Treacy, Kevin (2019) Bouncing Back: Teaching Resilience in the Primary Classroom. Masters thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.

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Abstract

Bouncing Back: Teaching Resilience in the Primary Classroom, is a self-study action research project which outlines the journey of teaching resilience to my 4th class in a co-educational Dublin school. The decision to base my project around resilience was a result of my values of care and determination. I wanted to complete a project that not only had personal meaning to me, but also allowed me to teach in a way that was closer to my values. An understanding of how to implement resilience in the classroom also proved extremely valuable as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged and schools look towards how to care for children when they are being re-integrated into schools. I designed an intervention that had four key components: teacher designed lessons about resilience, resilience through drama, use of the Weaving Well-Being programme and resilience through literature. Action research was chosen as the methodology, as it allowed me to critically examine my own practice while also improving it. Throughout this process, I collected qualitative data using a reflective journal, surveys, observations, samples of children’s work and feedback from a critical friend. Through engaging with the reflective process, I was able to generate a living theory which allowed me to live in the direction of my values. Findings that emerged from the study were in relation to: • The power of drama in exploring resilience • The importance of teacher modelling • The need for explicit teaching of resilience in schools. Stress and trauma are inevitable parts of life and I believe that schools are in a unique position to help children to learn effective coping strategies to deal with these difficulties. The findings from this research suggests strategies that are useful in teaching resilience and also highlight how teachers must be aware of their own wellbeing in the classroom to promote resilience effectively. This research also inspired a significant change in how I will teach and model resilience in my classroom for years to come. Schools and teachers owe it to their students to prepare them for adversity so they can achieve their true potential in life.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Keywords:	Bouncing back; teaching; resilience; Primary; Classroom; Froebel; Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education
Item ID:	13697
Depositing User:	IR eTheses
Date Deposited:	30 Nov 2020 16:48
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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