Social and Emotional Skills Well-being, connectedness and success
©OECD FOREWORD
Contents Foreword
Foreword 3 Education systems need to prepare students for continuous effort to create the kind of binding social their future, rather than for our past. In these times, capital through which we can share experiences, ideas Introduction 4 digitalisation is connecting people, cities and continents and innovation and build a shared understanding among to bring together a majority of the world’s population in groups with diverse experiences and interests, thus 01. Measuring Social and Emotional Skills 5 ways that vastly increases our individual and collective increasing our radius of trust to strangers and institutions. potential. But the same forces have made the world also 02. Social and emotional skills drive critical life outcomes 10 more volatile, more complex, and more uncertain. And Over the last years, social and emotional skills have when fast gets really fast, being slow to adapt makes been rising on the education policy agenda and in the 03. The impact of specific social and emotional skills on life outcomes 17 education systems really slow. The rolling processes of public debate. But for the majority of students, their automation, hollowing out jobs, particularly for routine development remains a matter of luck, depending on ○ Conscientiousness – getting things done, as required and in time 17 tasks, have radically altered the nature of work and life whether this is a priority for their teacher and their and thus the skills that are needed for success. For those school. A major barrier is the absence of reliable metrics ○ Openness to experience – exploring the world of things and ideas 20 with the right human capacities, this is liberating and in this field that allow educators and policy-makers to exciting. But for those who are insufficiently prepared, it make progress visible, and to address shortcomings. ○ Extraversion – enjoying and exceling in the company of others 21 can mean the scourge of vulnerable and insecure work, and life without prospects. This is why the OECD is now developing a comprehensive ○ Agreeableness – concern for the well-being of others 22 international assessment of the social and emotional skills We know that preparing students with technical or of students. The study will help education leaders and ○ Emotional stability – having a calm and positive emotionality 23 academic skills alone will not be enough for them to practitioners better support students in the development achieve success, connectedness and well-being whatever of these critical skills. It will provide insights and guidance ○ Compound social and emotional skills 24 endeavours they wish to pursue. Social and emotional for jurisdictions to better understand the policies and skills, such as perseverance, empathy, mindfulness, practices that foster the development of social and 04. Social and emotional skills are learnable 27 courage or leadership are central to this. We are born emotional skills amongst students. And it will enable with what political scientist Robert Putnam calls bonding us to look inside a number of education systems, and Conclusions 30 social capital, a sense of belonging to our family or other understand where and how success is being achieved, people with shared experiences, cultural norms, common for students of different ages and backgrounds. Bibliography 32 purposes or pursuits. But it requires deliberate and
Andreas Schleicher Director, Education and Skills
©OECD ©OECD 3 INTRODUCTION
Measuring Introduction Social and
“Social and emotional skills” refer to the abilities to work well with others, and to take personal and collective Emotional Skills regulate one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour. These responsibility is increasingly becoming the hallmark skills differ from cognitive abilities such as literacy or of a well-functioning society. Increasing ideological numeracy because they mainly concern how people polarisation and social tensions are increasing the need manage their emotions, perceive themselves and engage for tolerance and respect, empathy and generosity, and with others, rather than indicating their raw ability to the ability to co-operate in order to achieve and protect process information. But, like literacy and numeracy, they the common good. are dependent on situational factors and responsive to change and development through formal and informal Social and emotional skills have been shown to influence The Study on Social and Emotional Skills is a new OECD international survey that assesses 10 and 15 learning experiences. Importantly, social and emotional many important life outcomes, but also to influence the year-old students in a number of cities and countries around the world. skills influence a wide range of personal and societal development and use of cognitive skills. Coupled with outcomes throughout one’s life. increasing awareness of their malleability, and their As well as examining the level of children’s socio- Each of the dimensions or categories encompasses a growing relevance for the future world, this has attracted