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A key focus area for UNESCO MGIEP is content development in socio-emotional learning as part of which the Institute delivered an online pre-recorded presentation on Socio-emotional learning as a key essence of achieving global citizenship. As part of the presentation, Nandini posed some reflective questions to the educator community including: 1) Discuss one compassionate act you did today 2) Can you think of some ways in which to encourage empathy 3) Discuss how socio-emotional learning can benefit students' overall learning. Some responses to the reflective questions are archived below.

Helping a colleague

"Today I helped a colleague with her work who wasn’t feeling well and went home early. I know that if I were not feeling well and felt overwhelmed with my work load, I would hope that one of my colleagues would do the same for me."

Supporting a friend

"It might be something very minor, but I cooked food for a friend who has a shop at an expo. She has a small business and works on her own. Which means she does not have any time to eat. That's why I thought to cook some food for her and bring it today."

Providing assistance to students

"I have aided one of my students who has financial constraints even when it was not convenient for me."

Welcoming new colleagues

"Today I welcomed new teachers to our center with breakfast. MY language of love tends to be to do things for people, rather than listen to them. I appreciated the idea of using others' shoes."

Talking to a neighbour

"My garden is suddenly producing more vegetables than I can eat. I called one of my neighbors who has been ill and asked him if he would like some of the vegetables, and he enthusiastically responded that he would love some. When I arrived at his house, he seemed like he’d like company for a while, so I went in for a relaxed conversation and visit. Just listening, understanding, affirming his feelings, and observing for when he was tiring so I could gently take my leave. He seemed to welcome the opportunity to talk openly for a bit. (He is undergoing treatment for cancer; my husband also underwent cancer treatment; I think this made him more comfortable, as he knew that I could empathize from experience."

Showing empathy

"My housekeeper wakes up early every morning to help me prepare children to go to school. This morning she didn’t wake up early as usual because, as she told me, she was not feeling well. I told her to rest and prepared everything myself for children to go to school. I did this, because I understood what she was feeling."

Helping someone in need

"On my way to work today, a certain lady approached a group of us from behind and greeted us with a sad face , at first we thought she was a thief or something else. She started crying and then we asked her what was wrong, but with a fear in our mind, because you never know with these young girls these days. She then explained to us how they had stolen her purse which had everything in it including bus fare to take her home, I believed her word and took $5 from my pocket and gave her the money. I volunteered to do this , she did not beg me but had to do it from my heart. We should teach our children to act with kindness, respect, empathy, and compassion. This is important for it is part of civic literacy or understanding our roles and responsibilities within the society. It also helps students to avoid conflict and work with others well in group. It helps them to self advocate which will help them in making the right decisions for the future."

Putting yourself in another's shoes

"Today, I went to a fuel station to buy fuel and the operator served me fuel but the machine was malfunctioning. The machine served me more litres than i asked for and I felt since it was not his fault, I should pay him the extra money on the machine. I did this because I knew he might be surcharged for the extra fuel he sold to me. In many. cases most motorists will leave the operator to his fate and leave and he has no power to make them pay since it wasn't their fault either but I know that their salaries are very poor and for him to have to pay back what the machine did wrong would be like punishing him for an offence he did not commit so i felt i should pay him the money so that he would be happy at the end of the month."

Listening to a family member

"Today I tried to be empathetic towards a family member just by listening and trying to be present and listen to her story instead of connecting to my experiences. An exercise I have engaged in that I feel helps us be more empathetic and compassionate is dyad listening. One person needs to just listen to another person, without comment, for a couple of minutes. It sounds a lot easier than it is. I engaged in this exercise in a healing racism class and we also just tried it in one of our professional learning sessions. Truly being present and listening to another's story without thinking about what you are going to say next, or connecting to your experiences, is an art."

Reading stories

"As a language art teacher, I will read stories that are based on empathy or kindness to children and ask children to visualize/ draw various such incidence."

Walking with glasses

"I attended a conference a long time ago that was designed for helping people understand more about people with special needs. There were different interactive stations that featured a task to accomplish with a device that had been designed to show people how some people with special needs experience life. For example, one task involved walking with glasses that had been almost completely obstructed, except for a very tiny hole for each eye. The task was designed to show people how to empathize with those with impaired vision."

Blocking one of the five senses

"Nandini Singh's suggested activity for empathy is interesting and innovative. I have heard of other activities like blocking one of the 5 senses to work for younger kids in a game. Like covering their eyes, or ears, or nose. An example would be covering their eyes while try to find an object in the classroom, while others try to help them with making sounds while they get close. Another activity can be writing a story that is being told by an old person, a parent, and animal or even an object, or someone who is experiencing in a very different situation from them. The person can be imaginary but the fact that they would try to think in their shoes can help them to learn empathy. "

Community Circle

"I have always enjoyed doing a community circle. I have students go around the circle and say one bad and two good things that happened during their week. I have done this many times with a variety of youth and when we first start this activity in the beginning of the school year I find that two things occur; first, there are a lot more negative things on the list than positive and secondly, in the beginning their good or bad things are usually about their grades and tests. As the year progresses, the good grows and comes to them easier than the bad and with encouragement throughout the year, they look beyond the standard tests and at what's happening in their lives and the world around them. The support from the group also grows and I find that the empathy for each other increases every week. This is a very rewarding activity."

