Teaching and Assessing Soft Skills - MASS - Measuring and ...

motivation to achieve, and develop a broadly applicable set of social-emotional
competencies that mediate better academic performance, health-promoting behaviour, and
citizenship.
The leading international organisation for promoting SEL is Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). It was formed with the goal of “establishing highquality,
evidence-based SEL as an essential part of preschool through high school
education”.
Since its conception, CASEL has defined SEL more specifically and has served as a guide to
school-based SEL programming (CASEL, n.d.). According to CASEL, SEL describes the
acquisition of skills including self- and social awareness and regulation, responsible decision
making and problem solving, and relationship management. The first of CASEL’s 39
Guidelines for Educators delineates four primary domains of SEL: “(1) life skills and social
competencies, (2) health promotion and problem prevention skills, (3) coping skills and
social support for transitions and crises, and (4) positive, contributory service” (Elias et al.,
1997; Kress & Elias, 2006). The keys SEL competencies, as defined by CASEL, are given in
Table 1 (Payton et al., 2000).
Table 1
Key Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies
Awareness of Self and Others
Awareness of feelings: The capacity to accurately perceive and label one's feelings.
Management of feelings: The capacity to regulate one's feelings.
Constructive sense of self: The capacities to accurately perceive one's strengths and
weaknesses and handle everyday challenges with confidence and optimism.
Perspective taking: The capacity to accurately perceive the perspectives of others.
Positive Attitudes and Values
Personal responsibility: The intention to engage in safe and healthy behaviours and
be honest and fair in dealing with others.
Respect for others: The intention to accept and appreciate individual and group
differences and to value the rights of all people.
Social responsibility: The intention to contribute to the community and protect the
environment.
Responsible Decision Making
Problem identification: The capacity to identify situations that require a decision or
solution and assess the associated risks, barriers, and resources.
Social norm analysis: The capacity to critically evaluate social, cultural, and media
messages pertaining to social norms and personal behaviour.
Adaptive goal setting: The capacity to set positive and realistic goals.
Problem solving: The capacity to develop, implement, and evaluate positive and
informed solutions to problems.
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