Implementing Trauma-Informed Teaching Principles

As the last year has left many of us feeling more tired or anxious than usual, it’s important to remember that our students are most likely feeling this way too. Some students may be feeling more isolated, some may be angry or stressed seeing racial injustices brought to light, others are suffering due to the loss of friends or family members as a result of COVID 19. The research on how people learn shows that these experiences and feelings affect our classrooms and should not be ignored. During this time of physical, social, and emotional fatigue, it is helpful to more deeply consider the impact of trauma on learning.

What is trauma?

The American Psychiatric Association defines trauma as “an emotional response to a terrible event” such as exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, sexual violence, or a natural disaster.

Of course, past trauma can affect us and our students at any time, but during this pandemic, the effects of trauma have been exacerbated for many. While most faculty understand how trauma can impact individuals, we may not always consider how trauma may be influencing students’ cognitive, social, behavioral, and physical functioning within our classes.

What does trauma have to do with learning?

Trauma can manifest in class and during office hours in many different ways. For example, the impact of trauma in class can look like:

• inappropriate sharing or crossing personal boundaries;
• emotional responses or outbursts not typically accepted as professional behavior;
• rigid thinking or cognitive inflexibility; and
• a loss of self-agency and coping strategies.

It is important to be aware that oppression, such as racism can also impact students both psychologically and physically, resulting in challenges that range from difficulty focusing, feelings of helplessness, chronic stress, apathy, hyper-vigilance, even headaches and loss of sleep.

What teaching strategies help address the impact of trauma on learning?

Faculty are not therapists or counselors, nor should they be. However, within our scope of practice there are several strategies that we can employ, here are a few:

• Be aware of and manage our own response to trauma so we don’t negatively impact class dynamics.
• Acknowledge, normalize, and discuss difficult topics, but whenever possible provide advance warning prior to exposing students to topics that may trigger past trauma.
• Create class routines and rituals. For example, be clear about our goals, be consistent about our expectations, and create structure within the learning experience.
• Conduct regular check-ins with students to determine how they are doing, make adjustments or add support as needed, or simply remind them that you care about their success.
• Get students involved in the learning process by providing them with choices in their assignments or experiences when possible. Choices support a sense of autonomy.
• Respect one another’s diverse experiences and identities and recognize that each student may be going through something different at this time, don’t assume to know exactly what that is.
• Recognize our individual and collective strength and resilience. Use hopeful and optimistic language, laugh when you can and make a point to celebrate what was done well--especially in this challenging time.

If a student’s behavior is proving detrimental to themselves or other students in your class, it is important to speak to that student privately to empathetically express concern about their behavior and attempt to find workable strategies so they do not impact the functioning of your class. Although before meeting with a student it's a good idea to remind them that you are a mandatory reporter and what that means.

In these situations, it’s usually good to start by validating our students feelings and expressing empathy. Rather than simply providing advice, it’s important to help our students reflect on their behavior and build confidence that they can handle difficult experiences. For example, asking questions such as “what supports or resources have helped you in the past?” “is there someone you can talk to about this?” or simply “what can you do to make things easier on yourself today?” can help to empower the student to address the situation. Of course in all cases, it’s important to remind students of the additional counseling services available to them as members of the Drexel community.