Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T06:23:46.391Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Did that Professional Education about Mental Health Promotion Make Any Difference? Early Childhood Educators’ Reflections upon Changes in Their Knowledge and Practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2013

Helen Askell-Williams  and
Rosalind Murray-Harvey
Helen Askell-Williams*
Affiliation:
Centre for Student Wellbeing and Prevention of Violence, School of Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Rosalind Murray-Harvey
Affiliation:
Centre for Student Wellbeing and Prevention of Violence, School of Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Helen Askell-Williams, School of Education, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Educators are at the heart of educational reforms, such as the introduction of mental health promotion initiatives into early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. Good quality implementation of reforms requires educators to engage in high quality professional learning: If educators have not had opportunities to gain appropriate knowledge and expertise, new initiatives may be poorly implemented and may consequently achieve limited outcomes. This article reports ECEC educators’ perspectives about the impact on their knowledge and practices of the professional education component of the KidsMatter mental health promotion initiative. Educators from 111 ECEC services across Australia contributed a range of types of data, including questionnaires about their knowledge and self-efficacy, feedback about each professional education session, and photo stories about their changed professional practices. Participants indicated that their professional learning led to changed practices in areas such as interpreting children's behaviours, interacting with children, approaching parents, and collaborating with colleagues. Participants’ photo stories illustrate how professional education that focuses on content, active learning, coherence, and collaboration can positively influence knowledge and practices. However, if such gains are to last beyond relatively highly resourced start-up phases of initiatives, professional education needs to integrate with, and draw from, the ongoing availability of other professionals such as guidance and counselling staff, who have complementary knowledge and expertise; be recognised and embedded as a core component of ECEC educators’ roles and their workplace practices; and be culturally and contextually situated. Staff accounts of the impact of their professional learning on their practices can highlight to policy-makers the practical outcomes of strong investments in professional education. Awareness by other professions of the affordances and constraints faced by ECEC educators may contribute to interdisciplinary synergies among the range of professions involved in mental health promotion in educational settings.

