Course Description
This course introduces fundamental concepts and practices in supporting social emotional skills and wellness for children, youth and adults across abilities. Students will learn how supporting social emotional skills impacts short and long-term quality of life outcomes for themselves and those they support. Through a process of reflection and self exploration, students will develop an understanding of how past traumas, experiences, strengths and stretches impact our ability to support others. Using a trauma-informed lens, practitioners will use a strength-based approach to encourage the development of self-agency and other essential skills.
Course Content
- Feeling safe, valued, and connected is fundamental to learning and growing, across all life domains and contexts. Creating environments that priotize strong, supportive relationships with a strength-based focus is essential to learning and growth.
- Adverse childhood experiences impact lifelong health, opportunities, and outcomes. Trauma-informed Practice allows us to understand and be responsive to the impacts of trauma by taking a strengths-based approach.
- Awareness of the impact of our own past traumas and experiences is critical to being able to provide social and emotional support to others.
- Awareness and understanding of cultural context, including our implicit biases, are essential to being able to develop meaningful relationships and provide culturally responsive support.
- To effectively support the development of social emotional skills and wellness, practitioners must continue to develop and model their own co-regulation and self-regulation skills and self-care practices.
- Formal and informal learning communities can support individuals in their social and emotional learning and development.
- Multiple disciplines inform our understandings of social and emotional learning.Social-emotional skills encompass five core competencies, including social awareness, self awareness, self management, responsible decision making, and relationships skills.
- Self-agency is the feeling of power and control over one's life. Self-agency is developed through thinking patterns which practitioners can actively support to impact positive long-term outcomes.
- The principles of ethical care and disability justice underly practitioners' approach to supporting social and emotional learning.
Learning Activities
In this course, students engage in a variety of learning activities such as lecture, group work, case studies, self-reflection, and team-based exercises
Means of Assessment
Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. An evaluation schedule is presented at the beginning of the course. This is a graded course.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Express an understanding of social and emotional learning as a relational and reciprocal process, with aspects of individual development and community participation;
- Explain the significance of prioritizing strong, positive and supportive relationships and articulate approaches for fostering those relationships;
- Reflect on personal experiences and perspectives that may impact support for others;
- Describe the five social emotional core competencies and identify methods for addressing and supporting each in practice;
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for co-regulation, self-regulation, and self-care for self and others;
- Provide examples of how practitioners can promote self-agency within the scope of their roles and responsibilities, and;
- Describe how diversity and disability impact our understanding and facilitation of social and emotional learning.
Textbook Materials
Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required and textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester.