Educational innovation and socio-emotional development model with AI
A Success Story: Jesuitinas School and Human AI
In today’s fast-changing world, educational innovation models have emerged as a response to modern challenges, emphasizing the importance of cultivating the right attitudes and skills in students to navigate both present and future demands. Against this backdrop, Jesuitinas School in Pamplona has integrated a holistic and innovative approach into its educational framework, developing the Personalized Educational Guidance Model (MEDAP). This student-centered model leverages the power of Human AI Tech to assess and foster socio-emotional competencies.
“At Jesuitinas Pamplona, we face a significant challenge: shaping individuals capable of thriving in a changing world, grounded in strong values and a clear life vision.”
This innovative approach was presented as a success story at the III International Congress: Education and Knowledge (ICON-edu 2024). ICON-edu serves as a platform for reflecting, analyzing, presenting, debating, and sharing topics of interest in education. The event gathers experts, researchers, and professionals from the educational community to discuss challenges and opportunities in teaching and learning innovation. This year’s theme for the congress was “Education as a Transformative Force in Society.”
The Importance of Socio-Emotional Development in Education
The development of socio-emotional competencies is increasingly recognized as an essential component of education. These skills are crucial for regulating thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, influencing a wide range of personal and social outcomes.
While cognitive skills—such as memory, attention, and logical reasoning—are fundamental to academic success, socio-emotional competencies are equally vital for personal and professional life. They enable individuals to build healthy relationships, manage stress, and promote emotional, social, and ethical well-being. These skills help individuals face challenges with resilience and empathy.
In Spain, socio-emotional skill development is gaining prominence as an integral part of education. The legal framework supports a holistic approach to student development, which includes fostering socio-emotional skills. Although no specific legislation is solely dedicated to this area, significant efforts are underway to incorporate these competencies into school curricula and educational policies. Key education laws, such as LOE, LOMCE, and LOEFP, emphasize the importance of nurturing students’ personal, social, and emotional growth. Educational organizations also actively promote the inclusion of these skills in academic programs.
A Personalized Model for Educational Innovation
Jesuitinas Pamplona has implemented the Personalized Educational Guidance Model (MEDAP), a framework for socio-emotional skill development led by the school’s Pedagogical Reflection Team. This team includes school leadership, primary and secondary coordinators, and a member of the school’s counseling department.
MEDAP prioritizes the holistic development of students, emphasizing not only academic performance but also emotional and social well-being. It equips students with the tools to design a life project suited to a constantly changing world. Developing such a project requires students to become aware of their strengths and weaknesses, experiences, emotions, and how to manage them, as well as the consequences of their decisions on themselves and others.
The model is based on the premise that emotions and cognition are intrinsically linked. Emotions influence reasoning, memory, decision-making, and the attitude toward learning, making socio-emotional development a key component of the learning process.
Human AI: A Technological Ally for Socio-Emotional Development
The MEDAP model at Jesuitinas is brought to life through a standardized evaluation system for socio-emotional competencies using the Human AI platform.
With a written text of about 1,000 words, Human AI creates a map of 35 personality traits and socio-emotional skills, based on the OECD framework and rooted in the Big Five (OCEAN) personality model. By applying a combination of natural language processing and psycholinguistics, Human AI provides personalized insights into students’ strengths, opportunities for growth, and tailored recommendations.
The AI-generated report enriches the school’s formative assessment in several ways:
- Offers personalized evaluations of socio-emotional skills that significantly impact learning.
- Acts as a tool to promote self-reflection, self-analysis, and critical thinking.
- Provides objective feedback and precise interventions to strengthen specific areas for improvement.
- Helps teachers design group and individual activities to train and develop these competencies across the curriculum.
Methodology for Socio-Emotional Development
Socio-emotional skill development is embedded in both the direct and cross-disciplinary learning experiences across all subjects. Special emphasis is placed on this during advisory sessions, interdisciplinary projects for 1st and 2nd-year secondary students, and knowledge domains in 3rd and 4th-year secondary students through the “Life Project”. This project integrates tutoring and values education and is closely tied to self-esteem, resilience, support networks (family and social), and the student’s socioeconomic background.
“Building a life project requires individuals to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, experiences, and emotions, and to understand how to manage them. It also involves being aware of the consequences of one’s decisions on oneself and others.”
This innovative educational project dedicates two hours weekly throughout the school year to decision-making and responsibility exercises. Teachers guide students in defining their life projects, fostering responsibility, freedom, and student agency in the process. Activities are reviewed weekly to adapt to the group’s needs, ensuring continuous and personalized development.
The process is organized into seven key stages:
- Introduction to the socio-emotional competency model and the Human AI tool.
- Writing and anonymizing personal texts.
- Text analysis by Human AI and generation of individual reports.
- Implementation of “Project Zero” for executive function self-assessment, encouraging student reflection.
- Specific socio-emotional development activities: debates, oral presentations, teamwork, critical analysis of reports, reflection on emotions, and simulated group dynamics.
- Personalized interventions and one-on-one meetings between students, tutors, and families to discuss relevant personality traits.
- Final reflection, documentation of key elements, and preparation for follow-up in the next academic year.
“Our evaluation serves as a tool for continuous improvement, supporting students’ personal and academic development far beyond a mere grade.”
Jesuitinas School aims to shape autonomous, creative, and committed individuals by helping them better understand themselves, reflect on their emotions, and enhance their social skills as an integral part of their personal and professional growth. This approach underscores the importance of integrating strategies that enhance both academic performance and personal development, fostering well-rounded, mature individuals.
Results of the Educational Innovation Model with AI
The implementation of MEDAP at Jesuitinas Pamplona, along with the use of the Human AI platform, has delivered significant benefits to the educational community.
This standardized system for evaluating and developing socio-emotional competencies has improved students’ self-awareness and emotional regulation, allowing them to integrate these skills into their curriculum and personal branding. Activities conducted throughout the academic year have strengthened key traits such as openness, conscientiousness, and kindness, providing a robust foundation for academic and personal success. By combining individualized assessments with collaborative practices, Jesuitinas fosters a holistic learning environment that enhances students’ overall development.
“This process enriches and differentiates our formative assessment. Human AI offers a unique opportunity to improve the evaluation and holistic development of competencies, helping students recognize and present their socio-emotional skills as strengths in their CVs and personal branding.”
The use of artificial intelligence applications represents an opportunity to improve the assessment and comprehensive development of socio-emotional skills, helping students to improve their knowledge about themselves and allowing them to transfer them to their CV and personal brand. These work processes make the evaluation not just a simple grade, but rather serve as a lever for the improvement, learning and academic and personal growth of students.
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The integration of AI-driven evaluation with pedagogical intervention not only supports comprehensive student development but also offers a replicable model of educational innovation for other institutions. This approach ensures precise assessments while enriching the educational experience, fostering self-reflection and critical thinking—skills essential for tackling today’s educational challenges.
Discover the impact of this educational model through the ICON-edu 2024 congress video, which delves into the details of MEDAP and its collaboration with Human AI Tech.
