This week we extended the theoretical foundations of teaching to consider social and emotional learning, and how it makes a difference to what teachers do in the classroom. All students have a rich and complex social and emotional life within and beyond their time in the classroom.

Wherever we are in the world, there will be challenges in their family and community life that affect how our learners experience the learning process. So as teachers we must be able to recognise and take account of these, especially where there is likely to be an experience of trauma of some kind.

There are specific pedagogical approaches we can use to help with this, such as listening to our students. We can give them a chance to reflect on and describe their own stories, their hopes and their fears. And we can try to create quiet and safe spaces for them to develop and grow beyond the limits and difficulties of their challenging environment.

It is tough for the teachers, especially in the many different kinds of settings where mass displacement, conflict, and upheaval are affecting everyone’s lives. But teachers are inventive and resourceful, and are very generous in sharing their ideas and solutions. This is what the course aimed to build on, by bringing teachers together to share problems and collaborate on solutions.

Towards the end of the week, the Educators will share their own reflections on the week and on the course as a whole.

And as ever, it’s over to you.

Over to you

In the forum below, please share your own reflections on the week, or overall across the course, and comment on the posts from others.

Please post any general questions you have for the educators here, and ‘like’ any others that you would like to see answered. Then we can prioritise how we address them.

© UCL and the Inclusive Education Foundation (CoMOOCs Team), CC BY 4.0