Promoting Positive Life Outcomes for Children and Youth Who Struggle in School

Educators are challenged to meet the needs of children and youth who are vulnerable in learning and in life. When teachers are asked to describe the challenges these children face, they usually refer to skills such as problems paying attention, following directions, working well with others, coping with challenges, and adapting to complex environments. These skills are associated with self-regulation. Children who struggle with self-regulatory processes may find it hard to feel successful at learning and connected to school and their communities. Some groups of learners are more vulnerable with respect to developing self-regulation than others (e.g., children with learning disabilities, emotional and behaviour problems, and children who live with severe adversity, such as economic or familial stress).

Fortunately, research shows how self-regulation is malleable and can be supported in academic and non-academic contexts. This project examines ways to:

· Support children’s development of self-regulation for learning and living

· Help teachers and other caregivers to support self-regulation and self-determination through their instructional and interpersonal interactions with school-aged children.

In this project we are using participatory frameworks, in which teachers and researchers engage in collaborative inquiry processes, and children construct data using photo-elicitation strategies. As a result, we exchange knowledge whereby teachers receive guided and sustained support for professional learning, children use their voices to talk about their learning experiences, and researchers have opportunities to test theories and learn “what works” in “real life” laboratories.

From 2014 to 2017 we worked in an afterschool music program. We were specifically interested in understanding how this program meets the learning, social, and emotional needs of children and youth attending it.