In this episode of ‘I can see CLRiE now’, we explore the significance of social emotional learning (SEL) in personal growth and development. Our guests, CLRiE researcher Danielle Law and community partner Nicki Straza, share their insights into the 'Superhero in me' program, which focuses on empowering children and teachers through SEL. By strengthening their capacity for emotion and behavioural regulation, positive relationships, and responsible decision-making, children and teachers can work together to enhance their overall well-being and academic success. Join us as we dive deeper into the importance of SEL training and its potential to transform children's lives.
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SPEAKERS:
Shawna Reibling, Danielle Law, Nicki Straza, Kids
[Intro Music]
Shawna Reibling 0:16
Welcome to the ‘I can see CLRiE now’ podcast. This episode will explore a project related to the Lifespan Living and Learning vine as well as the wellness and education vine. Clearly the vines are intertwined so that researchers can examine learning and development throughout the lifespan to improve the quality of life of individuals in their communities, as well as educating the whole individual from early learning through to post-secondary and beyond. Thank you to Danielle Law and Nicki Straza for being on the podcast today. Could I ask you to please introduce yourself starting with Nicki.
Nicki Straza 0:52
So, my name is Nicki Straza. And I am the author of ‘Superhero in Me’. I am also a certified flourishing coach specializing in education and educators. And I have worked with kids in programming for over 25 years working in different nonprofit settings and face settings and working in developing programs, curriculum writing, and that kind of thing. And it's all kind of come together in my coaching practice and my consulting practice in working with children, youth, and adults alike in resilience, social emotional learning and relationship development.
Shawna Reibling 01:27
Thanks. Thanks for being here today, Nicki. Danielle, can you please introduce yourself?
Danielle Law 01:31
Sure. Hello, everyone. I'm Dr. Danielle Law. I'm an associate professor at Laurier at the Brantford campus, and I teach and do research in psychology and youth and Children's Studies. I'm also the director of the Child and Adolescent Research and Education Lab or the CARE lab. And yeah, my research focuses primarily on social emotional learning and how children and youth are developing in this technologically advancing world.
Shawna Reibling 01:59
You're working on a project together that takes the work that Danielle does in terms of social emotional learning research, and combines it with the work Nicki is doing, I'm wondering if you could describe the project you're working on together?
Nicki Straza 02:13
Absolutely. So, I wrote a program called ‘Superhero in Me’, which is a series of aid workshops that we deliver in classrooms to support classroom culture, social emotional learning, regulation, and social connection. And I got connected with Danielle through a mutual friend of ours. And we really began to see how our work was aligning. And my program is fairly new. And so, one of the things that we are working together on is to test. I have a lot of anecdotal evidence that this is really empowering for students and impactful in classrooms. We are working with Danielle to ensure that we have empirical evidence, not just anecdotal evidence for our program.
Shawna Reibling 02:59
Now, you mentioned the term social emotional learning. Danielle, I'm wondering if you could explain what is social emotional learning?
Danielle Law 03:08
So, social emotional learning, often referred to as SEL is a method for fostering social skills, emotional skills, and cognitive skills in schools and beyond. It's comprised of five broad domains. So, the first domain is self-management. So, it's helping children youth, also adults to manage emotions and behaviors to achieve their goal. Another domain is self-awareness. So, learning more about recognizing our emotions and our values, as well as our strengths and some of the things that we find challenging. The third domain is social awareness, so showing understanding and empathy for others. And then that coincides with the fourth domain, which is relationship skills. So, being able to form positive relationships, being able to work effectively in teams, and dealing effectively with conflict. And then also, the fifth domain is responsible decision making, like making ethical decisions, making constructive choices about social and personal behaviors.
Shawna Reibling 04:17
That encompasses a lot. Why is it important that these five areas are addressed and that kids learn social emotional learning and build this skill?
Danielle Law 04:30
There's a lot of research indicating why it's important that we focus on these kinds of things. And so, research is showing over and over again about how important healthy relationships are to our overall well-being, health and longevity. In fact, a study that Harvard is continuing to conduct on adult development and overall wellbeing and happiness started in 1938. And they've been tracking for over 80 years the health and wellness of adults. And this study now includes and tracks the progress of their original participants, their spouses, and their children. And so, when the study began, nobody really cared about empathy. Nobody really cared about emotions or relationships. But over this long 80-year span, what they've discovered is that the key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships. And the importance of having these healthy relationships was found to be a bigger predictor of overall health, well-being and longevity over and above academic and job success, income levels, having a big house, having a great car, all of these things that we often look at as markers of success.
