What Possible Difference Could It Make, Vol. 6: Social and Emotional Learning

While it’s become a political hot button issue in some parts of the country, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs have clear benefits for students. Research has shown that SEL increases the reading level of students that were below the level of their peers, and that the social-emotional curriculum increased the social-emotional competence and well-being for all students involved.

That’s why a few years back, PIPs teamed up with ThinkHuman.tv, an innovative emotional learning platform. Users engage with ThinkHuman through a browser extension that works on streaming sites like Netflix and Disney+ and can leverage the full breadth of high-quality content offered through these entertainment platforms. The browser extension is powered by a patented emotional learning engine developed by two researchers at Columbia University. When users complete ThinkHuman SEL learning modules that appear alongside their favorite shows, they earn PIPs. When they complete several modules in a row, they earn even more.

“While gaining emotional knowledge, flexibility, and resilience can be its own reward,” ThinkHuman.tv creator Ilya Lyashevsky, explains, “we appreciate the extra motivation that PIPs offers.” It’s the three Rs of habit change at work — recognize, reward, and repeat.

Driving the ThinkHuman team and others to advance SEL is the understanding as laid out by Henry M. Levin, Professor of Economics and Education at Teacher’s College Columbia University, that “To meet the economic, political, social, and personal demand for competency, much more is required of students and adults than just cognitive proficiencies as measured by test scores. Individuals must develop interpersonal skills that enable them to relate to others in many different societal situations. They must also develop the intrapersonal skills that include good judgment and strategies for meeting their own needs in effective ways.”