SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) IN DISCIPLINARY TEACHING: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is an educational approach aimed at developing essential competencies such as self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Integrating SEL into disciplinary subjects represents an innovative pedagogical strategy to promote holistic and meaningful learning. This approach explores how SEL competencies can be incorporated into teaching across various subjects, highlighting three key dimensions: connections between disciplinary content and SEL competencies, experiential teaching methodologies, and comprehensive assessment strategies. In disciplinary contexts, academic content offers endless opportunities to foster social-emotional skills: from literature, which invites empathy through the analysis of complex characters, to mathematics, which builds perseverance and problemsolving abilities, to science, which encourages ethical critical thinking. Collaborative and experiential teaching methodologies, such as cooperative learning, problem-solving, debates, and station-based learning, allow the seamless integration of disciplinary objectives with SEL competencies, making the learning process more engaging and transformative. Finally, a holistic assessment system that evaluates both academic performance and socio-emotional growth provides balanced and formative feedback. Integrating SEL into disciplinary teaching not only enhances academic learning but also prepares students to face life’s challenges with greater awareness, resilience, and relational competence. This approach represents a step forward toward a more comprehensive and future-oriented education.