You Can Do It!The You Can Do It! Education Program has been developed an implemented across the National Australian Curriculum and is a valuable resource for developing the social and emotional well-being of students. The mission of YCDI! is to provide evidence-based “best practice” educational resources and training programs that have as their focus:
Self-awareness
(Bernard, 2015). |
Why?Jensen (2009) discusses how crucial the early years of development are for a child, as it is where they begin to develop positive cognitive and social functions that are influenced depending on the bond developed between child and parent. Therefore if parents don’t have a strong bond with their child through this developmental stage they may not understand emotions such as; humility, forgiveness, empathy, patience, gratitude and cooperation. Therefore these need to be considered and integrated within in to teaching and learning practices, particularly with those children from disadvantaged social backgrounds.
With this in mind, it is important to include the development of social and emotional skills within the classroom. This can be achieved by fostering an environment of respect between teacher and student (Jensen, 2009). From my experience, I found that the bonds between parent and child were developed at an early age; sometimes even creating separation anxiety, however majority of children were not taught consequences to their behaviour (Jensen, 2009). Many students would come to class and ‘misbehave’ because they had never been given a set of rules or understanding of how to act within a classroom context. I found that many students lacked empathy; gratitude and cooperation as part of their learning process. To guide this learning and create a positive learning environment it is important to not exert power and authority and focus more on rewarding positive behaviour rather than the consequences for negative behaviour (Jensen, 2009). Other strategies include; creating a safe and inclusive environment and modelling positive relationships. |
This link here, provides information on how to enrol in the YCDI! Education Program Achieve. It provides resources for lessons and activities that are designed to teach students a positive mindset for academic achievement and eliminate the negative mindset leading to poor social-emotional development.
References:
Bernard, M. (2015). Australian Primary School Mental Health Initiative. Kids Matter: You can do it! Retrieved 20 September 2015 from https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/primary/programs/you-can-do-it-education-program-achieve
Jensen. E. (2009). Teaching with Poverty in Mind. Retrieved 12 September, 2015 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects-Behavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects-Behavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx
Bernard, M. (2015). Australian Primary School Mental Health Initiative. Kids Matter: You can do it! Retrieved 20 September 2015 from https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/primary/programs/you-can-do-it-education-program-achieve
Jensen. E. (2009). Teaching with Poverty in Mind. Retrieved 12 September, 2015 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects-Behavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects-Behavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx