How Do the CASEL 5 Relate to the Five Key Beliefs?

I'm doing a spot of PD work with a district in California this month, and one task they've blessed me with is making connections between the CASEL 5 (pictured below) and the Five Key Beliefs (pictured below that). This really was a blessing of a task because it's something I've always meant to do but have never gotten around to.

So how are the CASEL 5 and the Five Key Beliefs related?

Basically, they are not super related. The Five Key Beliefs is a way of understanding how student motivation works and how to help each student grow increasingly motivated to do the work of learning. It's a methodology and also a philosophy that myself and others have found to be both deeply humane and remarkably productive.

CASEL's framework, on the other hand, is describing social-emotional competencies that are integral to the flourishing life. The CASEL Wheel (and its corresponding explanatory language) is like a visualization of SEL standards. The Five Key Beliefs pyramid, on the other hand, is like an x-ray of the human will.

So basically, they are really different things trying to accomplish different ends.

However, this does not mean that a school emphasizing CASEL's Wheel can't also use the Five Key Beliefs approach. All that we're doing with 5KB is trying to understand how student motivation works and what role we play as educators in cultivating that motivation. If a school was interested in CASEL's Wheel, they could apply the 5KB methodology to help more students actually care about growing competent in CASEL's five areas.

One final note

I do think that schools emphasizing the CASEL 5 need to be careful not to lose sight of the special role that they play in a student's life. School shouldn't be Mr. Rogers; it should be Mr. Rogers in Reverse. More on that in the video below, if you're interested.

Best,

DSJR