In
the past decade, there has been a greater emphasis on social-emotional
learning, apart from academic abilities, in schools. Social-emotional learning
involves developing of social and emotional competence in students that has a
positive influence on their mental health.
Having
a sense of social support is a major aspect of social-emotional learning.
Social support refers to the feeling or experience of being cared, helped,
esteemed, and valued by others, and that one belongs to a supportive social
network. Social support has been found to reduce stress, anxiety, and
depression. It is also beneficial for an individual’s physical health.
The
school environment can be stressful for students. Because of this many schools
have been trying to create an environment in the classroom in which students
can develop a sense of social support.
A
good way of developing and enhancing social support in the classroom is to
encourage proper social interaction among students. For this, many classrooms have a sociopetal
arrangement, that is, the seats are arranged in such a manner that students are
facing each other. Usually this is done by placing seats in a circle/oval or in
a semi-circle.
In
sociopetal arrangements, facing each other in a classroom, students get more
opportunities to interact with each other. It enables classroom discussions to
occur appropriately and it helps to make the class highly interactive, which
further creates a friendly environment.
Another
very common way of enhancing social support, which may be facilitated by the
sociopetal arrangement, is getting students involved in group
tasks/assignments. These group activities provide more opportunities for
students to interact with each other and help in developing skills like
collaboration and cooperation.
A
great emphasis on group activities also goes in line with the concept of group
emotional intelligence. Group emotional intelligence refers to the ability of a
group to generate a shared set of norms that manage the emotional process in a
way that builds trust, group identity, and group efficacy.
A
group with high emotional intelligence creates a positive cycle through the
norms it develops to influence the emotional process. Thus, group activities
not just help in enhancing social support but it also enhances group emotional
intelligence. Higher the group emotional intelligence the better it will be for
the individuals (students) belonging to that group.
These
simple methods have been found to be effective in enhancing social support, but
they are accompanied with some underlying issues that are of major concern and
are something that cannot be ignored. As mentioned above, these methods encourage
social interaction. Therefore, they are situations that are highly socially
stimulating. These highly socially stimulating situations can be discomforting
for many type of people. There are specific types of people such as introverts and
shy individuals that due to their physiological structure feel uncomfortable in
situations that are socially stimulating.
Introverts
like to keep to themselves. They prefer solitary activities and like to have
limited social interactions. Introverts have a high level of brain arousal (specifically,
in the area known as the reticular activating system), which causes them to
have a low threshold for social stimulation. This low threshold for stimulation
means that introverts are highly sensitive and get easily aroused by their
surroundings.
A
situation that can be highly socially arousing such as when social interaction
is encouraged to enhance social support can cause a lot of discomfort to
introverts. Due to introverts being highly sensitive in social situations, they
prefer to be in situations that are less socially stimulating, and thus, are
more involved in solitary activities or situations that require very limited
social interactions.
Like
introverts, shy individuals face a lot of discomfort in situations that are
socially stimulating. Shy people have an anxious temperament and experience
anxiety in social situations. The reason for this is that people who are shy
have an overly sensitive amygdala. The amygdala is the seat of emotions and is
responsible for the fight-or-flight reaction. It is a part of the limbic
system, which is the brain area that prepares an individual to respond to
threat and novelty in the environment.
The amygdala, when stimulated, triggers the
nervous system to freeze and assess the situation and then tells the rest of
the body either to stay calm or avoid the situation. When the amygdala is
overly-sensitive, it determines that there is reason for fear, which can cause
anxiety. For shy individuals, who have an overly-sensitive amygdala, a regular
and routine social situation may seem to be fearful and cause anxiety.
In the case of introverts and shy individuals,
therefore, a situation in which social interaction is facilitated, such as a
sociopetal arrangement or group activities, may not be very appropriate. In such
situations these people feel uncomfortable, which may inhibit their performance.
Due to their discomfort in such situations, they may not be able to perform to
their full potential.
Introverts, contrary to popular belief, form a
large part of the population. Similarly, the prevalence of shyness is a lot
more than it is actually believed to be. The sociopetal arrangement and group
tasks turn out to be insensitive to introverts and shy individuals. These
methods do not cater to their needs, which is being in situations in which they
can perform to the best of their abilities; a situation in which they do not
feel uncomfortable.
Apart from being inappropriate for introverts and
shy individuals, group tasks, in themselves can have certain issues. It has
been found that group activities inhibit creativity. Years of research has shown that creativity is
best expressed in isolation. When individuals are by themselves, have their own
time, and can work at their own pace without any pressure, only then they can
be better at creativity. In a group, a number of ideas can be generated, but
they do not always turn out to be useful. Research suggests that the best of
scientific innovations and the best ideas have been generated when individuals were in isolation.
