¾«¶«´«Ã½app

Staffing

Examiner:

Other requisites

Students will require access to e-mail and have internet access to U Connect for this course.

Rationale

Teachers today are faced with an increasingly diverse student population with a variety of academic and behavioural strengths and challenges. It is becoming increasingly recognised that teachers need specific knowledge and skills in behaviour management to respond effectively to the behaviour challenges posed by an increasingly diverse student population. Of particular concern are those students demonstrating ongoing, serious disruptive behaviour as the result of trauma. Research suggests that the number of children affected by trauma has increased and so too has the severity of the traumatic event (Cafcass; Donnelly, 2013). With estimates in excess of 25% of children and adolescents in the community having experienced at least one potentially traumatic event during their lifetime (Black et al., 2012; Crosby, 2015) it is essential that educators have the knowledge and skills to interact positively with traumatised children to assist them to receive appropriate intervention and achieve better educational outcomes. Drawing from the fields of psychology and neuroscience, evidence-based practice assists educators to recognise the impact of trauma and to provide effective trauma informed positive behaviour support, for our children in greatest need of our understanding and care.

Synopsis

In this course educators in both regular and special education early childhood, primary and secondary learning contexts will explore ways to think differently about and respond to, challenging student behaviours due to trauma drawing from the fields of psychology and neuroscience. The course has as its major focus the essential knowledge and skills necessary for educators to: 1. understand the needs of traumatised children and the impact that trauma may have on the behaviour of children; 2. create and sustain safe and supportive learning environments; 3. manage serious, disruptive student behaviour; 4. utilise evidence-based strategies to effectively manage, intervene and support students who have experienced trauma; 5. develop positive, secure relationships with traumatised students and collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders within and beyond the school setting; 6. recognise appropriate interventions including consideration of levels of traumatic response, implementation and evaluation. Knowledge acquisition targeted at trauma informed positive behaviour support practices focused on understanding and care, in conjunction with associated theoretical underpinnings, will enable educators to decrease the serious, disruptive behaviours of concern by recognising the unique needs and capabilities of children who are victims of trauma.

Objectives

Topics

Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed

Reference materials

Student workload expectations

Assessment details

Important assessment information

1. Attendance requirements:
   
   There are no attendance requirements for this course. However, it is the students’ responsibility to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration.
   
   
2. Requirements for students to complete each assessment item satisfactorily:
   
   To satisfactorily complete an individual assessment item a student must achieve at least 50% of the marks for that item.
   
   
3. Penalties for late submission of required work:
   
   Students should refer to the Assessment Procedure (point 4.2.4)
   
   
4. Requirements for student to be awarded a passing grade in the course:
   
   To be assured of receiving a passing grade a student must achieve at least 50% of the total weighted marks available for the course.
   
   
5. Method used to combine assessment results to attain final grade:
   
   The final grades for students will be assigned on the basis of the aggregate of the weighted marks obtained for each of the summative items for the course.
   
   
6. Examination information:
   
   There is no examination in this course.
   
   
7. Examination period when Deferred/Supplementary examinations will be held:
   
   There is no examination in this course, there will be no deferred or supplementary examinations.
   
   
8. ¾«¶«´«Ã½app Student Policies:
   
   Students should read the USQ policies: Definitions, Assessment and Student Academic Misconduct to avoid actions which might contravene ¾«¶«´«Ã½app policies and practices. These policies can be found at .
   
   

Assessment notes

1. Referencing in assignments must comply with the APA referencing system. This system should be used by students to format details of the information sources they have cited in their work. The APA style to be used is defined by the USQ library's referencing guide. This guide can be found at .
   
   

Evaluation and benchmarking

In meeting the ¾«¶«´«Ã½app’s aims to establish quality learning and teaching for all programs, this course monitors and ensures quality assurance and improvements in at least two ways. This course:
1. conforms to the USQ Policy on Evaluation of Teaching, Courses and Programs to ensure ongoing monitoring and systematic improvement.
2. forms part of the Master of Education and is benchmarked against the:

1. internal USQ accreditation/reaccreditation processes which include (i) stringent standards in the independent accreditation of its academic programs, (ii) close integration between business and academic planning, and (iii) regular and rigorous review.

Other requirements

1. 1. Computer, e-mail and Internet access:
   Students are required to have access to a personal computer, e-mail capabilities and Internet access to UConnect. Current details of computer requirements can be found at .