverse points of view – cultural/identity – all of these elements factor into the process of becoming a more self-aware human being who embraces collaboration alongside ethical decision-making in the daily interactions/advocacy for rights and respect for peers and all members of the school community.
IFSEL’s Open Session methodology is in use by schools around the world; engaging students, faculties, and parents to amplify connection, resilience, and caring, and teach vital social and emotional skills. (The Power of Collective Empathy, a TEDx talk on Open Session was given at San Ramon Public High School by IFSEL co-founder, Janice Toben, M.Ed. “Check-in”, used to begin Open Session, was first cited in Daniel Goleman’s groundbreaking 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence.)
Here is some of the data on empathy, ethical reasoning, predictive thinking, anti-bullying, and resilience:
The Open Session and check-in may provide an antidote to bullying and a motivation for ethical action:
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Seeing someone else’s point of view or sharing another person’s feelings are important skills in the classroom. Perspective taking and empathy can facilitate beneficial interactions among classmates, such as intervening to stop bullying (Gini, Albiero, & Altoe, 2008).
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Scholars have suggested that teaching empathic reasoning and perspective-taking (two components of social and emotional imagination) could be one step toward curbing bullying. (Nickerson, Mele and Princiotta, 2008; van Noorden, Haselager, Cillessen, & Bukowski, 2014).
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Because empathy results in students taking the perspective of another and can motivate students to imagine possible solutions to address a social problem and then take action, empathy, too, can be thought of as generating creative social behavior and deeper understanding. (Nickerson, Mele and Princiotta, 2008; van Noorden, Haselager, Cillessen, & Bukowski, 2014).
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If students engage in constructive internal reflection (Immordino-Yang et al., 2012) it helps them build a nuanced understanding of another’s perspective.
The Open Session likely builds reflective, open-minded and motivated citizens
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The ability to understand one’s social world – to make meaning of socially complex scenarios, to reason empathically about others’ circumstances, and to take the perspective of other individuals and cultures is a form of imagination that leads to the reflective and motivated citizens our society would hope to create. (How Social-Emotional Imagination Facilitates Deep Learning and Creativity in the Classroom by Gotlieb, Jahner, Immordino-Yang, and Kaufman; 2018, in pre-publication.)
The Open Session -why is it helpful for high school students to focus on clarification, support & encouragement & wisdom, ideas, solutions?
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Empathic and social reasoning enables individuals to act creatively in finding solutions to social problems and to strive to better themselves by adopting the values undergirding others’ admirable acts.
SEL, Open Session and Resilience
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There is a link between students’ personal social-emotional qualities, creativity, and long-term achievement in the face of obstacles. Researchers are wondering: how might school support young people in developing creative dispositions toward learning? (How Social-Emotional Imagination Facilitates Deep Learning and Creativity in the Classroom by Gotlieb, Jahner, Immordino-Yang, and Kaufman)
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Students are rarely taught that their persistence is enhanced by their ability to cultivate an imagined possible future and to connect what they are learning to the meaning that future holds (e.g., Oyserman & Destin, 2010; Torrance, 1993).
Social Media and Stress–more need for internal reflection in schools
During constructive internal reflection an individual may build a complex representation of the self, envision possible futures, or engage in moral reasoning. Immordin-Yang and colleagues (2012) hypothesize that the opportunity for constructive internal reflection can be compromised by overbooked school schedules, the challenges of urban environments, or incessant texting and engagement with social media. Consistent exposure to such circumstances could conceivably undermine youths’ ability to reflect and think creatively. (Rotenstein, Bansal, Yang, & Immordino-Yang, 2014).