Shawna Reibling 05:46
Can you say that again, just so the people in the back can hear what the important indicator of happiness is over time
Danielle Law 05:55
Relationships, relationships, relationships. Yeah, it cannot be more emphasized. And so, when we think about these things, and we think about ourselves and our lives and what we want for our children, of course, we want them to find a career that they love, and to live with ease and to be able to support themselves financially. Of course, we want these things, and we put a lot of time and money into education and figuring out how to get them good jobs. But we also want them to have healthy relationships. We want them to have a good relationship with their future spouse, with their own children, their friendships, we want them to get along with their coworkers, we want them to be happy, and often a marker of happiness, as the Harvard study had pointed out, it's about healthy relationships, but very little time and energy and emphasis is actually placed on helping them know how to have healthy relationships. We spend less time helping kids learn about how to effectively manage their anxiety and their fears. For example, do we even know how to handle our own emotions as adults? Do we as adults know how to handle anxiety, fear, anger. And so even if I reflect on myself, I can name quite a few times where I did not handle myself very well. And so, the point of the ‘Superhero in Me’ project and various other social emotional learning programs, is to help foster these skills in children, and then also help adults be able to foster these skills, just because we have turned 18 or just because we've suddenly become a parent or a teacher, or someone who works with kids doesn't mean we magically know how to do these things. And so, this is an attempt to start at a very young age, how to build the muscles, our brain muscles, of managing our emotions, and our behaviors and our cognitive skills and perceptions about the world. Just to go off on a little bit more of a tangent, there's actually been a lot of research, and that's shown that the benefits of SEL on overall development are significant. So, for example, when it comes to education, multiple studies have shown that academic learning in the basics reading, writing, arithmetic, improves when we invest time, money and energy in social emotional learning during school hours. In fact, studies have shown that if SEL is a focus in schools, it improves attendance, and overall social and emotional development. It improves attitudes and behaviors, which is connected to how we think we can do and how well we learn. And it reduces conduct problems and emotional stress. And on top of that, it's been shown that there's an 11% improvement in academic performance overall, if SEL is incorporated into schools,
Shawna Reibling 09:02
Do we really know that increasing social emotional learning in kids is beneficial to them?
Danielle Law 09:08
Yeah, there have been a lot of studies actually, that have shown that if we are implementing SEL at a young age, over time, they do better into adulthood. So those who, for example, participated in an SEL program in grade three, by age 18, they're doing better than those who had not participated in these kinds of programs.
Shawna Reibling 09:32
Is there a magic time where social emotional learning needs to be incorporated into a child's education? Or is it just that it happens? What has the research shown? And how do we build it into the education system or in a child's learning at the proper developmental spot for them to incorporate it?
Danielle Law 09:50
Right, so I don't think that research has yet identified a magic time for this to happen. But the sooner we learn these things, the better simply because our brains are malleable, they're plastic. And the more we practice something, the stronger our neurons get in our brain. And so, when children are starting at a very young age, they're using those muscles in their brains are using and forming and strengthening the connections that foster emotional regulation, non-reactivity, behavioral regulation. So, the younger you start, the easier it is as you move along, because it becomes a habit, you're developing that practice from a young age and strengthening your brain in those capacities and in those areas. Adults can absolutely learn how to do this. I mean, I actually learned and practiced SEL skills as an adult, I didn't know about it as a child. And so, as I learned about it, as an adult, I started practicing it. And I can see the change over time, even in my own relationships, and in the way that I respond to difficult situations or difficult emotions. And with that practice, I can feel my neurons getting stronger, and I feel that I'm less reactive. So, we can absolutely do it as an adult with practice. But it's easier to do it and to teach children when they're younger, so that they build that habit over time. They don't have to unlearn as much as adults would have to, they can just start off learning it properly, and learning how to develop these healthy relationships with themselves with their emotions, and then also with others.
Shawna Reibling 11:39
It sounds like there's an opportunity for both adults and children to learn about social emotional learning. And in the show notes, we will link back to your website that tells listeners more and more about this issue. Are there other theories related to social emotional learning that it's important to understand before we talk about how to implement social emotional learning with children?
Danielle Law 12:03
Yeah, I think I just want to highlight that it has implications for society as a whole. So oftentimes, we just think, oh, these are soft skills that we're practicing. But these soft skills are actually very important. And we talked about some of it. And I mentioned about the education piece I mentioned about overall health and wellness. But even if we think about the workplace, and how well people get along with each other at work, and how well they do at work, SEL has shown that people who are able to work well with other people, they're able to manage stress better and are resilient, they're better able to enter and stay in the workforce and progress through the workforce better if they have stronger SEL skills.
