Earlier this month Kate Watson, Assistant Professor of
Healthcare Administration at Peirce, won an award at the University Teaching
and Learning Conference held at Temple University for a poster she created that
focuses on student trauma and strategies that educators can use to deal with
trauma in the classroom. In total, there were 24 posters that were submitted
and voted on.
Because of her background in both healthcare and criminal
justice she was able to bring a unique perspective to the topic as they’ve both
given her insight into both violence and trauma. Her idea for the poster
centered around the fact that many students (more than half) have experienced
some kind of trauma in their past.
Though she outlined a wide range of trauma that students could suffer
from, she offered strategies that educators could implement inside the
classroom that would benefit all students who have suffered from various
traumas, as well as students who have never faced a traumatic experience.
The strategies came from both her own experience in working
with survivors of trauma along with additional research.
When asked more specifically about the implementation of the
strategies, Professor Watson advised us that the strategies are more about
prevention of classroom problems rather than intervention. The strategies can
be applied so that educators can set up their classroom in a way that they may
never even need to know that the student was suffering trauma. Such a classroom
would be designed to create an environment where students are more likely to be
successful in the first place. It doesn’t necessarily take a different approach
for each student, but rather focused more generally about how educators design
their curriculum and for students to have a little bit more power in the
decision making.
When analyzing the poster, one of the more surprising facts
is just how many students have faced, and are suffering from, some type of
traumatic experience.
For example, many of the educators at the conference stated
"I wanted to come look at your poster because I have a lot of vets in my
classroom." But while the poster is particularly relevant for educators
who have veterans who are experiencing trauma, it was also really important to
convey the point that this wasn't just a problem for veterans. Consider 18 or
19 year old students coming right out of high school. About 50% of them had
exposure to a traumatic event. Professor Watson stated that in response to
educators interested in strategies for trauma for vets, she also reminded them
that "It’s great you came over here because you're caring about the vet,
but this is much bigger and broader than just a handful of vets you might help
in your class because there are so many more students who suffer from trauma
than just vets." As the poster points out, trauma could range from a
variety of other things including chronic poverty and hunger to physical abuse
and accidents.
For example, if you were in hurricane Sandy and lost your
home on the Jersey Shore that can cause trauma. And the older students are, the
more likely they are to have faced a trauma. The poster highlights the fact
that while 64% of the population has experienced some type of trauma, that
number jumps to 90% for adults over 55.
So how do these
strategies affect students who may not have faced a trauma? Professor Watson
explained, “These strategies can't hurt anyone. So even if you're in the 40% or
less who's not feeling particularly traumatized, these strategies won't hurt
your education. Having a trusted environment and choice and power, those are
good things across the board but they're particularly useful for those who need
it. You know maybe we don't all need it, but we can all benefit from it.”
When asked for the number one takeaway her poster offers, “I
think the number one thing to take away from me is this isn't a unique thing or
a rare thing or an odd, stand out example. This was just something we should
just assume is in every classroom and therefore the strategies should be
implemented in every classroom we teach.
Congratulations Professor Watson and thanks for your
important work to help educators provide an environment where trauma survivors
are much more likely to succeed!
Here's the award winning poster:
(Click to enlarge)
