The Impact Social Awareness has on the Learning Process
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), social-awareness is the ability to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts.
This can be shown through:
- Taking others’ perspectives
- Recognizing strengths in others
- Demonstrating empathy and compassion
- Showing concern for the feelings of others
- Understanding and expressing gratitude
- Identifying diverse social norms, including unjust ones
- Recognizing situational demands and opportunities
- Understanding the influences of organizations and systems on behavior
(CASEL)
In a broad sense, a person demonstrating social awareness has an understanding of the world around us; including environments, cultures, communities, problems, struggles, societal norms, and other areas that make up the atmosphere that we live in.
If we analyze social awareness with a narrower scope, it can be described as the ability to accurately understand the emotions of other people and empathize with them. When we are being socially aware, this forces us to take the focus off ourselves and really think about those around us.
Some questions to ask ourselves to help us to be more socially aware are:
- How are my actions making those around me feel?
- If I act without thinking, could it possibly hurt someone else?
- How can I be of service to others?
When students learn social awareness skills, these skills can help them in their youth in places like school, but it can also help them into adulthood in the workplace. Being socially aware can also help a person to adapt to the ever-changing environments that we experience as we learn and grow and when creating relationships, connections, and friendships throughout our lives.
In order for students to best learn social and emotional skills such as social awareness, teachers and students will need to create an environment where all students feel safe and comfortable sharing their emotions free from judgement. When we all work to create a safe space for ourselves and others to express their emotions, this creates an environment where people feel more comfortable reaching out for help without judgement. When more people feel safe and comfortable reaching out for help, this helps to ensure more people are able to live happy, healthy, and successful lives. When the classroom environment is one where students feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings, this creates an environment that is optimal for learning and growing academically as well.
The Rock Digi program has lessons in multiple curricula that teach social awareness skills. Below are some lesson preview videos for lessons that teach about social awareness.
SEL and Life Skills for Success for Grades 2-4:
Lesson 1 - Accepting Others
Lesson 2 - Empathy
SEL and Life Skills for Success for Grades 5-6:
Lesson 1 - Accepting Others
Lesson 2 - Empathy
Rock World Empathy - SEL and Global Studies for Grades 7-9:
Lesson 1 - World Empathy
Free Trial Lessons are available at rockdigi.org where you can see how the Rock Digi lessons are formatted and the standards that the lessons meet.
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