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Xiao Chun (alias), a 12-year-old boy at a rural school in Jianchuan county in Yunnan Province, used to be rebellious and did not want to learn. Although his parents tried to force him to study, they failed and he continued to resist. Like many children in rural parts of China, school was a place where he faced great pressure to perform well by rote learning and often very formal lessons.

How to support schools – particularly their leaders and teachers – in creating supportive classroom environments, as well as to share experiences on improving social and emotional learning in schools were key foci of a two day seminar that brought together national and international experts, education officials as well as rural school representatives hosted by  Beijing Normal University, with support from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and UNICEF. 

As Ma Shuwu, the deputy school principal at Xiao Chun's school, explained at the seminar, SEL training had helped to transform the way teachers interacted with children, especially those struggling with their schooling like Xiao Chun. Now equipped with new skills and ideas Xiao Chun's teacher was able to identify a way to get him to re-engage in his education.

©UNICEF/China On Dec 3, Mr. Tim Sutton, Deputy Representative for UNICEF China, gives a speech at the “International Seminar on Social Emotional Learning and Improvement of Basic Education Quality” .

The gathering, which focused on Social Emotional Learning and Improvement of Basic Education Quality, comes as China strives to achieve equity and quality in education at a higher level after its achievement in uplifting enrolment rates in primary and secondary schools.

Addressing the opening of the seminar, Tim Sutton, UNICEF China's Deputy Representative, said despite China's enormous economic progress, many children in the country have been affected by migration and many are growing up with grandparents or extended family in rural areas without regular parental support.

"14.4 million primary school students were left-behind children in 2013, accounting for 22 percent of all students in rural primary schools," said Sutton. "Supportive school environments are especially critical for these children, who might not have adult care and supervision at home and rely on the guidance and emotional support they receive at school.  Social and emotional learning helps make these children and their schools, happier and more effective places to learn and grow."

©UNICEF/China National and Provincial experts moderate group discussions on teachers and principals understanding and interpretation of the SEL teaching and learning materials.

Since 2011, the MOE and UNICEF have been working to implement an SEL program in 250 pilot primary schools across five rural counties in five western provincial-level regions, namely Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, that would help provide concrete practice and evidence for establishing child-centred learning environment.

The project has provided SEL training to nearly 1,800 participants including trainers and principals, benefitting 140,000 students and more than 3,000 teachers in these regions.

Professor Mao Yaqing, director of the MOE-UNICEF SEL project implementing office and deputy chair of BNU's Faculty of Education, told the seminar that SEL responds to realistic demands in China, which is in urgent need of transformation in its social development model including that of education.

"The current basic education has test scores as its sole evaluation criteria, which makes it impossible for children with relatively poorer academic performance to build confidence. Basic education should build a broader foundation from which children can gain confidence through multiple channels," said Mao.

Since the project's launch, cooperation between national and international experts has provided and developed a series of training and teaching materials, to introduce and concretize the concept of SEL with schools, and to introduce SEL lessons to their curriculums.

According to Mao, in addition to learning from global experiences on SEL, the project designed an SEL framework within the Chinese educational and cultural context. In China, SEL covers dimensions of awareness and management of self, others and society, the latter of which is developed in accordance with the Chinese value on "collective." In the UK, the key domains for SEL are self-awareness, managing feelings, motivation, empathy and social skills.

Participants at the seminar said they have witnessed encouraging changes following the introduction of the pilot program.

Wan Yu, a teacher from Primary School Attached to Yunnan Normal University, presented on how to build confidence in students at the seminar. She said when she asked students to make a list of what they like and dislike in themselves, Xiao Yu (alias), one of her students regarded as "a good student," to many people's surprise, listed all negative comments about herself, such as "too quiet" and "not lively enough."

"I found she might have some problems on self-awareness, so I asked other students whether they like her. They all said they like her, because she is excellent in studying, always ready to help others and is very careful in classroom cleaning. Hearing the compliments, Xiao Yu radiated, and she has become more active at class," Wan said.

The seminar also discussed how to improve student-teacher relations.

©UNICEF/China Students and teachers at a primary school in Nayong county conduct ice-breaker activities in line with the SEL ethos.

Du Yulian, principal of Chongqing Zhong County Experimental Primary School, said students were so scared of teachers that they would rather take a detour if they saw a teacher from afar. "But now things have been different. They just run to me and greet me with smiles."

Despite the progress, participants at the seminar acknowledged the challenges facing SEL in China, such as limited SEL class hours, insufficient administrative support and the lack of broad recognition of its importance.

In order to further improve social emotional learning, MOE and UNICEF will continue their cooperation to develop guidelines for teachers on how to use SEL in their everyday teaching, how to fit it into current curriculum, develop teachers' own SEL skills, provide website and app for parents on SEL and how to develop children's SEL skills at home especially for left behind children.

Looking forward, the SEL project aims to expand to more schools in the five provincial-level regions, and ideally the model will be replicated in more classrooms in rural areas.

Chris Gittins, co-director of the Northampton Centre for Learning Behaviour and an international consultant to the SEL project in China, said developing SEL is going to take a long journey, but "the steps the project made already are exceptional."

Download: Abstracts of speakers' speeches [PDF]