As we return to teaching later this summer or fall, our instincts may turn towards pushing academic remediation. We know there will be gaps between where students are and where they are expected to be. However, research conducted after Hurricane Katrina - comparable to current events in terms of collective trauma, adversity, and inequity - demonstrated that students struggled and were unsuccessful in learning when teachers focused on regaining academic ground rather than addressing social and emotional needs.
The uncertainty, ever changing rules and guidelines, disconnection of friends and family, and fears related to both the virus and responses to systemic racial injustices, among other things have tipped the scales towards dysregulation for most if not, all of us. Dysregulation is often discussed within the context of “fight or flight” or a response to trauma and adversity. But it is not exclusively connected to adversity, but rather a natural brain function. My rather unscientific explanation of dysregulation is that is basically the lower brain communicating an unmet need. Have you seen the Snickers commercials that say, “You’re not yourself when you are hungry?” That’s a wonderfully simple example of dysregulation.
When you are dysregulated, you are unable to access the higher parts of your brain where executive functioning occurs. So you may have difficulty with verbal fluency, be unable to plan or organize, have difficulty processing, storing, or retrieving information, and have difficulty with abstract concepts. Doesn’t this sound like an inventory of all of the things that students need for academic success? So in other words, students cannot learn if they are dysregulated.
Chronic stress and adversity can lead the brain to get stuck in a loop of dysregulation even when there is no apparent threat to our well-being and all of our needs are met. So it is highly likely that our students will return to learning in the fall, not only academically lagging, but also lagging in their social and emotional skills, possibly having even regressed. They may be feeling anxious, depressed, have difficulty concentrating, and maybe even lacking confidence in their ability to be successful in school.
Pushing them too hard and too fast without addressing their social and emotional needs will only serve to perpetuate that dysregulation loop. Consider how you can start the year by regaining ground on social and emotional (SEL) skills related to self-regulation, agency and efficacy. Areas of the brain related to social and emotional skills are located lower in the brain than those related to thinking and learning. New information must travel through those areas to reach the higher parts where those executive functions occur. Employing a bottom-up, brain based method of teaching means directly engaging and interacting with each area of the brain in order to most successfully connect at the highest levels. Incorporating SEL into your class helps to maintain regulation, create safety by addressing social and emotional needs, and rebuild the scaffolding or pathways within the brain needed to promote academic achievement. Though it may feel like added work to an already overwhelming load, I guarantee it is a solid investment of your time and will set you up for successful academic remediation.
Obviously, our first choice for practicing and building SEL is through the arts due to the protective and promotive factors that naturally occur during the art making process. Jenny and I have provided a number of posts that provide specific arts based activities that promote SEL that can be used by anyone regardless of artistic experience. We have also written a number of posts related to arts integration for teachers who want to multitask by integrating both SEL and academics into one lesson by teaching using an arts based approach.
This academic year will pose challenges unlike any we have seen before. We hope we can provide you with a few extra tools to take on those challenges.