emotional skills, the study will gather information on cluster of mutually related social and emotional skills. In an increasingly fast-changing and diverse world, the renewed interest from policy makers and researchers. their family, school and community learning contexts, For example, task performance includes achievement role of social and emotional skills is becoming more thus aiming to provide information about the conditions orientation, reliability, self-control and persistence. important. A faster pace of living and a shift to urban Despite their importance, measures of social and and practices that foster or hinder the development of Apart from demonstrating their mutual similarity, these environments means people need to engage with new emotional skills are still scarce. OECD studies such as these critical skills. The study began in mid-2017 and will groupings also ensure systematic, comprehensive ways of thinking and working and new people. Ageing the Programme for International Student Assessment be carried out over a three-year period, with the main and balanced consideration of individuals’ social and and more diverse populations and the dismantling of (PISA) and the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) are fieldwork taking place in 2019 and the findings released emotional skills. traditional social networks place additional emphasis on covering a growing range of social and emotional skills later in 2020. people’s sense of trust, co-operation and compassion. and have shown not only that these skills are related The study also includes the so-called “compound” skills. Rising complexity and the increasing pace of technological to important life outcomes, but also that they can be The study draws on a well-known framework in the field These skills represent combinations of two or more change call for the ability to act independently and to assessed meaningfully within and across cultural and of social and emotional skills – the Big Five model – to individual skills. For example, self-efficacy represents a adjust to changes on-the-go. linguistic boundaries. The OECD is now taking this work provide a general outline of how these skills should be combination of skills from the conscientiousness, emotional further with a comprehensive international assessment organised (Figure 1). Social and emotional skills in this stability and extraversion categories of the Big Five. Social and emotional skills determine how well people of the social and emotional skills of school-age children, model are arranged hierarchically, with five general skill Compound skills are found to be useful for describing and adjust to their environment and how much they achieve through the Study on Social and Emotional Skills. The categories that can be split into narrower, lower-order understanding certain aspects of behaviour and in many in their lives. But the development of these skills is skills included in the study are set out in the following skills. The broad categories of the Big Five are:1 cases they are shown to affect important life outcomes. important not only for the well-being of individuals, but pages, along with an explanation of why these skills are also for wider communities and societies as a whole. The so important and how these skills may be fostered. •• openness to experience (open-mindedness) ability of citizens to adapt, be resourceful, respect and •• conscientiousness (task performance) •• emotional stability (emotional regulation) •• extraversion (engaging with others) •• agreeableness (collaboration).
1 These are the original terms used for the Big Five dimensions and are used in the remainder of this brochure. Terms in parentheses are used in the OECD study due to their specific content in the project.
4 ©OECD ©OECD 5 01. MEASURING SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILLS 01. MEASURING SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILLS
Figure 1 Structure of Social and Emotional Skills The study will assess 15 social and emotional skills spread societal cohesion, while tolerance and cultural flexibility across the 6 broad domains – the “Big Five” dimensions have growing social relevance in increasingly diverse and and the compound skills. The project used a number of polarised societies. Respectfulness and co-operation are criteria to decide which skills to include in the study. In both very relevant for children, and are highly regarded particular, the skills included need to: skills in the workplace.
•• provide a broad and balanced coverage of the entire Curiosity is a critical skill that improves learning domain of social and emotional skills outcomes and provides intrinsic incentives for lifelong •• be predictive of success in a wide range of important self-development. Creativity/imagination is another skill life outcomes and events that can bring strong benefits to both individuals and •• be malleable and susceptible to possible policy societies, while critical thinking is gaining importance ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION
RESPONSIBILITY interventions in a world full of false and misleading information.
