TEEN HEALTH Published December5, 2014 By Staff Reporter

School Connectedness an Important Protective Factor for the Youth— CDC and HHS

Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week!

community
(Photo : Pixabay)

The Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are working to increase protective factors among the youth. One of these strategies is school connectedness, wherein a sound environment is created and maintained to facilitate healthy development of adolescents and children.

School connectedness is defined as "the belief by students that adults and peers in the school care about their learning as well as about them as individuals".

The CDC and HHS believe that one strategy to foster school connectedness is to provide professional development and support for  teachers and other school staff to  enable them to  meet the  diverse cognitive, emotional, and social needs of children and adolescents.

Here are some ways to put this into action.

a. Employ teachers who have been trained in child development, and demonstrate effective implementation of student-centered pedagogy, a variety of classroom  management techniques, and  teaching methods  (e.g.,  cooperative learning).

b. Offer professional development on ways to organize and  structure the classroom  to promote a positive environment.  Developmentally appropriate discipline  strategies  emphasize positive behaviors and  values and  assist students in developing self-control.

c. Educate  school staff on strategies  to effectively involve parents  in their children's school life. Important skills include how to establish regular communication,  communicate  effectively with parents  from diverse cultures, conduct effective  parent-teacher- student conferences, involve parents  in homework assignments, and  organize classroom  events that engage parents.

d.   Provide training on all curricula the school plans to use, as well as effective teaching methods (e.g., cooperative learning, active learning), to maximize the curricula's effectiveness.  Ensure that teachers have the necessary materials, time, resources, and support to effectively use the skills learned in training.

e.   Enable teachers to learn from each  other by building learning  teams to observe  experienced teachers applying effective classroom  management techniques and  facilitating group  work in a way that values students' thoughts and  opinions.

f.    Develop a coaching or mentoring program for teachers. Pairing teachers  in this manner  allows them to solve problems  at school,  share  teaching techniques  and  classroom  management strategies, and  create  a supportive  work environment.

Source: CDC and HHS 

Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week!

send email twitt facebook google plus reddit comment 0

©2014 YouthsHealthMag.com. All Rights Reserved.

Real Time Analytics