Recent years have seen a rise in interest in social-emotional learning (SEL) in the United States and other Western countries. What is the approach of Eastern wisdom to this topic? In this study, the official middle school SEL-related curricula of a few East-Asian countries including China (mainland China, Taiwan region and Hong Kong SAR), Japan and Korea are gathered and examined with the framework of curricular spider web suggested by van den Akker (2003, p. 6). This study aims at identifying the similarities and differences among the SEL-related curricula in these countries and to bring insights to other scholars and education policymakers. The biggest similarity identified is that most of these curricula emphasize the concept of “morality”. Meanwhile, the biggest difference identified is that SEL is conducted in a separate subject in mainland China (Morality and Laws), Japan (Morality) and Korea (Morality) while SEL is integrated with other academic subjects, integrative activities, and school events in Taiwan region and Hong Kong SAR. This paper does not provide a definitive conclusion but acts as an informative paper for interested parties.

Authors:
Kawai Liu, State University of New York at Albany, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Mr Kawai Liu is a University Doctoral Student at State University of New York at Albany in United States.

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