Shawna Reibling 12:52
I think it's important that researchers are realizing that this is important to both adults and children. And in order to make it an important part of workplaces and workplace training, often, a measurement needs to be applied to what the workplace or the economic benefit would be of social emotional learning. And so, if we back that up from benefiting the workplace, starting younger through education, for younger kids to learn more about social emotional learning will allow all aspects of society to have a benefit from this work. What I've seen from all the researchers at CLRiE is that what children learn can be applied to adults as well. And if it benefits adults, it benefits children, and really mobilizing this knowledge to make a difference when kids are undergoing education, so that it can benefit them and build their well-being throughout their whole lives, both personally and professionally, is really helpful and useful. So, I'm really excited to hear about this program, the ‘Superhero in Me’ program to see how these theories around social emotional learning are being implemented into a program. And as well, does the program work? So first, I want to ask you, Nicki, what is the program?
Nicki Straza 14:17
So, ‘Superhero in Me’ takes the premise that kindness is a central social emotional learning tool. And if you actually look at all the five domains that Danielle highlighted earlier, kindness has an expression in each of them.
Shawna Reibling 14:34
So, can you just go over those five domains again for me?
Danielle Law 14:39
So, the five domains are self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. Right?
Nicki Straza 14:49
So, kindness touches on all of those domains because I cannot express kindness well without some sense of awareness, both for self and for social. So, I have to understand and believe in my own capacity to do or help. In that circumstance, I have to be noticing the social needs around me, the emotional needs around me, I have to have an eye or an ear for empathy, and for concern or for safety. And then we of course, deliver it to their doorstep, they have all these cards of how wonderful they are. And inevitably, that person comes back with oh my gosh, you made my day. So, they can see the full loop of I chose kindness, I did it on purpose, and what the impact of that was. And we practice intentional acts of kindness towards ourselves and towards others, as a way of building those social neural pathways within the brain so that we want to normalize this kind of behavior. So, kindness is a very, very unique opportunity for us to practice self-regulation because I could choose to react, or I could choose to be kind. I could choose to nurture my friendship with an act of kindness, I could also choose to neglect my relationship. Without kindness, I could make presumptions upon my relationships. And so, kindness allows us to weave in personal responsibility and self-management, self-awareness and other awareness, contribution and meaningful giving and giving back. And the cool thing about kindness is that kindness scientifically has demonstrated that when you function or participate in an act of kindness, it's not only a benefit to the receiver, but it's a benefit to the giver. So, there is an immediate hormonal, serotonin dopamine payoff for the person who's participating in kindness. And then the receiver also benefits from that. So, there's a whole bunch of really cool research around kindness. And as I began to connect the dots between social emotional learning, and just the theory around kindness and strategy around kindness, I began to go wait a minute, what if our kids believed that they have a superpower of kindness, that they can be kind to themselves and kind to others, that they can use kindness as a problem solving tool, they can use kindness as a way of patching things and repairing things in relationship, that they can use kindness as gestures to invite and create possibly new friendships, that they can work together as a team, and accomplish more as a team in kindness than they could individually. And so, I began to experiment with some of these insights. And what has been fun is we take through the eight weeks of journeys, through the workshops, we take our students through a journey of that personal domain, learning to be kind to ourselves, and also learning that personal responsibility. We take them then into their home and into the classroom, and then into the community. And we take them on a journey of being able to navigate themselves in that growing sphere of influence, to the point where we work together as a team in the classroom. And so, what I really love about this opportunity is it really nurtures a sense of team within the class, we as a team, so one of the activities, for example, that we do in throughout our curriculum, is we will identify somebody within the school dynamic, who maybe does their job. And it's not often noticed, or it's not often appreciated. You know, and so often, the secretaries or the janitors or the principal, or you know, somebody who kind of works behind the scenes that the students know about, but know that they don't often say thank you, too. And we will do a class expression of gratitude, writing cards and notes and creating crafts and stuff around expressing appreciation to this one individual.
Danielle Law 19:05
I just wanted to jump in there because what is really cool and unique about ‘Superhero in Me’ program, and the way that Nicki facilitates it is that she really creates an experiential opportunity for students. So, in some of the activities that they take part in, through the weeks, she will actually create opportunity of frustration, so frustration with each other, she will create a challenging situation where they must navigate social relationships. And in the moment when you can see the students getting upset at one another, getting frustrated with themselves, not knowing how to solve the problem. She, in a very talented way, guides them through okay, well what do we do with this? Let's observe our emotions right now. Let's think about what our body is feeling like in this moment. What is it that we feel like we want to do in reaction to it. But then how can we respond better, and she just does this all very smoothly in real time. And you can see the difference in the kids when I've observed them in the classroom, you can really see the change when they practice through Nicki's guidance, how to regulate both their emotions. And then as a consequence, their behavior, how it changes the dynamic in the classroom. And it's phenomenal to watch. And this is the kind of anecdotal evidence that we have that we've received from students, teachers and principals about just how well the class is learning and feeling connected to one another as they go through these guided challenges together,
Shawna Reibling 20:43
I wonder if you could share an example of another tool that you use within the ‘Superhero in Me’ program to help build social emotional learning skills within the program.
