Lecture Title: Reimagining School-Wide Social and Emotional Learning: Evidence, Innovation, and Developmentally Responsive Systems
Speaker: Dr. Chunyan Yang
Recently, the School of Psychology successfully hosted an academic lecture delivered by Dr. Chunyan Yang, titled “Reimagining Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Evidence, Innovation, and Developmentally Responsive Systems.” The lecture attracted active participation from peer scholars from other provinces, principals and moral education directors from primary and secondary schools in Longhua District, as well as faculty members and students from multiple schools within the university. The event was met with strong engagement, fostering lively discussions and in-depth exchanges.
Grounded in extensive empirical research, Dr. Yang systematically elaborated on the pivotal role of SEL within school ecosystems. She emphasized that SEL is not a standalone set of skill-based programs, but rather a multilevel, developmental system that dynamically interacts with school climate, developmental stages, and organizational structures. Drawing on large-scale datasets involving tens of thousands of students, Dr. Yang demonstrated the positive effects of SEL on reducing bullying victimization and enhancing academic engagement. She further highlighted that these effects vary across factors such as school climate, educational stage, and student gender, providing strong evidence that “one-size-fits-all” approaches to SEL have limited effectiveness.
Focusing on teachers and school leaders, Dr. Yang shared her team’s research on teachers’ SEL competencies and professional well-being. The findings indicate that the effectiveness of teachers’ SEL is highly contingent on school-level collective efficacy and support systems. Moreover, the research revealed how the systemic configuration of disciplinary practices within schools collectively shapes students’ school experiences, underscoring that SEL must be developed and implemented as a schoolwide practice framework, rather than as isolated individual initiatives.
In the section on innovative practices, Dr. Yang highlighted the “Co-Learn Code and Mind” program developed by her team, which creatively integrates SEL with robotics and artificial intelligence literacy. She also drew on intervention studies involving the digital tool “Sown to Grow” to illustrate how technology can support the everyday implementation of SEL and provide data-driven feedback. At the same time, she critically reflected on the challenges digital tools face in terms of sustainability and deep integration within school systems.
Integrating cutting-edge academic research, innovative project cases, and deep systems-level reflections, the lecture offered educators and researchers a valuable blueprint for building developmentally responsive, equitable, and sustainable schoolwide SEL systems. The event not only strengthened dialogue between academia and educational practice, but also laid a solid foundation for further exchange and collaboration at our university in the fields of educational psychology and interdisciplinary educational innovation.
