People First, Students Second: Addressing Well-Being to Overcome Adversity

Introduction

The L.E.A.D. program involves teacher candidates collaborating with schools in the delivery of leadership programming for at-risk youth (Salinitri & Essery, 2014). Compulsory to their learning throughout the program, teacher candidates experience case studies of teaching scenarios; they also learn about various topics regarding support for at-risk students' well-being, including mental health, restorative practices, and mindfulness. The present chapter presents an additional intervention for supporting at-risk youths’ overall wellness which could be integrated within a L.E.A.D. practice, and also integrated into regular instruction for any educator.

Children with low performance in literacy are at risk of low academic performance throughout their learning journey (Sonnenschein, Stalpeton, & Benson, 2010). Low academic readiness is shown to be related to poor behavioural self-regulation, prosocial skills, focus, and other learning-related skills (Howse, Calkins, Anastopoulos, Keane, & Shelton, 2003). Previous researchers showed that academically at-risk first graders experienced enhanced academic achievement from interventions targeting social skills and self-regulatory behaviour (e.g., Cerda, Im, & Hughes, 2014; Weed, Keogh, Borkowski, Whitman, & Noria, 2011). Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, and Schellinger (2011) reported, in a meta-analysis of social emotional learning programs, that skills, attitudes, academic performance, and social behaviours in adolescents and youth improved because of these interventions. Whetstone, Gillmor, and Schuster (2015) reported positive changes to high school students’ behaviour, attitude, social interaction, and academics when they received a metacognitive strategy intervention targeting social and emotional learning principles. Gresham (2015) examined the literature regarding children and youth at risk for emotional and behavioural disorders, noting that such interventions are effective for this population, enhancing social skills and academic achievement.

Interventions targeting study habits of students, and self-regulated learning, in college also positively affected academic achievement in college students (e.g., Ye, Shuniak, Oueini, Robert, & Lewis, 2016; Zimmerman, Moylan, Hudesman, White, & Flugman, 2011). Self-regulated learning is conceptualized as the incorporation of both metacognition (i.e., “thinking about thinking”; Flavell, 1979) and self-regulation (Dinsmore, Alexander & Loughlin, 2008). Recently, a model for metaemotion which mirrors metacognition has been constructed (Norman & Furnes, 2016).

No known intervention targeting the development of both metacognition and metaemotion was located within the literature. Hinton and Fischer (2010) demonstrated that emotion and cognition are entangled activities within the brain. An argument is therefore made that interventions which simultaneously target both metaemotional and metacognitive skills may provide complimentary effects on academic achievement for at-risk students. Youth face challenges in every part of their lives; these challenges may result in emotional or psychological harm (Geldard, 2009). This chapter offers a wholistic approach following models of wellness (e.g., Hettler, 1980); these models focus on an overall state of being for an individual. An individual’s overall wellness is defined as the equal treatment of six wellness dimensions to affect the whole person positively; these dimensions are: physical, emotional, social, intellectual, occupational, and spiritual (Hettler, 1980). The purpose of the present chapter is to define and describe an intervention applying metaemotional and metacognitive skills for a scaffolded approach to wellness based on Alderfer's (1969) existence, relatedness, and growth theory of needs. Hypothetical case studies are included to illustrate the process and the potential benefits of applying this intervention with at-risk learners. Limitations and recommendations for future research are included.