Keywords

mental health promotionearly childhoodprofessional learning
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools , Volume 23 , Special Issue 2: Wellbeing and the prevention of violence in young people , December 2013 , pp. 201 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Australian Academic Press Pty Ltd 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, J.R. (1996). ACT: A simple theory of complex cognition. American Psychologist, 51, 355–365. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.51.4.355CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Argyris, C., & Schön, D.A. (1974). Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Askell-Williams, H., & Lawson, M.J. (2011). A framework that builds bridges between teachers’ prior knowledge and mental health promotion in schools. In Shute, R. (Ed.), Mental health and wellbeing: Educational perspectives (pp. 155–164). Adelaide: Shannon Research Press.Google Scholar
Askell-Williams, H., Lawson, M.J., & Slee, P.T. (2009). Venturing into schools: Locating mental health initiatives in complex environments. International Journal of Emotional Education, 1 (2), 14–33.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Biggs, J.B. (1999). What the student does: teaching for enhanced learning. Higher Education Research and Development, 18, 57–75. doi:10.1080/0729436990180105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33 (8), 3–15. doi:10.3102/0013189X033008003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boud, D., & Molloy, E. (Eds.). (2013). Feedback in higher and professional education: Understanding it and doing it well. Milton Park: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., & Cocking, R.R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (Expanded ed.). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P.A. (1998). The ecology of developmental processes. In Damon, W. & Lerner, R.M. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 993–1028). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Cobb, P., Wood, T., & Yackel, E. (1990). Classrooms as learning environments for teachers and researchers. In Davis, R.B.., Maher, C.A. & Noddings, N. (Eds.), Constructivist views on the teaching and learning of mathematics, Journal for Research in Mathematics Education Monograph (pp. 125–146). Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.Google Scholar
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). (2013). Federal policy: Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning Act of 2013. Retrieved July 9, 2013, from http://casel.org/policy-advocacy/federal-policy/Google Scholar
Dall'Alba, G., & Sandberg, J. (2006). Unveiling professional development: A critical review of stage models. Review of Educational Research, 76 (3), 383–412. doi:10.3102/00346543076003383CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Constructing 21st-century teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 57, 300–314. doi:10.1177/0022487105285962CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darling-Hammond, L., & Ball, L. (1998). Teaching for high standards: What policy makers need to know and be able to do. Philadelphia, PA: National Commission on Teaching and America's Future and Consortium for Policy Research in Education.Google Scholar
Darling-Hammond, L., Wei, R.C., Andre, A., Richardson, N., & Orphanos, S. (2009). Professional learning in the learning profession: A status report on teacher development in the United States and abroad. Dallas, TX: National Staff Development CouncilGoogle Scholar
Desimone, L.M. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational Researcher, 38 (3), 181–199. doi:10.3102/0013189X08331140CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desimone, L.M., Porter, A.C., Garet, M.S., Yoon, K., & Birman, B.F. (2002). Effects of professional development on teachers’ instruction: Results from a three-year longitudinal study. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24 (2), 81–112. doi:10.3102/01623737024002081CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durlak, J.A., Weissberg, R.P., Dymnicki, A.B., Taylor, R.D., & Schellinger, K.B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82, 405–432. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fenstermacher, G.D., & Richardson, V. (2005). On making determinations of quality in teaching. Teachers College Record, 107, 186–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graetz, B., Littlefield, L., Trinder, M., Dobia, B., Souter, M., Champion, C.,. . .Cummins, R. (2008). KidsMatter: A population health model to support student mental health and well-being in primary schools. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 10 (4), 13–20. doi:10.1080/14623730.2008.9721772CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossman, P.L. (1995). Teachers’ knowledge. In Anderson, L.W. (Ed.), International encyclopedia of teaching and teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 20–24). Tarrytown, NY: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Kaplan, A. (1964). The conduct of inquiry: Methodology for behavioral science. San Francisco: Chandler for Science Research Associates.Google Scholar
KidsMatter. (2012). KidsMatter: Growing healthy minds. Retrieved February 1, 2013, from http://www.kidsmatter.edu.auGoogle Scholar
KidsMatter Early Childhood (KMEC). (2012). KidsMatter Early Childhood: Mental health matters in early childhood. Retrieved March 31, 2013, from http://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/ec/Google Scholar
Little, J.W. (1993). Teachers’ professional development in a climate of educational reform. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15 (2), 129–151.Google Scholar
Meiers, M., & Ingvarson, L. (2005). Investigating the links between teacher professional development and student learning outcomes. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Government Quality Teacher Program and Australian Council for Educational Research.Google Scholar
MindMatters. (2010). Leading mental health and wellbeing. Retrieved March 31, 2013, from http://www.mindmatters.edu.auGoogle Scholar
Nuthall, G. (1997). Understanding student thinking and learning in the classroom. In Biddle, B.J., Good, T.L. & Goodson, I. (Eds.), International handbook of teachers and teaching (vol. 2, pp. 681–768). Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Opfer, V.D., & Pedder, D. (2011). Conceptualizing teacher professional learning. Review of Educational Research, 81, 376. doi:10.3102/0034654311413609CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Productivity Commission. (2011). Early childhood development workforce report. Melbourne, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Richardson, V. (1996). The role of attitudes and beliefs in learning to teach. In Sikula, J. (Ed.), Handbook of research on teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 102–119). New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Rowling, L. (2007). School mental health: Politics, power and practice. Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 1 (1), 23–31. doi:10.1080/1754730X.2008.9715742CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schön, D.A. (1988). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Shulman, L.S. (1986a). Paradigms and research programs in the study of teaching: A contemporary perspective. In Wittrock, M.C. (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3rd ed., pp. 3–36). New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Shulman, L.S. (1986b). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15 (2), 4–14. doi: 10.3102/0013189X015002004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shulman, L.S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of a new reform. Harvard Education Review, 57, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shulman, L.S. (2000). Teacher development: Roles of domain expertise and pedagogical knowledge. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 21, 129–135. doi:10.1016/S0193-3973(99)00057-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skaalvik, E.M., & Skaalvik, S. (2007). Dimensions of teacher self-efficacy and relations with strain factors, perceived collective teacher efficacy, and teacher burnout. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99 (3), 611–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slee, P.T., Lawson, M.J., Russell, A., Askell-Williams, H., Dix, K.L., Owens, L.,. . .Spears, B. (2009). KidsMatter primary evaluation final report. Retrieved May 18, 2013, from www.kidsmatter.edu.auGoogle Scholar
Slee, P.T., Murray-Harvey, R., Dix, K.L., Skrzypiec, G., Askell-Williams, H., Lawson, M.J., & Krieg, S. (2012). KidsMatter early childhood evaluation. Retrieved May 18, 2013, from www.kidsmatter.edu.auGoogle Scholar
Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood (SCSEEC). (2012). The early childhood education and care workforce strategy for Australia 2012–2016. Melbourne, Australia: Education Services Australia.Google Scholar
Weare, K., & Nind, M. (2011). Mental health promotion and problem prevention in schools: What does the evidence say? Health Promotion International, 26(Suppl. 1), i29–i69. doi:10.1093/heapro/dar075CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (WHO). (2011). Mental health: strengthening mental health promotion. Retrieved March 31, 2013, from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs220/en/Google Scholar