Nicki Straza 20:54
Absolutely. So, because I often work with grade three and four students, I love to pair and partner with the curriculum. And we talk a lot about the lifecycle of plants and, you know, soil and light and all those good things. And so, I love to use an analogy of the things we plant, and I go to the internet and find really bad information on how to plant a seed. And of course, the kids correct me on it. And then I bring that over, because they're very concrete thinkers. So, I give them that real concrete understanding about a seed that needs the right things to grow. And then I bring that over, and I unpack the idea that we have a garden in our hearts and in our mind, and the ideas that we plant in the garden of our heart, grow through practice. So, if I want to grow a tree of rudeness, all I have to do is practice rudeness and rudeness will grow. But if I want to practice kindness, and I want kindness to grow, what do I need to practice? Well, I need to practice kindness. And I really help them give a visual of the personal responsibility and the choice and the intention that they need to set to make their garden theirs and to grow their garden in the things that they want. And we go through a bunch of different exercises to explore that notion. But the imagery of the garden seems really impactful.
[Audio clip begins]
Nicki Straza 22:20
I am going to grow an entire garden. I'm so excited. I'm gonna grow peppers and cucumbers and carrots and lettuce and peas and radishes. Oooh, aren’t you excited? They are gonna be so yummy. Oh my goodness. So, I have my soil has lots of fertilizer and good things in it. And I have my seeds, okay, and I am just going to put one seed in here for my radishes and I'm going to put a seed in here for my peas and I'm going to put seed in here for my......
Kids 22:56
You're doing something wrong.
Nicki Straza 22:59
What do you mean I'm doing something wrong. You told me last week I had to put it in the soil with the water and the sunlight I'm doing all of what you said.
Kids 23:08
No.....you have to put one one seed. If you want to put a... if you want to grow...
Nicki Straza 23:19
No, I think you know see right on the outside it says radish, peas, lettuce and I'm just wanting to grow is....
Kids 23:34
You need different seeds.
Nicki Straza 23:37
What did I just plant then.
Kids 23:39
Well, we don't know what's in the bag (walking sounds). All those seeds are the same.
Nicki Straza 23:49
All of those... so, they are not going to grow into radish and peas and lettuce and carrots and cucumbers.
Kids 23:54
No......they are all just going to grow the same plant
Nicki Straza 23:57
What I'm hearing you tell me and correct me if I'm wrong. If I want a pepper to grow, I have to plant a pepper seed (Kids:Yes). And if I want a cucumber to grow, I have to plant a cucumber seed (Kids:Yes). Then I need a lot of seeds. Good point. So, help me then, because if I want optimism to grow, what do I have to plant in my life (Kids: Optimism) I have to plant optimism (,Scarlett). If I want optimism but I want happiness and joyfulness and positivity. Those are all different seeds. (Kids: So, you...plant) Oh my goodness. (Kids: So, you plant positivity, joyfulness and happiness). And then I have a garden of optimism. Oh, my goodness. It's brilliant. You're so smart. So, if I want if I want kindness to grow in the garden of my life, what do I have to plant, (Kids: just kindness), kindness, if I want focus to grow, what do I have to practice? Kindness? (Kids: focus) Everybody, I want you to focus right now. How do you spell kindness? Can you think of it? (Kids: KINDNESS) K I N D N E S S. That's right. Did you know what we just did? We focused for just a few seconds. (Kids: Yeah) Did you know that spelling is a really big focus practice. (Kids: Yeah) So like times tables and adding and math, good focus, practice, focus to grab, I have to practice it. And if I want to plant focus in my life, I have to practice it because whenever I practice, gets planted in my garden. So now I want to think about that. Because sometimes I practice things that are not helpful, like throwing my coat on the floor, and leaving my garbage on my desk. (Kids: Oh.) Yep, I've done that. In fact, in some cases, I've practiced it so much, it became a habit, and then I had to unlearn it, and find a new thing to practice. I had to dig up that habit that became a tree and plant and start a new habit. See, our lives are like gardens, we plant good things. And we feel good things sometimes. But that's okay. Because we can choose and we can change it. We could be deciding one day that it's really, really good to be practicing pride and arrogance and feeling good about yourself. But one day, we realized that pride and arrogance, she got a little too big, we got to cut it back because it was hurting people. Right now, I was just like, right? So, I need to practice some humility, need to plant that need to prune that tree back a little bit. Right. So, we have some options. And we have options to choose what we plant in the garden of our life. And we know what we're planting by what we're practicing.
[Audio clip ends]
Shawna Reibling 27:13
Thank you for sharing that example.
Nicki Straza 27:16
I've also seen real power in being able to, for those students in our classroom who have special needs, or different learning styles and those type of things, we've been able to really raise the level of understanding and communication and grace within that classroom because of this umbrella of grace, as well. And so, it really nurtures Equity and Diversity and Inclusion amongst the students as well, which is a cool thing to watch.
