Scoping review reveals five implementation tiers for whole-school social and emotional learning but finds no validated assessments, highlighting critical evaluation gaps in school settings.
The importance of social and emotional learning (SEL) in schools continues to grow, especially in respect to whole-school approaches. However, ambiguities persist regarding what constitutes a whole-school approach and how this might be assessed. A scoping review was carried out to identify key concepts in whole-school SEL evaluation and assessment. Searches of Web of Science, PsycINFO, Google, and Google Scholar (2015–2025) identified 14 relevant sources. Five key areas of whole-school SEL activity were found, organised by level of implementation (student, class, school, leadership, community). Little to no validated assessment methods for monitoring whole-school activity were identified, indicating a significant research gap. Implications and recommendations for future research and practice are discussed.
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Wigelsworth et al. (2026) studied this question.
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