Speaking in another language

"Ms. Singh used the literal version of the saying "walk a mile in someone elses shoes" which is a very effective way of experiencing how different some else stands and walks in life. When trying to make students, teachers and teacher trainers aware of cultural and linguistic dominance, I address the whole group in one of the local languages spoken by a minority. The people belonging to that minority get straight up in their chairs and respond surprised and enthusiastically. The other ones are visibly uncomfortable. Then I continue to hand out assignments, again written in a local language, iwth lots of illustrations, and I then ask them to please answer the questions in 10 minutes. Some people try as hard as they can, try to work together. Others just tune out or get agressive. I then ask them how this felt and all the frustration and anger comes out. I then let them reflect on the children in their classroom who do not speak the school language at home and are confronted with this every day. That really hits the message home. Once you have felt how unfair it is that you are not enabled to answer the question, not because you don't know the answer but because you cannot decipher the question, you can feel why children get frustrated and angry. "

Putting on oven mittens

"Another activity that encourages empathy. Put on oven mittens on both hands and try threading a needle. This is done to help us see the difficulty being encountered by children with intellectual disability when they are trying to learn what typically developing children are learning. Also if one is blindfolded and taken somewhere and told to locate his or her way. One may understand what the visually impaired people are going through when they are trying to move around without any assistive technology. when children are made to do many of such activities they are able to empathize and understand why they need to consider other people in everything they do. The teacher can pick such activities and allow children to do a discussion on what they learn from them and how this will influence their relationship with others around them . we can then work on different ways of promoting the well being of others around us."

SEL as a foundation

"Today's schools are increasingly multicultural and multilingual with students from diverse social and economic backgrounds. Educators serve students with different motivation for engaging in learning, behaving positively, and performing academically. Social and emotional learning (SEL) provides a foundation for safe and positive learning, and enhances students' ability to succeed in school, careers, and life."

Understanding emotions better

"Social-emotional learning can benefit students’ overall learning because if they understand their emotions better, they will be better able to manage their feelings and cope with feelings of anger, sadness, fear, etc. Students will be in a better position to form healthy relationships with their peers, their family, their future coworkers and spouse. Learning can take a backseat when a child is crying or having a temper tantrum (for the child and for others), so with greater understanding, a child is in a better position to learn how to control their behavior."

Coaching others to listen, match and understand emotions

"At our laboratory school, we use the resources on Social Emotional Development and Emotion Coaching published by John Gottman. These emphasize the adult and peer roles in coaching others to listen, match and understand emotions, provide ideas about how to respond, and solve interpersonal conflicts. We have found them to be very, very successful with pre-school children and in helping teachers understand themselves. While there is a fee involved, there are also many free resources available online."

Acquiring and applying

"Based on what presented in this video, even the definition of SEL attest that it can benefit the students’ overall learning. As SEL is the process to acquire and apply competencies to understand and manage emotions, feel and show empathy for others this is really what we need for having strong societies. The SEL could facilitate leaning when we act with more empathy, learners are less stressed, there are less conflict, good attitudes, more unity and solidarity in classroom. In another way, the performance of learners will also increase because they will learn how to support each other. However, for being able to teach SEL, all education actors must learn. A strong program must be in place for training people involved in SEL."

The foundation of every other type of learning

"I believe, that social-emotional learning is the foundation for every other type of learning. When you have a strong SEL foundation, there is a greater understanding that comes with that and serves as a stepping stone for everything else. Students that are more "available" emotionally have the ability to work through many different challenges with that foundation which, I believe, makes it easier for all other learning to take place. There is a balance that happens and allows for more time and attention to be focused on whatever their next piece of learning might be. They are not challenged with different emotional states which can become the center of all focus if balance cannot be found. Children can feel that balance but sometimes cannot get there on their own. We as educators can help to guide them with SEL curriculum and really just helping them work through and be with their emotions daily. We genuinely see happier children, ready to take on the world, once they understand their emotions a bit more and can just BE with them."

Leaving a profound effect on students' personality & outlook

"I truly I believe in the notion that this learning leaves a profound effect on student’s overall personality and outlook towards life. I really wanted to instill in my students such positive traits and characteristics. For this purpose I, time to time try to raise discussions based on topics revolving around social and emotional learning and how it can create lasting impressions on our outlook towards life. I know very well that it is indeed a challenge for me as an educator to conclude such discussions due to many societal and cultural barriers, but nevertheless it is a very important factor in grooming a student’s personality."

SEL and SDG 4.7

"It would be interesting to see what MGIEP has in mind for cultivating SDG4.7 with the youngest learners as that may mean preventing rather than solving and no longer having to deal with issues at a later stage."

Whole brain approach to learning

"I cannot wait to learn more about Libre. The school I work at is already starting to take a 'whole' brain approach to student learning. We have EQ as part of our daily schedule. A few things really stuck out to me in this presentation and have inspired me to dig more in my own educational path. I want to learn more about neuroplasticity. I have some understanding as I work with students with brain injuries but I feel a deeper understanding with a combination of the 'whole' brain approach may see greater results from our injured students. Brain injuries are not physical or mental disabilities and kind of have their own label all together, therefore have to be approached in a completely different way. And of course, as we know, each student is so unique, there is no "one size fits all". Another thing that I want to dig deeper into is bringing back the art of questioning. What a simple solution. I certainly learn and understand better when I can ask questions. Don't you?"

Encouraging empathy

"I really appreciated how the presenter approached the way of practicing the compassion. The exercise of wearing somebody else ‘shoes and working around interested me. Very difficult to understand what happening in somebody mindset but we can support her/ his wellbeing if act with empathy. The presentation helped me to think about what I can do to encourage empathy. As a coordinator of Maths School subject leader course, I will discuss with the team when we will review it and try integrating activities to encourage empathy with participants. In my daily life, I will also try to do some practices to apply empathy with my colleagues, my family members and my society in general. Some of those activities could be listening them, helping them to understand their problems, supporting them in finding solutions and provide resources where it is possible to support them in solving those problems."