Carl Emery – Manchester
University
Writer and lecturer in social and emotional
wellbeing/conflict resolution with a
particular focus on disengaged learners
14-19
Children's social and emotional wellbeing in
schools, a critical perspective
Authors/Editors; Debbie Watson,
Carl Emery, Phillip Bayliss
Teaching & Learning
When we become totally focussed on
‘covering the material’, preoccupied with
competence and success, we often forget
to open our hearts to the young people,
particularly if they are sabotaging the
success of the group.
We may shut down and create a range of
barriers to protect ourselves.
Engaging Learners
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Building Relationships – Managing
Challenges. 30 hour programme, 1 day
programmes. Coaching model.
Built on a three strand foundation
Contextual
Subjective
Relational
(Emery & Watson 2011)
Positive Engagement Programme
BRMC
Key Concepts
Stipek reports that learners ‘work harder for teachers
who treat them as individuals and express interest in
their personal lives outside school/college.’
(Stipek, 2006, page 46)
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Building and developing resilience and reciprocity
A process model
Contextualised for 14-19
Practice/reflection-based model
Not prescribed
Belonging – Feelings &Behaviour
In pairs
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Think of a time you believed you weren’t
valued and didn’t belong, or were labelled.
Talk about how you felt at that time.
In squares (two pairs)
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Write words at the centre of the page to
describe your feelings. Illustrate the way
you behave when you have those feelings.
Key Principles
Learners and staff need to have a sense of
 Belonging
 Being heard
 Being understood
Teacher PRESENCE and building
relationships are key to this. We need to
develop a strong and sensitive presence
built on successfully using our body, mind
Presence
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Think of someone you know in your
school/college who has presence.
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What do you see them do?
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How do they demonstrate this presence?
Presence
We celebrate those precious moments
when we embody a presence that carries
the class to a place where minds and
hearts are moved and genuine
connections occur. Some teachers just
naturally live there most of the time. But
how do we find that place?
Presence
Although presence is a difficult thing to define we all know people
with it and these people generally share the following qualities:
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Body - Strong clear body language and the ability to
read and respond to others’ body language
Mind - Clarity and calmness of thought, understanding
the power of positive thinking and recognising their
thought process particularly in regard to perceptions and
expectations.
Voice - A strong clear voice that uses pitch, intonation,
rhythm and breathing to state clear messages, create
confidence and demonstrate understanding. The voice
also needs to communicate messages that encourage
learners to participate, feel positive and follow
instructions.
Body
Body - Strong clear body language and
the ability to read and respond to others’
body language.
Zones in your classroom:
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Connected
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Learning
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Drifting
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Lost
Body Activity
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The body arc
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Directive body language
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Patrolling & rescuing
Body
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Congruence
Eye contact
Positioning
Patrolling
Proximity
Posture
Facial Expressions
Non verbal cueing
Barriers
Mind
Mind - Clarity and calmness of thought,
understanding the power of positive
thinking and recognising their thought
process, particularly in regard to
perceptions and expectations.
Mind Activity
Evaluations and observations
Which of the following statements are
evaluations, and which are observations
…?
Evaluations or observations?
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Paul is aggressive in class
James said I looked good last night
Josie got up from her chair three times during the ICT
lesson
Keisha would not sit still around during functional Maths
Gina is always late for college
Jack tapped his pen against his desk for over ten
minutes
Jasmine is usually messing about
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Ben never stops talking
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Voice
Voice - A strong clear voice that uses pitch,
intonation, rhythm and breathing to state clear
messages, create confidence and demonstrate
understanding.
The voice also needs to communicate messages
that encourage learners to participate, feel
positive and follow instructions.
Language
Language is one of the most powerful
tools available to a teacher.
It permeates every aspect of teaching and
learning.
Remember: what they hear and interpret
has a huge impact on how they think, act
and learn.
Language
“Okay, settle down everyone. Lunch is
over, let’s get started. We have to get to
work on our functional skills now.”
“I see that everyone is ready for functional
skills, lets get started.”
Language
Different messages.
First version implies learning is about
resisting pleasure, that is now over. ‘Have
to’ implies it is something we don’t really
want to do, demonstrates no choice is on
offer.
Attack/Distortion words
The Always/Everything Distortion
Challenging generalisations allows young people to 'buy
out' of their extreme thinking. Look out for 'all-ornothing' words like 'all’, ‘always’, ‘never’, ‘everyone’, ‘no
one’, ‘every time/place/thing’.
'People are always shouting at me'
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Which people ?
Always ?
Shouting ?
Attack/Distortion words
'Oh, everything's going wrong!'
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Everything?
How are things going wrong?
What would need to happen for them to go right?
Similarly, other extremes/absolutes – 'couldn't’, ‘mustn't’,
‘shouldn't’, ‘unable to', etc. – can be challenged and
changed
'I couldn't do that'
Remember
To learn we need :
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to feel safe (orderly familiarity)
experience success more often than failure
(celebrate often what I do)
to be noticed (say my name)
to be trusted and respected (as a human being)
to be motivated (use what I remember)
to feel acceptance (as I am )
Contact me
carl.emery@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
07852 192770
http://www.exploringwellbeing.co.uk