With the book “Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education” published in 1916, Dewey introduces the idea of social responsibility. He argues that one cannot perform activities without taking other people’s activities into account. This would be later a foundational principle of SEL.

Vygotsky argued that social interaction comes before cognition. According Vygotsky, its is through guided learning within the Zone of Proximal Development, that the child develops knowledge with the aid of a partner. Children learn social interaction with a skilled tutor that models behavior. These theories are seen today in classrooms with teachers modeling behavior and small groups. This paves the way for SEL practices as educators model behaviors and coping skills for students to emulate.(4)

He created a program called “Comer School Development Program”, where he speculated that a child’s experiences at home and school affects his/her psychosocial development, and therefore affects his/her academic achievement. He implemented a collaborative program focusing on reducing behavior issues by eliminating the obsolete procedures in a school which had permanent attendance and behavior problems. By the 1980s, academic achievement exceeded the national average.(2)

Clinical psychologist Claude Steiner coined the term “emotional literacy”. He defined it as “the ability to understand your emotions, listen to others and empathize with their emotions, and the ability to express emotions effectively”.(5)

SEL skills emerged with the same degree of emphasis placed upon the academic skills, becoming more and more important in the past four decades. They were mentioned in the report “A Nation At Risk” (1982) which was published during the term of the US President Reagan. This report emphasizes the deficiencies regarding child growth attitudes that unhinged the values that constituted a society. Those were the times marked by violence, unattendance, and increased bullying events at schools, while the mental state of children and young people were affected negatively. Intervention programs focused upon the SEL skills of problematic individuals only. However, these programs also failed since they ignored the variables.

Especially the scientific studies conducted as of the 1990s highlighted the emphasis on human, while underscoring the importance of social-emotional climate in supporting and improving learning. Various reports have been published to indicate that SEL skills have an impact on academic achievement.

CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning) organization was established to focus on research on Social-Emotional Learning initiatives. It has been an influential resource for schools that tried to implement SEL on their campus. Their focus is on social and emotional learning and how SEL impacts academic and personal success.(6)

Goleman coined the term “emotional intelligence”, which brought attention to its importance in the lives of individuals. Intervention programs were designed particularly for the early childhood and primary school period, paving the way for the following programs in those years: Lions Quest Life Skills, Second Step, Incredible Years, Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS), I Can Problem Solve (ICPS), Responsive Classroom; and Tools of Mind (ToM).

A report entitled “A Nation at Hope” was published in 2018 in the USA. It was followed by various reports and program development efforts worldwide. OECD conducted a survey on “Social and Emotional Skills”. According to the PISA results worldwide, it was revealed that investment in SEL skills would increase the scores in academic field for students who scored lower in reading comprehension, science, and math.(1)