SELF-CONTROL
PERSISTENCE •• be appropriate for 10- and 15-year-olds Metacognition/self-reflection has been found to be one •• be comparable and relevant across different cultures, of the most fundamental skills for lifelong learning, along languages, social and school contexts with the ability to adjust to changing requirements and •• be relevant for the future. settings.Self-efficacy is a well-researched skill with high predictive validity and of special importance in school STRESS RESISTANCE
OPTIMISM Table 1 presents short description of each of the skills, settings. EMOTIONAL CONTROL accompanied by some typical skill-related behaviour. The Big Five model has been extensively researched and Achievement motivation and responsibility are predictive has accumulated a substantial bank of evidence around TASK EMOTIONAL PERFORMANCE REGULATION of a wide range of life outcomes, with special relevance it. Many research teams have independently found a for school and work settings.Self-control and emotional similar five-factor structure of personality characteristics, control have attracted substantial research attention and this consistency in results has contributed to the in many fields, with evidence pointing to their strong widespread acceptance of the model. The Big Five model relevance for children and how their lives will be shaped is also comprehensive enough to include the majority CRITICAL THINKING THE EMPATHY after school.Stress resistance/resilience and optimism are of social and emotional skills studied to date. There is COMPOUND META-COGNITION TRUST highly predictive of a wide variety of positive future life also extensive evidence that the Big Five domains and SKILLS ‘BIG FIVE’ COLLABORATION outcomes, and are increasingly relevant skills for the sub-domains can be generalised across cultures and SELF-EFFICACY DOMAINS COOPERATION modern world. nations. Even though research has shown the presence of some culture-specific constructs, the common Big Five Sociability and empathy/compassion provide a basic set of structure is present in most cultures and languages around social and emotional skills needed for effective functioning the world, not just in Western societies. Furthermore, ENGAGING OPEN- and integration in work and personal environments. although the Big Five model was initially derived from WITH OTHERS MINDEDNESS Assertiveness is a characteristic of leadership and is also research on adults, it has been well-documented that it is related to entrepreneurship, while energy/activity allows suitable for describing differences in social and emotional people to lead a more dynamic and eventful lifestyle. skills from childhood to old age CURIOSITY
TOLERANCE Trust is highly relevant for personal well-being and
CREATIVITY
SOCIABILITY
ASSERTIVENESS
ENERGY
6 ©OECD ©OECD 7 01. MEASURING SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILLS 01. MEASURING SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILLS
Table 1 Description of the skills included in the OECD’s Study on Social and Emotional Skills
“BIG FIVE” “BIG FIVE” SKILLS DESCRIPTION BEHAVIOURAL EXAMPLES SKILLS DESCRIPTION BEHAVIOURAL EXAMPLES DOMAINS DOMAINS
Enjoys reaching a high level Likes to read books, to travel Interest in ideas and love ACHIEVEMENT Setting high standards for oneself of mastery in some activity. to new destinations.
of learning, understanding ORIENTATION and working hard to meet them. CURIOSITY Opposite: uninterested in career and intellectual exploration; Opposite: dislikes change, development. an inquisitive mindset. is not interested in exploring new products.
Arrives on time for appointments, Able to honour commitments, gets chores done right away. Is open to different points of view, Have friends from different RESPONSIBILITY and be punctual and reliable. Opposite: doesn’t follow through TOLERANCE values diversity, is appreciative backgrounds. on agreements/promises. of foreign people and cultures. Opposite: dislikes foreigners.
Doesn’t rush into things, Generating novel ways to do Has original insights, is good Able to avoid distractions and focus OPEN-MINDEDNESS is cautious and risk averse. or think about things through at the arts.
