Developing a ‘Classroom as Community’ Approach to Supporting Young Children's Wellbeing (original) (raw)
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The social emotional wellbeing of children has often been placed at the opposite end of the educational continuum to academic achievement thus creating a binary debate. As research has demonstrated how social emotional wellbeing both facilitates and predicts academic achievement it would appear there is no longer a need for such a debate. Attention should now focus on how schools may most effectively support social emotional wellbeing. Research has suggested that this requires whole school reform addressing curriculum, pedagogy and management. While Australia has placed social emotional wellbeing within the goals of schooling, educational policy continues to relegate social emotional wellbeing to pockets of curriculum, social skills training and character education approaches. A "wide awakening" is needed for schools to open the discussion on social emotional wellbeing. This paper outlines a small pilot study which utilised the methodology of portraiture to explore one teacher"s perspective on social emotional wellbeing. The use of portraiture aims to draw both the participant and the reader into a process of reflection to prompt further development of primary schooling"s role in children"s social emotional wellbeing.
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The relationship between effective teaching and learning and student wellbeing has gained increasing recognition, with various programs being developed that aim to identify and assist individual students ‘at risk’. In contrast to individualised approaches, this presentation reports on a school-wide ‘classroom as community’ approach to wellbeing through complementary pedagogies that address the issues for children with trauma experiences. Strategies include education in emotions [1], pro-social games [2], students as wellbeing agents and parent involvement [3]. The approach uses Vygotsky’s [4] notion of the socially formed mind wherein children’s minds are formed in interaction with those around them [5]. Working with the whole school, the approach creates a culture enabling students to succeed in group activities [6]. Now adopted in over 50 primary classrooms in South Australia the approach is being evaluated in one school over a three year period of implementation. Measures include...
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