Shawna Reibling 27:44
So, it builds social emotional learning skills in the individual kids involved, as well as in the classroom, as well as the school as a whole. And I love that example you gave and just before we get too far along and asking, you know, moving from anecdotes to evidence to seeing how we can implement this in an evidence-based way. Can you give some details about what the program consists of? Who's involved in it? How long is it? What's the structure of it?
Nicki Straza 28:14
Absolutely. So, it is eight 15-minute workshops. And I like to deliver them once a week for eight weeks. And I will come into the classroom, deliver that little pocket, give them a take home challenge, we also have a workbook that is entirely designed to be a resource for the teachers, only a handful of times do I actually use the workbook in the program, I designed the workbook, so that I can work with teachers and teach them how to maintain the language, maintain the culture, and continue going when I'm not there and give them resources that make that learning easy for them. Because it's one thing for me to come into a classroom and create a really cool program for eight weeks. If, however, the culture doesn't remain changed, then it becomes a challenging thing or thing that gets lost. And so, I really recognize the importance of being able to work with the teachers to teach them how to nurture these conversations, how to implement and integrate kindness in their whole classroom culture. And so, the goal is to work with the teacher and the students over this eight weeks so that they feel that they can carry this on. And so yeah, eight weeks, 15 minutes. And I love to do it at the beginning of the year, September, October, November, because that's when our classes are first starting, kids are getting to know some of those norms are being established. And if we can get in right at the beginning of that new class that new season, that New Year, we can now set the tone for the rest of the year.
Shawna Reibling 29:52
So, you mentioned that the program has take home activities or home activities for students to do with their character diverse throughout the eight-week periods? Can you comment a little bit on that?
Nicki Straza 30:06
Yeah, so, one of the big focuses is really having language around taking personal responsibility. And so, a lot of the language is not it's not everybody else's fault that I'm here, but what can I do what is in my control? And so, I challenge our students at home, in the classroom in the community, to see what they can do, what is their difference that they could make? And I challenge them, for example, how surprised would your parents be if on Saturday morning, they peeked in on your bedroom, and it was sparkling clean? And they hadn't asked you once? Like, how surprised how delighted? How amazed would your parents be? And they were all like, oh, my goodness, they wouldn't believe it, they would think back like, you know all the stories, right? But I try to challenge them. Like, you could choose that for yourself, you could choose to put clean up your dishes after lunch, you could choose to offer to help to do the dishes, or load the dishwashers or fold the laundry, you could ask mom and dad, hey, can you teach me how to fold the towels and trying to capitalize on that age seven to 11 desire for industry, that is really apparent in though in that development age, they aren't becoming socially aware, they're looking to find their place in their social circles. And we are giving them skills to nurture relationships on all these different levels and kindness, being a kind of superhero in your home, that is something they have complete control of and can take pride in.
Shawna Reibling 31:42
So what particular grades is this program offered to
Nicki Straza 31:46
So, we focus on grades three to five, I can nimble it a bit, because you obviously would present it a little bit different for grade fives and you would for grade threes. But that's a deeper conversation. And that's what's so great about it is it's very nimble, I've done this content with adults and have been able to have really meaningful conversations. So, the principles are really profound. And then you really tailor it to the audience that you're teaching. So, right now it's grades three to five. If we can really get some evidence to support the impact of this, then I'll be able to expand that to primary and older grades as well.
Shawna Reibling 32:23
You mentioned the evidence, Danielle, I wonder if you wanted to talk about how you're involved with this program, the ‘Superhero in Me’ program, and the evaluation work you're doing to build a really strong case for the efficacy of this program.
Danielle Law 32:38
So, a lot of time and money and energy are invested in developing and executing all sorts of different programs, not just SEL, but programs in general. But we often forget or neglect to actually evaluate these programs for effectiveness. Are they actually working? Are we meeting the goals that we had set out to meet when we develop these programs? How effective are they? And how do we know that we're spending our time and money in the most efficient way. And so, one way to figure this out is to evaluate the program for its effectiveness, see what we can improve and how we can hone things. And so, when it comes to ‘Superhero in Me’ we're right now, Nicki and I are working together with schools to test it out and see whether ‘Superhero in Me’ is meeting the SEL outcomes that we have mentioned and how well that holds over time. So, what we're hoping to do is share the program with at least 14 classrooms with children between grades three and five. And what we'll do first is collect (data). We collect baseline data to see where everyone is starting off before students take part in the program. So, they'll fill out a questionnaire that's going to ask them a bunch of things about emotional and behavioral regulation, their perceptions, about their abilities, their friendships and things like that. And then we'll also have the teacher fill out a questionnaire asking similar questions, but for adults, and then once they complete those, they will take part in the eight-week workshop with Nicki. And then after the eight weeks myself and my RAs will come in and we will give the same questionnaire to the students that they had completed at the beginning and the same questionnaire to the teachers that they had completed at the beginning. And then we'll also have some interviews with a subset of participants just to get a little bit of a deeper understanding of what in particular changed and just to get some more depth to the data. And then after three months, they will carry on with life as usual in the classroom, and we will give them the questionnaire again, and will then be able to compare whether there's been change over time, whether there was a huge drop in their social emotional learning skills or did it remain stable or did it improve over time so that we can test the sustainability and efficacy of the program as a whole and how it can carry on a little bit through their development.
