The PATHS® Curriculum

The PATHS® curriculum is a comprehensive program for promoting emotional and social competencies and reducing aggression and behavior problems in elementary school-aged children while simultaneously enhancing the educational process in the classroom. This innovative curriculum is designed to be used by educators and counselors in a multi-year, universal prevention model. Although primarily focused on the school and classroom settings, information and activities are also included for use with parents.

It has become clear over the last two decades that to best achieve the educational goals we want for our students, high quality SEL needs to be at the core of the school curriculum; and science has recently explained why. Imaging and other basic research from social cognitive neuroscience has ascertained that the human brain is largely evolved for processing emotional and social information. This is the “default” mode of thinking. Moreover, the neural systems that underlie nonsocial reasoning, cognitive working memory, and what we term “general intelligence” (i.e., those used with traditional education) are separate from the brain regions that process social reasoning, social working memory, emotions, and mentalizing, and these two systems are often at odds with one another.

Historically, we have asked students to turn off their default social-emotional brain networks while at school, a difficult task at best. This makes school onerous for many children, because the brain is largely built to focus on the social world. This also results in our students utilizing only part of their brains while in the classroom. Alternatively, when we teach children through the use of both social and nonsocial neural systems, as achieved with the implementation of the PATHS® program, learning is easier, much more enjoyable, and far more effective. In other words, using the PATHS® curriculum, and thereby engaging both neural systems, is literally teaching the whole child.

Over the past 35 years, more than 40 published research studies (by ourselves and others, both nationally and internationally) have documented the effectiveness of the PATHS® program and show that the PATHS® program is the best choice for achieving optimal educational success. A wide variety of results has consistently shown improvements in seven major goals of education needed for the development of healthy, happy children and future adults:

  • Improved academic achievement.
  • Decreased emotional suffering & behavioral problems
  • Increased happiness, health, and emotional well-being
  • Improved emotional literacy, self-control, & problem-solving skills
  • Healthy relationships and social skills
  • Preparation for the future: Workforce
  • Skills for the future: Life satisfaction, good health, & citizenship

This is the most prodigious evidence base for a specific SEL curriculum available by far. In other words, using the PATHS® program as a core aspect of education in the classroom is far more effective for reaching educational goals than traditional education has ever been or ever could be.

An updated version of the PATHS® curriculum was released in early 2011 which is organized into separate grade-specific classroom kits for PreK/Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4. and Grade 5/6. Replacement components are also available. For further information on ordering curricular materials, please go to https://pathsprogram.com/.

The PATHS® program is designed to be taught two or more times per week for a minimum of 20-30 minutes per day. Systematic, developmentally-based lessons, materials, and instructions are provided to facilitate emotional literacy, self-control, social competence, positive peer relations, and interpersonal problem-solving skills. Key objectives in promoting these developmental skills are to prevent and to reduce behavioral and emotional problems.

The Preschool/Kindergarten level assists educators and counselors in early education to create an environment that helps young children 3 to 6 years of age to develop better self-control, self-esteem, emotional awareness, basic problem-solving skills, social skills, and friendships. This level can be taught over a two year period through lessons and activities that highlight reading, telling stories, puppetry, singing, drawing, and use of concepts in science and math. These lessons and generalization throughout the day help can be easily integrated into existing learning environments to build the critical cognitive skills necessary for school readiness and academic success. Timing and frequency of sessions can be adapted to suit individual preschool or kindergarten needs.

 

PATHS® & the PATHS® Training LLC logo are trademarks & service marks of PATHS® Program Holding LLC