Non-Award
This short course is an introduction to trauma theory and practice. Designed for educators and other professionals working in schools, the six weekly classes will introduce you to evidence-based approaches for working with traumatised students. You'll explore a variety of interventions, pedagogies and practices that can help you better support children and help alter their life trajectories.
Trauma-informed education is an emerging field. It draws from the fields of psychology, neuroscience and public health, which have shown the profound impact of trauma on brain development and learning. Armed with this new research and understanding, educators and schools can create new policies and practices that improve wellbeing and learning outcomes for their students.
The course is recommended for all professionals working in schools, including principals, teachers, psychologists, speech therapists and other support services, including school counsellors and wellbeing staff. It's been specially designed to equip them with the skills they need to safely and effectively support affected children.
You'll explore the neuroscience that informs trauma theory and develop your understanding of the profound impact of traumatic experience on early brain development and learning. You'll examine the principles that underpin trauma-informed education and determine how these principles may inform pedagogy and learning for students who have experienced trauma.
You'll learn:
Week 1: Traumatic experience. The history of PTSD and contemporary neuroscientific understandings.
Week 2: Complex trauma and attachment theory. The impact of early childhood trauma on early brain development and learning.
Week 3: Generational trauma. The impact of community trauma and its aftermath.
Week 4: Trauma-informed education. The principles of a trauma-informed school.
Week 5: Trauma-informed pedagogies and practices. A framework for intervention.
Week 6: The reflective practitioner and vicarious trauma. Caring for the carers.