The Art of Social and Emotional Learning

Carrie Kennedy

Aug 7

4 min read

Updated: Oct 1

We’ve all heard of the term “hard skills.” For students, these would include being able to read, calculate numbers, identify geographical locations, edit a piece of writing, and think scientifically. “Soft skills,” on the other hand, are social and emotional elements that allow students to be self-aware, manage their feelings, show empathy, make responsible choices, and build relationships. Calling these latter skills “soft” is pretty ironic, though. Anyone who

has tried to teach a frustrated child to manage big emotions knows these competencies are hard to master! But did you know the arts provide a natural way for students to discover and practice these difficult soft skills?

The goal of social and emotional learning, or SEL, is to help people develop the skills they need to understand themselves and navigate relationships with others. In an attempt to organize this sea of skills, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) identifies five interrelated areas of competence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Exploring different areas of the arts allows students to develop all five. Why? Because the arts are, at their core, about human experience. Whether students are learning to appreciate the arts as viewers or are participating in the creation or performance of art themselves, they encounter remarkable combinations of story, emotion, expression, ideas, choices, and perspectives. These pathways are what link the arts so naturally to SEL.

Music invites students to listen, interpret, and respond. As listeners, students can explore how music communicates emotion, reflects cultural traditions, and expresses experiences that may be different from their own. As participants, they learn to express ideas and feelings through sound while listening and responding to others, cooperating, making creative choices, and adjusting their contributions to create something together.

The visual arts encourage students to look closely and consider different perspectives. As viewers, students can examine how artists use color, line, shape, symbols, and composition to communicate ideas and experiences. They may encounter stories, traditions, and viewpoints that expand their understanding of the world. As creators, students make decisions about how to express their own ideas, experiment with materials and techniques, respond to challenges, and learn that there can be many meaningful ways to approach a single task.

Creative writing allows students to learn from stories. As readers, students encounter characters with different backgrounds, motivations, and points of view. They can begin to consider what others might be thinking or experiencing, even when those experiences are unfamiliar. As writers, students explore their own ideas and emotions while imagining characters, developing situations, making choices, and considering how those choices affect the arc of their stories.

The performing arts bring stories and relationships to life. As audience members, students observe how performers use voice, movement, music, and gesture to communicate ideas and emotions. They can reflect on characters’ choices, interpret different perspectives, and reflect on how the performance relates to their own lives. As participants, students practice listening, communicating, and taking creative risks. Whether performing theater, dance, or another form of live expression, they learn that a successful performance depends not only on individual effort but also on cooperation and shared goals.

Hard skills, like the ones mentioned in the introduction, are generally more concrete and often have clearly defined ways of demonstrating proficiency. But the soft skills of SEL are, by their very nature, more subjective and fluid, acquired and expanded through exploration, experimentation, and ongoing curiosity. Artists of all kinds are constantly making these same creative and critical choices: What’s this new idea all about? What am I feeling? What’s working? What needs to change? How can I move through this stuck feeling and try again?

And these experiences matter at every age. A young child might draw a picture to show how a character feels. An older student might write from that character’s perspective, analyze the emotional choices in a performance, or compose music to express a particular mood. The activities become more sophisticated as students grow, but the underlying competencies continue to develop.

The arts don’t simply give students a way to make things. They give them opportunities to

understand themselves and others, express what they feel, and make meaningful choices.

And the arts don’t just tell stories. They help students understand the people inside those

stories—and better understand themselves.

SEL and the Artifact Creative curriculum:

The lessons and activities in our curriculum are thoughtfully designed to support and enhance essential social and emotional learning in students of all ages. Our content gives students opportunities to understand and appreciate the creative works of others, while our engaging activities invite them to participate in creative processes for themselves. Both of these experiences help students build the “soft”—and challengingly hard!—skills that are so

important for developing their social and emotional competencies. Additional resources:

The Child Mind Institute has posted this good article to explain the importance of social and emotional learning.

You’ll find helpful information on this website for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
*And New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has created this wonderful resource for teaching SEL using artwork in their collection. The free resource can be used with all students and has specific suggestions for modifying its content for students with a range of special needs.

About the author:

Carrie Kennedy spent almost two decades in classrooms—including teaching art, English, and science— and now serves as the Director of Curriculum Content and Development at Artifact Creative. Kennedy is the author of four books and has written and lectured extensively on the subject of creativity and learning.

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When students study subjects like music, visual art, theater, literature, dance, creative writing,

and history, they learn to make meaningful connections to their own lives and to the world

around them. Artifact Creative develops digital and hands-on educational material in these

rich areas of the arts and humanities to inspire critical, creative, and compassionate thinking

and to serve as an essential foundation for authentic, lifelong learning.

For more information, visit ArtiFactCreative.org or contact Dana.Corradi@ArtiFactCreative.org

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