Social and Emotional Learning in Preschool Settings: A Systematic Map of Systematic Reviews

Abstract

The preschool years presents an important opportunity to support children’s social and emotional development. Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs in early childhood education and care (ECEC) have gained an increased interest due to its potential to improve child health and educational outcomes. We aimed to identify existing systematic reviews on universal, curriculum-based SEL interventions in ECEC settings (children aged 0 to 7 years), assess their risk of bias, synthesize the findings and identify knowledge gaps. We undertook a systematic literature search in seven different databases. Reviews of studies without control groups were excluded. Each abstract and full text article was assessed independently, and disagreements were solved in consensus. Relevant reviews were assessed for bias using the ROBIS tool. Of 4912 records identified through database searches, two systematic reviews met the inclusion criteria. Both reviews were assessed as having a high risk of bias. The results were used to summarize existing knowledge and knowledge gaps. In conclusion, SEL interventions in preschool settings must be considered knowledge gaps. There is a need for more high-quality primary studies and further systematic reviews that adhere to strict scientific methods and address the overwhelming heterogeneity in field, in terms of interventions, settings and outcomes.

Building inclusive preschool classrooms: How desirable and feasible is a set of strategies that facilitate teacher-child relationships?

“…Based on the content analysis, the dimensions-empirically validatedthat would be considered in the questionnaire were defined [(4 dimensions: (1) emotionally responsive interactions, (2) classroom management, (3) attend to children's perspectives, and (4) scaffolding learning] and 70 items (i.e., 70 strategies) were developed (approximately 15-20 items to cover each dimension). As previously explained, there is a need to increase precision in constructs, in the education sciences field, particularly regarding social-emotional aspects (Djamnezhad et al, 2021). Most constructs are umbrella terms that include a range of approaches and concepts.…”

“…Reports of modest or no association(s) with child outcomes rightly prompt calls to develop new and improved measures of quality. We posit that two limitations might underlie these results: (1) umbrella-terms and the difficulty in finding conceptual coherence/consistency among studies (for a systematic review see Djamnezhad et al, 2021) and (2) the lack of teachers reflective functioning, regarding their own knowledge and pedagogical practices, involved in the assessment. In fact, in CLASS (Pianta et al, 2008), as in other ECEC quality assessment instruments, in addition to the assessment of the quality of teacher-child interaction, the implementation of specific strategies in daily pedagogical practices should also be assessed (i.e., whether they are desirable and feasible to implement-their desirability and feasibility).…”

“…Based on the accumulated evidence regarding the interaction between quality of environment and child engagement, several authors have developed assessment tools to study aspects of early childhood settings, identifying a range of strategies and intervention approaches recommended as practices to promote engagement within daily classroom routines/activities (Pianta et al, 2020b;Djamnezhad et al, 2021). Despite the extensive empirical findings about strategies contributing to the quality of ECEC settings and to child engagement, a gap still exists between evidence-based practices and the practices teachers develop, suggesting that there is often a tension between teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and practice 10.3389/feduc.2022.944822 (Stipek and Byler, 1997;Pianta et al, 2009;Hamre et al, 2012).…”

EU-SELF: An European Platform about Social and Emotional Skills in Early Childhood Education

“…We screened seven different databases according to preliminary defined criteria and keywords to develop "a systematic review of systematic reviews based on quantitative studies" (Djamnezhad et al, 2021). All the studies we screened were published in peer-reviewed journals.…”

“…Parents and various practitioners, policymakers and decisionmaking bodies, all of them would benefit from knowing what works, the way it works, how to adapt and implement it, having guidelines for fostering children's SES development. Besides the numerous existing programs and activities, there are still significant "gaps between stakeholders' knowledge, expectations, and capabilities on how best to mobilise children's SES" (Djamnezhad et al, 2021).…”