Shawna Reibling 35:04
So, you want to determine does it make a difference during those eight weeks? And then does it change the culture of the classroom and the school moving forward?
Danielle Law 35:12
Yes, that is the goal.
Shawna Reibling 35:15
Amazing.
[Musical break]
Shawna Reibling 35:15
So, the cycle of research shaping practice, when these programs are implemented in the classroom, what do you think the benefits are of this partnership of building social emotional skills, and then testing to see if the work to build those skills are working? What do you think the benefit of that is to the classroom, to the teachers, to the school?
Danielle Law 35:43
Well, it provides evidence that the program is working, that the things that they have learned through the program is time well spent. Because often, there's a lot of pressure going on in schools, there's a lot happening, there are a few resources, often short on money, we want to make sure that we're putting our time and investing our time and money and energy in an efficient and in a good way. And working together with the schools and in partnership with community partners like Nicki and providing this evidence, it really sheds light on are we wasting our time? Is it actually working? And what can we do to improve it? Do we have to start again from square one? Or are there just some things that we need to tweak? And if we think about the outcomes over time, if we don't measure it, how do we know anything? We're just kind of guessing at whether the program worked. And so, having the research component helps us identify whether we've invested wisely invested our time, our energy, our money? Have we made wise decisions here? And how can we improve based on what we learn?
Shawna Reibling 36:54
I think that's a really great point. Because we're all invested in creating children who graduate out of the education system with the skills they need to be successful, both in terms of good well-being, as well as being successful in whatever professional workplaces that they decide to engage in. And making sure we're investing our time and energy throughout that process in things that work is really important. So, we're at the point now where ‘Superhero and Me’ is being tested in the classroom. And as you've been developing the program over time, has there been any testing as you've been going on, and what anecdotes have really shown you that you're on the right track
Nicki Straza 37:36
There's been a few really cool stories that have come out of some of the work that I've done. So, I was working, for example, with a grade four-five class. And I was met at the door when I first arrived by the teacher, and she was clearly exasperated by the management of the classroom that she was experiencing. And she just said, you know, I've got three or four bullies in this classroom. I've tried to relegate them to the back, like each of the corners of the room. But sometimes they'll get the rest of the classmates going. And she kind of gave me this little heads up. And sometimes I don't like that, because I like to make my own first impressions and gather my own data. But it was a great insight to just know that, okay, like, this could be a make or break, you know, maybe this program works, maybe it doesn't, you know, this will be a good test. And as I got into working with the classroom, I could see the dynamics that the teacher was describing, at play, you know, one of the young men would get going and would, you know, pat somebody on the back and say, see, see, and it would create this almost like sides happening in the classroom and cutting remarks and different things. And so I was able to just in real time, have some whoa, wait a minute, let's just think about what's actually happening here. Is this the kind of classroom we want to create? Or like, is this the kind of person you want to be? What could we do differently, and, you know, just real having some real time conversation, we walked through our exercises and our activities, we began to practice some different skills. Because I think, you know, just like leadership, you don't learn to lead by studying a book you learn to lead by leading. And I believe you learn to be kind by doing kindness, not by reading about it or anything else. Our program is saturated with practicing kindness in all different contexts. And I went through the eight weeks and it is my habit at the end of the eight weeks to spend that eight weeks noticing the incredible good things in each of those students. And at the end of the week, on week eight, it's called marble day, and it's associated to kind of an object lesson that I use in the program. And we talk about marbles or shiny things, things that are good to hold on to and remember because they will bring us joy and happiness versus the birds and the nasty things that kind of happen in our lives that, you know, hurt us, but maybe we don't need to hold on to them. And so there's this little analogy we get to marble day I have this little paper marble. And I've written on it, the world needs your confidence and courage, use kindness to share this with others. Very simple, simple, but I personalize it for each of the students. And we spend time reading those out and appreciating and celebrating each other. And you can feel a tangible shift from before we start the class. When we go through that activity