SELF-CONTROL attention on the current task in (Openness to Experience) CREATIVITY exploring, learning from failure, order to achieve personal goals. Opposite: is prone to impulsive Opposite: seldom daydreams, shopping or binge drinking. insight and vision. dresses conventionally. (Conscientiousness) TASK PERFORMANCE TASK
Finishes homework projects Skilled at teamwork, or work once started. Able to approach others, both good at public speaking. Persevering in tasks and activities SOCIABILITY friends and strangers, initiating and PERSISTENCE Opposite: Gives up easily when until they get done. maintaining social connections. Opposite: avoids large groups, confronted with obstacles/ prefers one-to-one communication. distractions. Takes charge in a class or team. Able to confidently voice opinions, Is relaxed most of the time, Opposite: waits for others to Effectiveness in modulating anxiety performs well in high-pressure ASSERTIVENESS needs, and feelings, and exert social and able to calmly solve problems influence. lead the way, keeps quiet when STRESS RESISTANCE situations. disagrees with others. (Extraversion) ENGAGEMENT ENGAGEMENT (is relaxed, handles WITH OTHERS stress well). Opposite: worries about things, difficulties sleeping. Approaching daily life with energy, Is always busy; works long hours. ENERGY excitement and spontaneity. Opposite: gets tired easily. Positive and optimistic Generally in good mood. OPTIMISM expectations for self and life Opposite: often feels sad, in general. tends to feel insecure. Remains calm when facing The strength of individuals’ beliefs unexpected events. SELF-EFFICACY in their ability to execute tasks and Opposite: avoids challenging Controls emotions in situations achieve goals. (Emotional stability) situations. Effective strategies for regulating of conflict. EMOTION REGULATION REGULATION EMOTION EMOTIONAL temper, anger and irritation in the CONTROL Opposite: gets upset easily; face of frustrations. The ability to evaluate information Good at solving problems, at ease is moody. CRITICAL and interpret it through in new and unknown situations. THINKING/ independent and unconstrained INDEPENDENCE Opposite: dependent on others’ Kindness and caring for others Consoles a friend who is upset, analysis. guidance. and their well-being that leads sympathises with the homeless. EMPATHY to valuing and investing in close Opposite: Tends to disregard other Good exam preparation strategies, relationships. person’s feelings. Awareness of inner processes able to master skills more COMPOUND SKILLS and subjective experiences, such SELF-REFLECTION/ effectively. as thoughts and feelings, and the Lends things to people, avoids META-COGNITION Opposite: over- or under-estimates Assuming that others generally being harsh or judgmental. ability to reflect on and articulate TRUST have good intentions and forgiving such experiences. time needed for exam preparation those who have done wrong. Opposite: is suspicious of people’s or project completion. intentions.
(Agreeableness) Finds it easy to get along with COLLABORATION Living in harmony with others and people, respects decisions made COOPERATION valuing interconnectedness among by a group. all people. Opposite: Has a sharp tongue, is not prone to compromises.
8 ©OECD ©OECD 9 02. SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILLS DRIVE CRITICAL LIFE OUTCOMES
Table 2 Skills and outcomes of the three groups of high-school students in the United States
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL COGNITIVE SKILLS OUTCOMES Social and Emotional SKILLS HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS LOW LOW (WITHOUT GED DIPLOMA)
Skills Drive Critical GED GRADUATES LOW HIGH
REGULAR HIGH SCHOOL HIGH HIGH Life Outcomes GRADUATES
Improving school achievements
Cognitive skills, such as verbal or numerical proficiency, of social and emotional skills can prevent the effective remain the most important predictor of academic use of cognitive skills. For example, three studies that There is a large body of empirical evidence about the importance of social and emotional skills for performance. However, school achievement is also used nationally representative samples to investigate the successfully navigating one’s life. dependent on a number of social and emotional skills relationships between the Big Five dimensions and years such as perseverance, self-control, responsibility, curiosity of schooling show that conscientiousness and openness There is a large body of empirical evidence about the General Educational Development (GED) programme and emotional stability. Some social and emotional skills to experience are significant and positive predictors of importance of social and emotional skills for successfully (Heckman and Kautz, 2012). The GED was established are a crucial prerequisite for effective participation and the number of years of schooling (Figure 2). navigating one’s life. They have been shown to to allow high-school dropouts in the United States to performance in school settings. In other words, low levels influence experiences and achievements in all spheres obtain a high-school diploma by passing the GED test, of people’s lives, whether it is academic achievement, an academic performance test that is shown to correlate Figure 2 The relationship between years of schooling and the Big Five dimensions job performance, occupational attainment, health and closely with other achievement and intelligence tests. longevity, or personal and societal well-being.2 In some cases the predictive value of the Big Five dimensions It was found that GED graduates (students who drop 0 rivals that of long-established measures of cognitive skills. out from high school and then pass the GED test to obtain a high-school diploma) have very similar levels 0 3 Social and emotional skills not only influence life of cognitive skills to regular high-school graduates but 0 outcomes directly (for example, good social competence poorer social and emotional skills. In this respect they helps people successfully negotiate job interviews), but were actually much more similar to other high-school 0 also their persistent and cumulative effects on other dropouts (Table 2).
