Second Step® Insights
The Benefits of Human Skills for School Staff
November 27, 2024 | By: The Second Step® Team

There’s plenty of research and resources focused on social-emotional learning (SEL) for school kids—and with good reason. Learning social-emotional skills is shown to have numerous benefits for students throughout their school experience and well into adulthood.
It’s no wonder, then, that evidence also shows similar benefits for teachers. Of course, SEL programs for adults don’t teach strategies for persevering through math challenges or managing emotions at circle time. Rather, they concentrate on skills to improve teachers’ work environments. From the staff room to the classroom, when adults learn and practice social-emotional skills, they can help improve their own well-being and the success of their students.
Learn how SEL for adults can help strengthen relationships, reduce stress and burnout, and improve school climate and teacher well-being.
Strengthen relationships
Developing and refining relationship skills are a key focus of adult SEL. When teachers build strong connections with each other, they can help create an environment where educators feel safe to open up, share ideas and challenges, and offer support to each other. Teachers who actively collaborate with each other tend to experience more emotional resilience and display more self-efficacy and job satisfaction.
Sharing perspectives and empathy can also help teachers feel heard and understood and reduce feelings of isolation. Singular professional development workshops are great, but educators benefit from ongoing regular opportunities to connect.
Strengthening relationship skills translates to teacher-student connections, too. Studies show positive teacher-student relationships enhance student engagement, sense of belonging, and academic success. Teachers who value SEL tend to model those vital life skills in their teaching, reinforcing students’ social-emotional learning.
Reduce stress and burnout
Teaching consistently ranks as one of the most stressful professions. Educators are juggling lesson planning and teaching, grading, staff meetings, parent communication, and their own personal lives. In a recent educator poll, 44% of K–12 teachers said they always or very often feel burned out at work. Week after week, this stress can lead to poor mental health and wellness or leaving the profession entirely.
Social-emotional learning for adults helps educators develop the tools to identify and manage stress, whether it’s dealing with a challenging student or a heavy workload. Focusing on their own emotional management helps overall classroom management, which in turn impacts student achievement. Researchers have even corelated teacher burnout with elementary students’ cortisol levels, so having tools to alleviate teacher stress benefits students as well as educators.
Improve school climate
A positive school climate relates to student connectedness and a sense of belonging at school. Teachers are pivotal in fostering a positive school climate by developing strong student-teacher relationships. Strong student-teacher relationships are also important when teaching in multicultural learning environments.
SEL for adults helps teachers explore equity and belonging within their classrooms and throughout their school. Through guided SEL lessons, educators can better understand and support the needs of their students and colleagues.
Build self-efficacy
Social-emotional learning for adults focuses on individual awareness and growth as well as shared understanding and collaborative learning. Research spotlights that an educator’s individual efficacy increases when teachers adopt a collaborative mindset and practice. To put it simply, when teachers work together, they’re more effective individually in class and also achieve more as a group. And that powerful leadership has a direct impact on student learning.
Incorporating SEL for adults isn’t just nice to have—it’s a necessity for thriving in today’s teaching environment. Whether it’s managing stress, fostering better relationships and school climate, or addressing issues of equity and inclusion, SEL equips teachers with the skills they need to succeed both personally and professionally. When educators are emotionally supported, the entire school community benefits.
Learn how to bring Second Step® SEL for Adults to your school.
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