to the end of the class, there is a notable shift in the room. And I have these two boys that were kind of just at each other throughout the process. And the one gentleman stood up, and he looked at me and he said, Miss Nicki, you're not going to believe this about me. But this whole class knows it's true. I'm a bully. But you said that I can have confidence and courage and use kindness to do that. And that's who I want to be. The whole class went silent. The teacher's got tears in her eyes. The jaws are on the floor. And this student stood up in front of his whole class and said, Yeah, I don't want this. This is where I want to be. And I thought that's where the story end. That's a pretty big win. I was like, Oh, my goodness, that's amazing. But six months later, I'm walking my dog, and these two boys come pedaling down behind me and they screech in front of me. The one gentleman picks up his helmet, and I realize it's this young man. And I'm like, Hey, are you doing whatever? He's like, you're the superhero lady. I'm like, Yes, I am. He's like, Well, just this morning, I helped my grandma carrying groceries in. I'm like, Dude, you're using your super skills. Right? And he's, you know, having this little banter and he goes, Yeah, and I lent my friend my extra bike. So we could go bike riding today. I'm like, amazing. You must have massive kindness muscles, you know, kind of making jokes to them. And it goes, you know who that is, right? And I said, No, who's your friend, and his friend who got off his helmet, and it was the other bully. And I just about felt like I just went, wait, what their friends what happened? And I walked away, in bewilderment just going, okay, something is, is real here. And it was super cool. Because the next fall, I was invited back to that classroom. And it was a split class again, and this other gentleman was in the class, but the original young boy was not there. So I'm like, Okay, I have to validate to see if I actually have my narrative correct. Or if I'm just, you know, putting pieces into the story to nail suit my own narrative, right. And I said to him, I said, when I first met you and this other gentleman, I said, it seems like you didn't get along. Is that true? And he's like, oh, yeah, we hated each other. He wrote, blah, blah, blah, and kind of went on. And I said, Well, tell me what changed. And he said, Well, we were going through your kindness program, and he started treating me differently. He started being nice to me. And I began to realize there were nice things about him too. And now we are best friends. And I'm like, Well, where is he now? And he said, Well, that's the thing. He had to move to another school, can you go and do your workshop at that school, to ensure that that classroom is awesome for him? I was bewildered. And I, it's a unique story, for sure. But I have done this program now for probably seven or eight years, locally here in Brantford. And to this day, I have young people and kids come up to me and say, I have my marble, I still have my marble. In fact, I work with the Woodview mental health and autism services, and we do our youth engagement. And one of the young people there have made the connection that I was the superhero lady that came to her grade five class. And she said, Oh my gosh, Nicki, I still have my marble and this would be eight years later. So there's evidence here that when you experience something that changes you, and all of our programming workshops is meant to create experiences that help you learn in safety, and learn in you know, in this environment, that it's okay to make mistakes in. And that experience is bonding for the students. It bonds me to them and them to me, it bonds them to the teachers, and I think has real power and potential to be transformative in our schools, especially post COVID.
Shawna Reibling 44:27
And so, Danielle, this is a huge question, but how do you measure transformation? How do you evaluate transformation? And how do you make this case? So, this program can be taken out of the schools in Branford and applied elsewhere to you know, help other kids in other classrooms? How do you approach that sort of question in your research?
Danielle Law 44:49
I mean, there are multiple ways that we could do it. And the way that we've chosen to do it this time is, is through these questionnaires. So, we measure where they're at the beginning as I mentioned before, and then we give them questions. And they're all validated assessment tools for looking at ability to regulate emotions and behavioral regulation and growth mindset and perseverance, and also relationships. And so, these measures are used as tools to kind of assess that and get a sense of it, and we get it from the students, and then we get the perspective from the teachers. And then we compare the data from baseline. So, at the very beginning, before the program even started, and then we assess change over time after the program. So, did anything change, have their abilities to regulate emotion changed from the beginning compared to the end? And then three months later, did it change? And so, we just look at each of the different domains and, and determine how their perceptions of themselves and their abilities, their relationship with their own emotions, their choices, how all of those things kind of change over time, before and after the program.
Shawna Reibling 46:06
So, once you get the results back from the evaluation, how do you see this rolling forward,
Nicki Straza 46:13
There's actually two ways that this is going to help me. So, first of all, it's going to help me to see the weak spots and the gaps in the program. So, I'm going to be able to improve the quality of the program to be able to strengthen areas that I'd like to see better impact in, so, then we have another round of testing that we could do down the road, for example, to re-evaluate that again. So, I would like to see this as an ongoing relationship. That testing when I can empirically say to educators and to principals, I have seen a marked progress in these areas for students going through the program that helps educators have confidence in the program that I'm bringing, I'm a community member, right? And so, I'm not a highly trained educator with a doctorate in anything, right? But I do have some skills, and I have some education behind me to be able to craft some cool stuff from my own learning and experience. I'm an ADHD kid, through and through, right. And so, from my own learning, I have been able to put together as programs. So, this partnership with Laurie enables me to evaluate the program, where the gaps are, how to strengthen it, and really support it well, and be able to present it as an evidence-based program to educators, which then is really adaptable. The second component is that it also helps me to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Is it based on the content? Or is it based on my particular presentation skills? Because I am a pretty skilled presenter, and I've got some good nuance. And I know how, in real time because of my ADHD brain, how I can kind of pick through things with the students. How do I train that into other presenters, so that that same caliber of training is delivered throughout the program, because my goal is to have tons of people certified to deliver this program nationwide. That's my big girl, oh, my gosh, if I could make that happen, that would be amazing. But I need to be able to understand how much of the program is because of my delivery style, because that shapes how I certify, or whether it's really about the content, or it's a combination of both. So, the research component is invaluable to me as an author and as a presenter, and having confidence that I'm presenting and bringing something of meaning and value that actually delivers on the things that I say it does.
Shawna Reibling 48:47
Would you agree with that, Danielle?
Danielle Law 48:48
Yeah. Sounds good (laughing).
Shawna Reibling 48:52
It sounds like this partnership between you two is really great for not only improving the program, but also improving rollout. And as you're speaking about expanding the program, what stage are you at now? And what engagement are you looking for in terms of helping this program grow?
Nicki Straza 49:11
So right now, we are looking to engage classrooms and schools and, in many degrees, especially here in Branford, we need board support to be able to bring these programs into the classrooms. And so, we are looking to find teachers who see value in what we're doing educators principals who would be willing to put their name on an expression of interest, so that we can present the program the interest to the board and be able to do some pilots in the board here this coming fall. So, we are really hoping to have 14 classrooms this fall that we are launching this program in, and I am willing to do this for free for classrooms because I believe in the content, I believe in the capacity of this. So, it's a real gift for 14 classrooms. And we're looking to just build that rapport with the board and and with teachers and get the word out about ‘Superhero in Me’. So, we can have a robust testing, you know, we have lots of data to work with. And we know that we can be confident in the results.
Danielle Law 50:21
Yeah, I think one of the things that that when it comes to teachers and school climate as a whole is this feeling of often classroom management comes up often these feelings of stress among teachers, because they are often not very well supported, in terms of all of their responsibilities that they have to give to the school and to their students. And if we can help support them by providing this program, they no longer really have to think about classroom management, it will mostly just be about relationship building, how do we create as a whole a climate for the school to facilitate relationships in a very informal way? Where it's not about oh, no, I need to manage these behaviors. It's like, how can we all work together and contribute together to the school community? So, it's less about teachers versus students? And how can we get them to do certain things, and more about how do we all facilitate healthy relationships for the school and evidence from this program will help support that notion that we can do that. And if we can kind of release that that feeling of obligation that we need to be managing our students that actually can lift a burden off the shoulders of teachers and provide them with a little bit more space, to focus on the other things, and it may even create a better climate with their own co-workers, and create a better climate for how they manage their own stress, anxiety, emotions, all of these things, as adults, because the great thing about the ‘Superhero in Me’ program is that the students and the teacher learn together, it's all working in tandem. And so, there's no extra time on the part of the teacher. It's just happening in the classroom, it's easy to implement Nicki's there to facilitate and everyone learns together. And then they progress through that journey together. And so, it within that capacity, so much more can be given to the school and to the school climate and the evidence for, I guess, getting the evidence to support all of that I think will be beneficial for all school communities.
Shawna Reibling 52:31
I'd love the idea of this partnership, building support for both integrating social emotional learning in the classroom, but also building an army of certified facilitators to work in partnerships with teachers and parents and kids in the classrooms and in the school communities, to build social emotional learning in everyone. That's a beautiful image and a beautiful partnership. And thank you so much to you both for sharing the work that you're doing to achieve those goals.
Nicki Straza 53:02
Thank you.
Danielle Law 53:03
Thank you.
Shawna Reibling 53:05
Thank you for listening today to this example of ‘Superhero in Me’ and the evaluation work that's being done around ‘Superhero in Me’. CLRiE's mission is to be a leader in interdisciplinary research and knowledge mobilization related to education in a changing world. And this is a great example of the partnerships that CLRiE undergoes to help do this in a meaningful way. Stay tuned for more episodes featuring CLRiE researchers, students and community partners in conversation about leading education research. Follow CLRiE on Twitter or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you so much to Dr. Danielle Law and Nicki Straza for speaking with us today. And thanks to all who have been instrumental in the production of this episode. The CLRiE podcast was recorded and produced on the traditional territory of the neutral Anishnaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. For more information click on the land acknowledgement link on our show notes. This episode of ‘I can see CLRiE now’ was made with support from Laurier's Office of Research Services. If you'd like to know more about the ‘Superhero in Me’ project, please look at the show notes on our website.