​CURRICULUM

We developed a methodology for a training program that included the following components:

• ​ Developing Professional Development (PD) sessions for all staff focusing on:
  • Reviewing and deepening staff’s understanding of brain development in students with history of trauma,
  • Building relational skills,
  • Adapting attachment theory to classroom setting,
  • Creating a culture of compassion,
  • Learning specific classroom interventions geared towards reducing the effects of trauma and increasing student interest in learning,
  • Managing challenging behavior commonly exhibited by the student with a history of trauma, and
  • Addressing self-care for educators.
• Providing staff member's opportunities for individual coaching, direct observations, and feedback from Trauma Trainers and Occupational Therapists (OT) regarding building-wide and classroom focused implementation of strategies.
• Utilizing a modified version of curriculum: The Heart of Teaching and Learning Compassion, Resiliency, and Academic Success (Wolpow, R., et.al., 2009).
• Conducting pre and post focus groups with students and with staff.
• Distributing and analyzing pre and post-staff surveys.
  • ​Professional Quality of Life (ProQol) by Beth Hudnall Stamm
  • Self Assessment of Classroom Management by Sandy Washburn
  • Mindful Self-Care Scale by Catherine B. Cook-Cottone
  • Trauma-Informed Self-Assessment of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities by Lori Vanderwill, Angelique Day, and Beverly Baroni
• Distributing and analyzing pre and post student surveys; measures include
  • Student Needs Survey (also used in Ferris Progress Towards Treatment Goals) by Matthew Burns, Diane Vance, et al.
  • Child Report of Post Traumatic Symptoms (CROPS) by Ricky Greenwald and Allen Rubin
  • Rosenberg Self Esteem (RES) by Morris Rosenberg
  • Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale by Cheryl Somers
  • Internal Locus of Control
  • The Empathy Questionnaire by Research Collaboration
  • General Self-Efficacy Scale by Ralf Schwarzer and Matthias Jerusalem
  • Teamwork Scale for Youth by Dawn Anderson-Butcher, Tarkington Newman, & Leeann Lower
  • The Panorama Student Survey by Dr. Hunter Gehlbach and team
• Debriefing continuously with and among:
  • Trauma Trainers,
  • Occupational Therapists,
  • Wayne State University research team,
  • Staff,  and
  • Students.

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A modified version of The Heart of Teaching and Learning: Compassion, Resiliency, and Academic Success (HTL) was the primary intervention. HTL is an integrated, manualized curriculum founded on research, theory, and clinical practice and is grounded in ecological and attachment theories applied using psycho-educational, cognitive-behavioral, and relational approaches. It was designed for use in a variety of education settings, residential and nonresidential, including public schools, charter schools, and private education authorities. 

There were six modules in the modified Trauma-Informed Teaching curriculum:

1. background and definitions of trauma
2. compassionate schools and survival
3. self-care
4. curriculum domains and specific strategies (Wolpow et al., 2009)
5. collaborative problem solving (Greene & Ablon, 2006)
6. role plays, games, and case vignettes.

​

To ensure fidelity of intervention implementation, this modified HTL curriculum training was followed by a series of classroom observations and individual coaching by a therapist certified in trauma and attachment. Performance observation assured fidelity to the model. Group training sessions were followed by meetings with the staff and consultant. ​

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