ABSTRACT
In the past 20 years, there has been an increased focus on what is variously called noncognitive skills, soft skills, social-emotional learning (SEL) skills, 21st-century skills, and so on. These skills and the number of different frameworks offered to organize and represent them tend to focus on interpersonal, intrapersonal, and self-regulatory behavioral skills (e.g., persistence, collaboration, and emotional resilience). SEL skills have been repeatedly shown to predict educational success, workforce readiness, and performance in the workplace. However, there is a lack of consensus in education as to which skills are most important to target and develop in students so that they are prepared to succeed in the workforce. This chapter identifies SEL skills critical to success in the workforce based on the research literature and proposes a formative assessment and instruction system for assessing and developing these skills in school to successfully prepare students to enter the workforce. Leveraging guiding principles from design science, the chapter proposes a framework that bridges education and workforce contexts by developing students’ SEL skills via curricula and interventions that have been demonstrated to be effective. The chapter closes by proposing suggestions for future research that would allow us to iterate on the proposed framework.
