Providing a model of regulatory skills and practices is not sufficient for most learners. Opportunities for learners to process their emotions and reflect on their strengths and challenges are essential. Reminders, models, and checklists can assist learners in choosing and trying an adaptive strategy for managing and directing their emotional responses to external events (e.g., strategies for coping with anxiety-producing social settings or for reducing task-irrelevant distractors) or internal events (e.g., strategies for decreasing rumination on depressive or anxiety-producing ideation). In addition, scaffolds may be provided to develop and support social awareness, or the ability to understand the perspectives of others, including people from different backgrounds and cultures. Such scaffolds should provide sufficient options to honor the variability and cultivate identity-safe spaces for every learner.

• Use differentiated models, scaffolds, and feedback for:

  • Managing frustration
  • Seeking external emotional support
  • Developing internal controls and coping skills
  • Appropriately handling subject-specific phobias and judgments of “natural” aptitude (e.g., “How can I improve on the areas I am struggling in?” rather than “I am not good at math.”)

• Use real life situations or simulations to demonstrate coping skills.

• Create opportunities for learners to reflect on social interactions.

• Create opportunities for learners to appreciate their personal, cultural, and linguistic assets and the assets of others (e.g., displaying learner-created self-portraits, creating spaces for affinity groups, sharing notes of appreciation with peers and colleagues).