Socio-emotional learning is defined as a process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. There are several frameworks of socio-emotional learning and the most famous is the CASEL model, that emphasizes self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making as key groups of competencies. The acquisition of socio-emotional skills in an individual contributes to the reduction of behavioral problems and emotional disturbances, enhances more positive social behaviors and relationships with others, and the improvement of academic achievement. Since children spend much of their time in schools, school environment is a great place to implement socio-emotional learning programs and develop socio-emotional skills. Teachers and their own socio-emotional competence, pedagogical knowledge and background characteristics play a key role in this task. These characteristics of teachers affect classroom management strategies, the relationships they develop with students and the quality of implementation of socio-emotional learning programs. In order for students to feel good, accepted, safe, and to be able to develop social and emotional skills, it is important to ensure a healthy and supportive classroom and school climate. The most well-known social-emotional learning program in schools is the PATHS program. The effectiveness of this, as well as many other programs, has been confirmed by numerous studies. It is possible to conclude that the adoption and use of socio-emotional competencies in an individual results in a number of positive and life-beneficial behaviors. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to present the historical development of the area, models of socio-emotional learning, application of socio-emotional learning in the school environment, effective programs for the development of socio-emotional skills and review the results of foreign research that confirm the value and importance of socio-emotional learning in school. At the end, recommendations for quality implementation of socio-emotional learning programs in schools will be presented.