attributes, including cognitive skills. For example, good A S F S 0 social competence can help children adapt better to However, the most important finding was that their the school environment, gain higher status among relatively poor social and emotional skills had a strong 0 their peers and consequently achieve more in school. detrimental effect on a number of important academic,
This greater school achievement translates later on work and life outcomes. In particular, in comparison with OPENNESS OPENNESS OPENNESS
EXTRAVERSION EXTRAVERSION EXTRAVERSION into better occupational status, health and general regular high-school graduates, GED graduates had much AGREEABLENESS AGREEABLENESS AGREEABLENESS well-being. Likewise, being curious and open-minded lower graduation rates from college; shorter spells of CONSCIENTIOUSNESS EMOTIONAL STABILITY CONSCIENTIOUSNESS EMOTIONAL STABILITY CONSCIENTIOUSNESS EMOTIONAL STABILITY and having an active approach towards learning is an employment; lower hourly wages; higher divorce rates; old er Sweene erenda e al an i c and de raa er an Socio cono ic anel S 00 00 00 important prerequisite for developing and improving worse health; a higher propensity for smoking, drinking, innate cognitive capacities. violent and criminal behaviour; and a greater chance of being imprisoned. Obviously, cognitive skills cannot Note: Strength of relationship is represented in form of standardized regression coefficients varying between -1 and 1, with 0 indicating A good illustration of this interplay between personality compensate for a lack of social and emotional skills and absence of the relationship.Source : Almlund et al. (2011). and cognitive skills is shown in an example from the both are needed for people to prosper in life.
2 See OECD (2015) and Kankaraš (2017) for extensive overviews of this evidence.
10 ©OECD ©OECD 11 02. SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILLS DRIVE CRITICAL LIFE OUTCOMES 02. SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILLS DRIVE CRITICAL LIFE OUTCOMES
School grades are an important part of academic nearly as well as cognitive ability, and this association Among the Big Five characteristics, conscientiousness Social and emotional skills have an even greater progress. Figure 3 summarises key findings from a study did not diminish even when controlling for cognitive appears to predict performance and wages across a broad effect on other aspects of a person’s job performance on the relationship between the Big Five dimensions and ability. Openness to experience and agreeableness were range of occupational categories, whereas the predictive than employability and income. This is because job course grades, both controlling for intelligence and not. also related to grades, although the magnitude of these power of other social and emotional skills may depend on performance is largely under the direct control of an Importantly, conscientiousness predicted course grades relationships was smaller. the jobs being studied. For example, extraversion predicts individual, while income and employability are more future earnings, employment status and performance for influenced by demographic and background effects. Figure 3 Correlations of the Big Five dimensions and intelligence with course grades those in sales and managerial occupations but it is less Job performance can be broken down into three distinct predictive of performance in technical/professional jobs. categories: task performance, organisational citizenship Emotional stability is especially important in jobs with behaviour, and counterproductive work behaviour. Task Raw correlation with GPA Partial correlation with GPA, after controlling for IQ tight deadlines and higher levels of stress. Openness to performance refers to behaviour that contributes experience is more relevant in investigative and scientific towards producing goods or providing a service; A S A positions, while agreeableness is critical when working in organisational citizenship behaviour refers to behaviour A A SS teams, in customer-relations or in the care sector. that benefits an organisation, such as persisting with