Social and Emotional Learning in the Classroom

Abstract

This study addressed whether the implementation of the Harmony curriculum for social and emotional learning would increase positive student participation and engagement in the classroom. This was carried out in a high school with sophomore level students, using control and experimental groups. Tallying was to document the student’s participation and engagement before and after the Harmony lessons. There were two t-tests performed. The first test demonstrated that the Harmony curriculum was making a positive impact on the students and their participation and engagement, compared to the control group. A second t-test was performed to determine if the experimental groups on task behavior changed significantly from week one to week two. The second t-test identified the change from week two and week one in just the experimental group and did not indicate significant change in performance from week 1 to week 2. Conducting both tests were necessary for proper analysis because it compared two separate groups to see if the Harmony curriculum made a positive impact on student participation and engagement. This provided the researchers with the understanding that the difference between groups was significant, but that the gains made may not have been meaningful.