Group activities/tasks involve a lot of
collective decision making. Research shows that group decision making may not
always be effective and that there are ways in which individual decision making
is advantageous over group decision making. There are times when the group’s
decision making may be forced by one individual or a couple of members in the
group. The effectiveness of the group may also suffer if the dominant
individuals, along whom the whole group sways, are relatively incompetent.
Further, group decisions take more time as a lot
of dialogue and discussion is involved. Additionally, this discussion and
dialogue may not always necessarily be very stimulating and focused. It may
lead to diverting from the main issues and many a times might give rise to
conflicts within the group, in all affecting the group performance in a
negative manner.
A number of group processes hamper the
performance and productivity of groups. Individuals often experience conformity
while being in a group. They sometimes are compelled to go along with a group,
neglecting their own views and perspectives. They act in such way that their
behavior fits within their group, usually, in order to not feel out of place.
Some members, while being in a group, might feel evaluation
apprehension. Evaluation apprehension is the concern of being evaluated and
judged in a negative manner. Due to this, individuals may not express their
views, and may unwillingly go along with the group. They might feel conscious about
expressing themselves and thus, are unable to perform to their full potential. This
may also occur while in a sociopetal arrangement, when individuals know that
their actions are easily being viewed by others.
The mere presence of others also can make a
person not perform up to his/her true potential. This is called social
inhibition. The presence of others might lead individuals to inhibit their
performance. The person might feel restrained in the presence of others, might
become very conscious, and might lack a certain level of confidence when being
in the presence of others.
In group activities, many a times, people also go
through what is referred to as social loafing. Social loafing is the tendency
to put in less effort while working together in a group. Individuals might
think that others are putting in a lot of effort and thus, it will not matter
much if they put in less effort. Due to this, all members of the group do not
always put in their maximum effort, which may result in a less effective
performance.
Group tasks
also seem to violate an individual’s personal space. While working on a task,
in a classroom, students like to have their own private space. Working in a
group, with constant interference from others or simply finding the
surroundings to be crowded does not provide them with that privacy. They always
feel themselves to be under a scanner and due to that work under a constant
pressure.
Susan Cain, author of the New York Times bestseller Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World
That Can’t Stop Talking and co-founder of Quiet Revolution, an organization that works for the empowerment of
introverts, has given an alternative of group tasks/assignments. This alternative
helps in dealing with all the issues regarding enhancing social support in the
classroom.
Instead of making students work in groups, Susan
Cain has suggested that they should be made to sit in pairs. This suggestion
was made by her specifically keeping introverts in mind. However, it can be
very well used in dealing with all the other issues.
Introverts, as mentioned above, due to their
physiological make up, feel uncomfortable in highly socially stimulating
situations. Sitting in pairs does not put them in a social situation that is
highly stimulating, yet gives them good opportunities to interact with others. Similarly,
shy individuals will not feel very fearful when sitting in pairs as even though
they will have to interact with someone else, it will still not be very
discomforting for them.
Sitting in pairs will automatically take care of
all the aforementioned group processes that affect performance in a negative
manner. It will also give individuals enough private space in which they could
work without any pressure and enable them to express their creativity to the
maximum.
Apart from making students sit in pairs, students
of similar personality traits can be made to interact and work together. A lot of researches
suggest that similarity helps in developing better interpersonal relationships.
Within this, trait similarity has been found to be most effective.
Individuals with similar personality traits are
like-minded, behave in a similar manner, have similar beliefs, and are more
likely to have similar ideas. Making students interact with other students of
similar traits will provide them a very comforting, friendly, and enthusiastic
environment to work in. It will create an environment for cooperation and collaboration among the students.
Students in such a situation will be able to easily express their
ideas, they will not feel inhibited, and will feel very relaxed. It will facilitate
proper social interaction and develop good interpersonal skills, which will lead
to being both recipients and providers of social support.
However, this should be done only for a specific
time period so that the students do not become accustomed to interact with
individuals who only have similar traits. They should be gradually made to
intermingle with individuals of dissimilar traits as well, once they develop
proper interpersonal skills. This will help them to advance their interpersonal
skills and will enable to further enhance social support.
A classroom having a socially supportive
environment is highly significant for students who are constantly at the receiving end of various sources of stress. However, it should be kept in mind that a classroom has all
kinds of individuals, each having their own needs and their own comfort level. Further,
the existing approaches used in classrooms need to be critically evaluated and
all the underlying issues should be taken into consideration before their
application.
Social support is very significant for both
mental and physical health. Encouraging proper social interaction facilitates
social support. This encouragement of social interaction needs to be done in an
appropriate manner, keeping in view various perspectives and issues. The use of
appropriate methods to ease social interaction will enable proper development
and enhancement of social support in the classroom.
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