Rarely were these expectations met. In reality, students tend to be taught a great deal about the content of syllabuses and the planning of lessons but the business of bringing about successful learning outcomes or how to manage a class is rarely addressed. Yet a measure of order in the classroom is an essential prerequisite for any meaningful teaching/learning interaction (CITATION?).
Although schools are known primarily for institutions to teach academics, the concept of instruction in "social skills," goes back to the 1970s. Professionals realized that certain prerequisite social skills may be critical to the academic instructional experience for the student to be successful in his or her regular school endeavors. The concept of "social skill" was first defined by Libet and Lewinsohn (1973) as the ability to behave in a way that is positively or negatively reinforced and not in a manner that...
Similarly, Cartledge and Milburn (1978, 134) defined social skills as "social behaviors, interpersonal and task-related, that produce positive consequences in the school classroom setting." These researchers argued that social behaviors are informally instructed at all times in a typical classroom and that "effective procedures exist for the systematic teaching of social behaviors, particularly through the application of behavioral techniques" and "the school classroom is the best setting for the teaching of academically-relevant social behaviors."
Since then the concept of social skills has been integrated into much of educational materials, especially for children at risk of not succeeding. Secondly, they are stressed because teachers recognized, as noted above, that when such skills are absent, no one can fully engage students in a variety of learning
