There is no shortage of evidence around that the world our children are growing up in is becoming increasingly more complex. Be it economic uncertainty, increased prevalence of mental health and depression or the unknown consequences of ubiquitous consumption of social media. So, as educators we can’t predict the future, but we can foster an environment that best sets our students up to succeed in this world. Below are five simple things students need today:
- Ability to recognise emotions in themselves and in others
Self-regulation and the ability to recognise emotions is critical for emotional intelligence and developing a healthy sense of self. Some students in your classroom may not have a healthy association with some emotions. For example, Anger. Some students see ‘Anger’ as a bad emotion, in their life outside of school they may see Angry behaviour modelled poorly. As we know Anger is a perfectly valid emotion, but it doesn’t excuse poor behaviour. So, students need to be able to recognise how they are feeling and separate it from how they are acting.
- A safe place to record how they feel
Once students have the ability to recognise how they are feeling, they benefit from a safe place to record it. Recording emotions supports students as they are learning to recognise their emotions, builds a sense of belonging, provides a process and habit for normalising self-reflection.
- Someone to listen and support them
All students need to have support in place for their wellbeing. In much of the contemporary academic literature this is referred to as sense of belonging, but it boils down to students knowing that someone cares for them. For educators this becomes complex as we need to balance the volume of students and their competing needs. This is where digital check-ins can support us, as automated analysis helps prioritise and allows the opportunity to respond with both, immediacy to urgent student needs and strategically by examining patterns and trends emerging over time.
- Repertoire of strategies to draw upon
Once students can recognise their emotions, they need to be able to draw on strategies to be able to work through them. The repertoire students will draw upon for dealing with their emotions comes from two places; what they have observed and what they have been taught. Therefore, as educators there is an opportunity for us to model healthy strategies and impart appropriate strategies.
- An environment that empowers to experimentation
Not every strategy works for every person in every situation so once students have a repertoire to draw upon they need an environment they can experiment safely in. Trial and error is critical to building emotional literacy and is contingent on a safe fail environment. Students benefit from trying different strategies, receiving clear feedback and consolidating what works and remedying what doesn’t.
While the future may be complex, there is great reason for optimism. If we can equip our students with these 5 things as they develop and grow then we can set them on the path to connect, succeed, thrive and learn to the fullest of their ability.
[ Rydr Tracy is the Head of Education at Life Skills Group and former Director Strategic Priorities at CESE. He is a specialist in evidence-informed practice in educational innovation, with a career focus on strategic change that improves student outcomes. He draws on a rare blend of successful experience in schools, system leadership roles and industry practice – experience that has given him deep understanding of the complexities of the education sector from the classroom to the boardroom and a demonstrated capacity to generate practical recommendations that are grounded in context and evidence. ]