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apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and
manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for
others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible
decisions. (National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments,
2023).
A second definition, used by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional
Learning, includes ideas such as students setting goals as well as developing empathy
Dr. Mae Lane is an and emotional intelligence (CASEL, 2023). Three broad areas encompassed by SEL
associate professor in include emotional processes, social and interpersonal skills, and cognitive regulation
the School of Teaching (Jones et al., 2013). Emotional processes involve understanding and identifying
and Learning at Sam
Houston State University, feelings, managing emotions, seeing a situation from another’s perspective, and
where she teaches showing empathy (Jones et al., 2013). Cognitive regulation involves curbing
both undergraduate inappropriate impulses such as sarcasm or raising one’s voice toward a student.
and graduate courses. We also agree that the power dynamic of a classroom cannot be changed unless
Lane’s research interests there is a direct, intentional action (Freire, 1970) that requires teachers to reflect on
include mentorship of their teaching practice (Brookfield, 2017) and extend instructional experiences to
novice teachers, reflective
teaching, and content- include critical thinking and participatory learning practices (Mason et al., 2019). As
area/disciplinary literacy. stated by Shyman (2020), reflective teachers
Her current research • Must recognize certain aspects of their teaching as problems.
projects include the power • Must accept that one has preconceptions, presumptions, prejudices, biases, and
of reflective teaching and ignorance upon which one acts, tacitly or explicitly, in virtually every classroom
examining the relationship interaction.
between literacy and
social justice. • Recognize they have an unnamed set of social and cultural rules by which they
abide and hold as the standard for others’ behavior. (p. 9)
mal024@shsu.edu
Instrument
We decided to develop rubrics to determine if we were achieving the curricular
goals for the content that we teach while also developing the 21st-century skills that
are necessary for today’s teachers, including modeling self-advocacy and helping
students to develop agency, relationship building, and mindfulness. We developed
the initial rubrics with a directional focus based on the SAFE acronym developed by
Durlak and others (2011, p. 410). According to them, good SEL instruction should
be
Sequenced: connected and coordinated sets of activities to foster skills
development.
Active: active forms of learning to help students master new skills.
Focused: emphasis on developing personal and social skills.
Explicit: targeting specific social and emotional skills.
With these considerations in mind, we developed a Likert scale rubric with
“exceeds,” “meets,” and “does not meet” quantifiers. After starting the evaluation
process, we believed further reflection on the process was needed, as well as an
assessment of whether the SAFE acronym provided an appropriate measurement.
Each of the researchers separately completed these rubrics to evaluate whether each
assignment would help our students develop grit, mindfulness, and resilience. Then,
we met again to calibrate our ideas through a completed mindfulness rubric. After
addressing each individual qualifier, the researchers agreed the rubrics did measure
what we had initially set out to discover. Findings are forthcoming and promise to
provide further points for active reflection on our instructional practice along with a
framework for others to engage in similar reflections.

18 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators