An estimated 75% of Australians will experience a potentially traumatic event at some point in their lives and 1 in 5 have experienced childhood trauma (ABS, 2021-22). At TAFE NSW this means that, every year, around 86,000 of our 430,000 students may be impacted by childhood trauma.
Trauma can affect brain development, memory, concentration, relationships, physical health and emotion regulation; with attendant effects on learning capacity, performance, behaviour, attendance, and retention rates (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2016; Australian Childhood Foundation, 2018; Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, 2020).
The TAFE Digital Community Services Teaching Section is exploring ways to integrate Trauma-Informed Practice to enhance student learning and wellbeing. Strategies include simple self-soothing skills, following a predictable and patterned structure, use of sound and imagery to enhance safety, use of staged learning process and repetition, and collaboration with TAFE student support services. This initiative has also considered ways to implement the Australian Childhood Foundation’s ‘Making SPACE for Learning’ guide in an online learning space.
Student feedback found that 100% of participants considered the sessions to be highly useful, 80% said their ability to use a self-soothing strategy had greatly increased, and 100% reported they were highly likely to use a self-soothing strategy when feeling distressed.
The team is now exploring ways to apply these approaches across learner cohorts and in the staffing/team environment, including the potential to adapt, and share existing resources to support scaling across a Teaching Section or Team.
Intended outcomes of this interactive session include: