PSE: Fostering a Sense of Community in a New School

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-151
Author(s):  
Patricia Macpherson

This paper outlines the measures put in place by the headteacher of a newly established school in order to ensure that all in the school — new pupils, teachers and other staff — began to share a sense of community. The development of the schools's hidden curriculum was at the forefront of the school's whole curriculum planning. To support this, newly appointed teachers were expected to have a grounding in and commitment to the role of personal and social education in the primary school, and one member of staff received a responsibility allowance (and accompanying curriculum budget) for the promotion of Personal and Social Education (PSE) throughout the school. The paper details the work done through circle time and the impact of this strategy on the children's behaviour.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miedzo Mutendi ◽  
Chipo Makamure

This study seeks to establish the quality and type of feedback necessary and suitable for learners, understandable by learners and implementable in the learning process by the learners to improve progress in learning numeracy. However, although written feedback is believed to be instrumental in shaping the pupils’ classroom performance, there is less agreement on whether this is workable in the real world of the classroom or has remained an intended goal of feedback. There is limited work in literature on how pupils respond or use written feedback to improve their performance. A questionnaire was administered to a group of Year 5 students at a school in England to solicit the pupils’ perceptions of the usefulness of written feedback and the challenges that were likely to be faced in interpreting and implementing the feedback. In order to measure the impact of feedback on students’ performance, a pre-test was given, pupils’ recommendations from the questionnaire were incorporated, and a second test was given two days later. The two sets of marks were then compared. It was found that pupils find it difficult to understand written feedback at times, mainly because of unfamiliar vocabulary used in the feedback and when they do understand the language, they often find it unhelpful in achieving their learning goals. Teachers are recommended to simplify and add more detail to feedback, making it as informative as possible about what was done well and suggest improvements that could be made.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-148
Author(s):  
Bianca Hedeş

Abstract The aim of this article is to point out the acute need of artistic classes for children with ages between 5 and 12 years after one year and a half of online activitities imposed by the SARS CoV-2 pandemic. The 2021 school year brought to the parents’ attention the gaps their children have experienced in terms of sociability. The ease they used to have in communicating with the others has almost disappeared along with the joy of interaction. They got so used to the virtual world that they began to see it as routine and to believe that this is the way our lives should be looking like from now on. As a result, the inauguration of this new school year in comparison to other typical school years, except for the pandemic years, has been registered as the year with the highest number of requests for children’s theatre classes. Teachers saw their students regressing and they also observed that it was very difficult for their students to assimilate any kind of new information, a reason why they came up with the idea of participating in such classes. The worst challenge for the students was to start coming back again physically to classes. Their enthusiasm disappeared alongside with their inability to concentrate and their difficulty in paying attention to the teaching process. The masks on their faces represented another disadvantage that they didn’t have to comply with any longer while attending online classes. Anyhow, it was the first year as a freelance theatre teacher in which the demand increased in such a manner that neither I nor my guild colleagues could honor all the requests we received in terms of drama classes for children at this age. The benefits of such classes in the education and in the evolution of its participants have already been demonstrated by many theatre personalities and they are now being amplified with the increased interest coming from the children’s parents who noticed serious disorders in their children’s’ behavior. In the next lines we are going to analyse the outcome results after questioning 60 children with ages between 5 and 12 years old.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S278-S279
Author(s):  
Jennifer Y M Tang ◽  
Cheryl Chui ◽  
Tuen Yi Chiu ◽  
Rebecca Chiu ◽  
Vivian W Lou ◽  
...  

Abstract Previous research that studies the impact of built environment on health often attribute the enabling effects of environment on physical activity participation and opportunities for social interaction. Few studies have explored how the role of subjective feeling, such as the feeling of connectedness with the community, affects the association between built environment and physical and mental health. We conducted a cross-sectional survey with 2,247 residents aged 50 years or above in five districts in Hong Kong. We tested the mediation effect of sense of community in the relationship between physical environment and health using the path analysis. We administered a questionnaire to assess the residents’ perceived age-friendliness of outdoor spaces and buildings in the district. We used the Brief Sense of Community Scale and the 12-item Short-form Health Survey to measure sense of community and physical and mental health. We found that age-friendliness of outdoor spaces was modestly correlated with mental health (r = 0.10, P < 0.001) but not with physical health (r = 0.02, P = 0.4), whereas age-friendliness of buildings correlated with both (r = 0.05, P = 0.01; r = 0.06, P = 0.004). Sense of community mediated 25.9% of the total effect between outdoor space and physical health, 20.4% between outdoor space and mental health, and 42.5% between service and building on physical health. To conclude, sense of community was a partial mediator of the environment-health relationship. Future design of built environment should take into consideration its potential influence on sense of community and health.


Author(s):  
Dejan Hozjan

The chapter is based on the presentation of an understanding of the hidden curriculum in the twentieth century. In this period, four theoretical concepts existed: functionalism, criticism, liberalism, and postmodernism. The starting point for the concept of the hidden curriculum was that of the functionalists. Their understanding of the hidden curriculum was based on the transfer of social norms and values to students. Representatives of criticism, for example, Michael Apple, Michael Young, carried the knowledge of functionalists to the concrete social environment and sought the reasons for social inequality and the role of the hidden curriculum in this. Also, liberal authors, such as John Dewey and Phillip Jackson, dealt with practical issues, being, however, interested in the impact of the hidden curriculum in educational practice. With postmodernists, like Michael Foucault, a critical view of the presented concepts is shown and a warning that the hidden curriculum takes place in a complex social system. This chapter explores a theoretical conceptualization of the hidden curriculum in the second half of the twentieth century.


