{"id":69273,"date":"2020-11-18T10:36:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T15:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=69273"},"modified":"2020-11-18T10:36:29","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T15:36:29","slug":"brock-researchers-report-on-new-support-for-social-emotional-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2020\/11\/brock-researchers-report-on-new-support-for-social-emotional-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock researchers report on new support for social-emotional learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brock researchers have taken a closer look at a new resource that can help elementary teachers guide students in managing their mental health and well-being now available on online.<\/a><\/p>\n

Researchers in Brock’s Department of Child and Youth Studies, in partnership with School Mental Health Ontario (SMHO) and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers\u2019 Association (OECTA), have issued a report on the new intervention to support social-emotional learning for elementary school students across Ontario.<\/p>\n

Assistant Professor Naomi Andrews, along with CHYS graduate students Elizabeth Al-Jbouri and Emma Peddigrew, conducted a lengthy study on the effectiveness of \u201cFaith and Wellness: A Daily Mental Health Resource\u201d and then released their findings<\/a> over the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFaith and Wellness\u201d is a collection of practices developed by SMHO and OECTA that can assist teachers in working with their students to manage their mental health and well-being, covering everything from stretching and deep breathing to conflict resolution and empathy.<\/p>\n

Andrews says she took on the project because she is \u201cpassionate about research that can serve to support children and youth in real-life settings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial and emotional learning is a process of developing and applying knowledge, skills and attitudes that provide the foundation for our mental health and well-being, helping children and young people develop the intrapersonal and interpersonal skills they need to flourish throughout their life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In 2018, as the resource was being developed, Andrews and colleague Debra Pepler from York University conducted a pilot study on its feasibility and effectiveness. Seeing promising results, Andrews extended her collaboration with SMHO and OECTA to develop a larger scale evaluation, ultimately leading to the release of the current report.<\/p>\n

She says that her biggest takeaway from the study was the importance of creating an Intervention that is based on research evidence, while also being sensitive to potential challenges of implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy creating a set of resources that are simple, short, and cost-effective, teachers can more easily implement them into their daily teaching,\u201d Andrews says.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, the collection of interventions available in Faith and Wellness seem to work. Andrews notes that her team found evidence of \u201cdosage effects \u2014 meaning that the more frequently teachers implemented the practices, the better the outcomes for both students and teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrews says her graduate students played a crucial role in developing the final report by carrying out data collection, inputting and analysis, supervising and training undergraduate volunteer assistants and interpreting and writing up results.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I am new to Brock, when the project started I didn\u2019t have graduate students of my own that I was supervising,\u201d says Andrews. \u201cSo I feel very fortunate that Emma and Elizabeth were interested and saw the importance of this project to their own research and training, and also that the collaborative nature of our department enabled them to do this work with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrews is also grateful to her community partners at SMHO and OECTA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been so gratifying to collaborate with a group of women who all bring unique skill sets to the table, but all share a common focus on supporting children and youth\u2019s wellbeing,\u201d she says. \u201cI think that common goal is one of the reasons why the partnership has been so productive and rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrews believes that especially in light of the current global pandemic, supporting students\u2019 social-emotional learning needs to be a top priority for teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents and teachers are doing their best right now during a difficult time, but there is definitely a need to continue thinking about and supporting students\u2019 mental health and wellness,\u201d she says. \u201cThis resource provides a large number of practices that can help to do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brock researchers have taken a closer look at a new resource that can help elementary teachers guide students in managing their mental health and well-being now available on online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":69274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3319,55,1,38],"tags":[45,9716,9717,522,926,9715,9719,9718],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69273"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69277,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69273\/revisions\/69277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}