Social, emotional, and character skills and related interventions play a critical role in children’s mental health, behavioural, and academic success.
However, those working with children in schools and in other contexts are confronted with a large, sometimes confusing array of terms, definitions, and approaches.
An upcoming public lecture by Dr. Stephanie Jones, a professor of education at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, aims to cut through some of the confusion.
“In this presentation I will review research on the nature, content, and efficacy of social and emotional learning, as well as character-focused strategies and programs designed for early and middle childhood,” said Dr. Jones.
“I’ll also describe new translational work designed to build connections between the major conceptual and practice-focused frameworks for the field, summarize a number of tensions in this area, and discuss the opportunities they present for future research and practice.”
Youth development
Dr. Jones’ research, anchored in prevention science, focuses on the effects of poverty and exposure to violence on children and youth’s social, emotional, and behavioural development.
Over the last ten years her work has focused on both evaluation research addressing the impact of preschool and elementary focused social-emotional learning interventions on behavioural and academic outcomes and classroom practices; as well as new curriculum development, implementation, and testing.
She is a recipient of the Grawemeyer Award in Education for her work with Zigler and Walter Gilliam on A Vision for Universal Preschool Education, and a recipient of the Joseph E. Zins Early-Career Distinguished Contribution Award for Action Research in Social and Emotional Learning.
Everyone welcome
Her lecture, titled The Science and Practice of Social, Emotional, and Character Development in Schools, will take place Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. in the Bruneau Centre for Research and Innovation, room IIC-2001.
A reception will follow; limited free parking is available in lot 17.
The Dr. Patricia Canning Memorial Lecture in Child Health and Development was established through generous gifts from the family and friends of the late Dr. Patricia Canning, a child psychologist, educator and researcher at Memorial University.
The purpose of the lecture series is to attract a leader in the broadly defined area of child health and development research or discovery, with a goal of providing wide-reaching benefit to both the public and the Memorial University community. Speakers must have an international reputation and have produced extensive research on issues relevant to researchers, policy-makers and practitioners.