Author(s):  
Laura L. Hansen

With gang initiation starting as early as the primary school grades, the challenge to educators and administrators is to identify and suppress gang activities within the confines of school grounds. Taking into consideration the impotence of school systems to control the neighborhood and family environments, understanding the important role of schools to keep students engaged in scholarship to prevent gang membership cannot be stressed enough. Taking an applied approach, this chapter identifies what educators, administrators, and staff can do to identify behavior that might be on the surface mere imitation of gang membership (e.g. throwing gang signs), but could be symptomatic of close contact with known gang members and possibly exposure to the violence associated with gangs. The more school personnel can be cognizant of behavior that is indicative of exposure to gangs, curriculum planning and after school programs can be designed more efficiently to counter delinquent influences within the community, beyond “just say no” strategies.


Author(s):  
Andrew E. Clark ◽  
Sarah Flèche ◽  
Richard Layard ◽  
Nattavudh Powdthavee ◽  
George Ward

This chapter investigates the impact of the different schools and teachers in the Avon area on the outcomes of the children they taught. It begins by investigating the role of the whole school in considering what difference it makes which school a child goes to. Here, primary and secondary schools have major effects on the emotional well-being of their children. The variation across schools in this regard is as large as the variation in their impact on academic performance. There is also a huge variation in the impact of individual primary school teachers on the emotional well-being and academic performance of their children. These effects of primary schools and teachers persist throughout the following five years and longer.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 501-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin R. Filo ◽  
Daniel C. Funk ◽  
Danny O’Brien

Participatory sport events have emerged as viable fundraising mechanisms for charitable organizations. This article examines the impact that motives for charitable giving and sport event participation have on charity sport events. The authors examine the factors that attract participants to a charity sport event, while the role of charity in fostering attachment to the event is explored. Focus groups were conducted with charity sport event participants to discuss what motivated their participation. Results revealed that intellectual, social, and competency motives along with the motives of reciprocity, self-esteem, need to help others, and desire to improve the charity contribute to attraction. In addition, the results suggest that the charitable component influences social and competency motives and contributes to the development of attachment to the event. The authors recommend event managers work to foster and leverage the sense of community created through these events.


Author(s):  
Ran Zhuo ◽  
Gendao Li

Background: With the relaxation of birth control policy in China in recent years, second-time mothers’ mental health has raised concerns. However, the impact of firstborn children’s behaviour problems on second-time mothers’ prenatal depression in families transitioning to siblinghood has received little attention from family psychologists. Aims: This research aims to investigate whether firstborn children’s behaviour problems affect second-time mothers’ prenatal depression and the mediation role of daily parenting hassles, i.e., minor stressors associated with parenting, on this relationship. Methods: Data about second-time mothers’ prenatal depression, parenting daily hassles, and firstborn children’s behaviour problems were collected from 105 families transitioning to two children families using mother-reported questionnaires. Regressions were used to analyze the data. Results: About half of the mothers in the sample have depressive symptoms. Firstborns’ behaviour problems did not have a direct effect on the mother’s prenatal depression, but the problems did have an indirect effect via parenting daily hassles. The mothers’ age was significantly associated with prenatal depression. Conclusions: The mediation role of parenting daily hassles in the association with firstborn’s behaviour problems and mother’s prenatal depression suggests the need for support that reduce the levels of daily parenting hassles from firstborn children.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-187
Author(s):  
Stephanie E. Pasewaldt ◽  
Stephanie L. Baller ◽  
Sarah R. Blackstone ◽  
Lucy Bryan Malenke

Proper handwashing reduces the transmission of deadly, preventable diseases. Schools, even those with limited resources, have the power to promote handwashing through simple, effective interventions. This study evaluated the impact of a school-based handwashing program consisting of two interventions: a hand-hygiene curriculum and group handwashing station. Quantitative and open-ended pre/postintervention surveys were administered to students at one primary school in Kenya ( n = 38) and at one primary school in Uganda ( n = 57). Matching procedures were followed at each school. Paired ttests for pre/postsurveys demonstrated an increase in students’ knowledge ( p < .001) and frequency of handwashing ( p < .001). After 6 months, students were still engaging in daily group handwashing. The curriculum increased knowledge, and the handwashing station enabled students to translate their knowledge into action. This study supports educational interventions combined with built environmental interventions should be used to promote handwashing behaviors and emphasizes the role of group handwashing stations.


Author(s):  
Annabel Folch ◽  
Laia Gasol ◽  
Luis Heredia ◽  
Paloma Vicens ◽  
Margarita Torrente

AbstractMindfulness has attracted considerable attention in educational settings as it can have positive effects on children. However, the role of mindfulness practice in schools has yet to be understood. The aim of the present study is to assess the impact of mindfulness on neuropsychological performance and psychological well-being of primary school children. It also aims to explore the teacher’s mindfulness training effect on the intervention. The present study recruited 100 children (64% girls and 36% boys) aged 9–11 from a primary school in Tarragona (Spain). The research was conducted between 2016–2018 with three experimental groups: a mindfulness intervention group with a trained mindfulness teacher, a mindfulness intervention group with a non-trained mindfulness teacher, and a control group. All groups were evaluated before and after a 13-weeks intervention, consisting of 5–10 min mindfulness daily sessions before class. After the intervention, the two groups of children receiving mindfulness sessions performed better than controls in several neuropsychological tasks involving executive functions, such as short-term and working memory, learning, mental flexibility, visuospatial abilities and processing speed. No significant differences were found in the assessment of daily stress or emotional and behavioural problems. The findings of the present study can contribute to a better understanding of the role of mindfulness practice in primary children regarding neuropsychological performance, highlighting the importance of the teacher’s mindfulness training in the teaching/learning process.


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