Encompass 2006 - Conference All About Kids

April 5th, 2006 by admin

Somewhere between Teletubbies and Scary Movie 3, children are changing their ideas about the world.


Some become strong, independent adults with a sense of citizenship and responsibility while others feel angry, cynical or even lost, powerless to steer even their own lives.


How they make the transition from children to adults is the subject of intense scrutiny among researchers and educators. Many, like Coquitlam teacher Chris King, believe school may be one place where kids can find out who they are and learn to contribute positively to the world.


“Young people are basically good people. If you teach the social skills of decision making, how to deal with anger, sadness, joy, it has a direct effect on their academic success,” said King, who conducts workshops and is looking at ways to promote social and emotional learning in schools for his master’s degree at UBC.


King is a member of the Coquitlam Teachers’ Association’s social justice committee, which is hosting a conference April 20 to 22 at Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox secondary school. The conference, called Encompass, is bringing students, teachers and parents together to talk about ways to strengthen kids’ self-image and connections so they will make good choices.
Creating enriched learning environments for social and emotional development, and academic success, the theme of the conference, is a weighty topic. But King said it’s simply about building relationships between adults and kids, helping young people learn self-discipline, and opening up dialogue so they can talk about taboo topics like how sexist and racist jokes can hurt.


“It not teaching values, it’s opening up discussion,” said King, citing research from a variety of sources, much of it synthesized by a university-based research institute (www.casel.org).


The research suggests students who are engaged in their community, have positive connections to adults in their lives and some self discipline do better at school. They are less likely to feel discouraged, less likely to skip-out and are more likely to finish school tasks.


Creating that kind of positive culture takes work. But it can pay off – even in traditional academic courses, such as science and math. “Teachers are worried that they don’t have time for this because the curriculum is so packed, there are exams to prepare for. But in fact, this kind of culture moves the class along,” he said. “It can actually save time.”


It may, however, require teachers to make subtle changes in their behaviour, such as how they talk to their students, the depth of their connections to students, even how they structure the class to give students responsibility and autonomy.


They have to model the self-control, social and emotional skills they want their students to adapt while still teaching the basics of chemistry, said King.


Parents and other adult mentors are part of this process, too. The more connections a child has to positive adult role models, the better off they are, he said.


In workshops for parents and teachers, the Encompass conference will offer dozens of opportunities to explore this issue and creative ideas for incorporating social and emotional learning in school and at home. Topics such as Hold on To Your Kids and Bullies: Their Making and Unmaking, both by popular speaker and psychologist Gordon Neufeld; Relationships: The Fourth R of Schooling, by UBC professor Shelley Hymel; Global Ed: In and Beyond the Classroom, by Murray Sasges, a Vancouver teacher; and many more will offer food for thought and action, said King. Presenters include academic researchers, motivational speakers as well as many local teachers and community members, such as Coquitlam Coun. Fin Donnelly, school trustee Diane Sowden and retired assistant superintendent David Oborne.


King said B.C. is among the first North American jurisdictions to promote social justice as a performance standard for measuring student progress, making the topic relevant to schools across the province. The conference is drawing participants from all over B.C., the Yukon and other prairie provinces, and may be used as a springboard to develop a Canadian research institute for studying the relationship between social and emotional learning and academic success.


More information is available at www.cta43.org.


By Diane Strandberg
The Tri-City News
Apr 05 2006
dstrandberg@tricitynews.com

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