7 Principles of Trauma-Informed Teaching 

Carello (2022) shares seven principles of Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning. Click on each principle below to view a short-minute video with quick tips on how you can incorporate that principle into your instruction. Stay tuned for more videos to come!

  1. Safety: Create an environment that respects all individuals and helps them feel safe enough to take risks and learn from mistakes.   
  2. Trustworthiness & Transparency: Make expectations clear, ensure consistency in practice, maintain appropriate boundaries, and minimize disappointment.  
  3. Support & Connection: Connect students with appropriate peer and professional resources to support academic, personal, and professional success.  
  4. Collaboration & Mutuality: Act as an ally rather than as an adversary. Create opportunities to share power and make decisions.  
  5. Empowerment, Voice, and Choice: Build in opportunities to make choices, be heard, and build skills to communicate confidently and assertively.  
  6. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Strive to be aware of and responsive to issues of privilege and power. Respect one another’s diverse experiences, perspectives, and identities.  
  7. Resilience, Growth & Change: Recognize strengths, build resilience, and provide feedback to help each other grow and change. 

References:
Carello, J. (2022, February 9). Using Trauma-Informed Principles to Support College Students in Distress.

Principle 1: Safety

Introduction
Safety is a crucial foundational principle for instruction.
Research demonstrates that feelings of physical and psychological safety are a prerequisite for the brain to learn effectively (Bernard, 2010). When under threat, the brain reverts to survival mode. When calm and relaxed, the brain is more open and receptive to new information. This is especially true for those who are experiencing the effects of trauma (Ham, 2017).
Here are 8 quick tips for instructors to build a sense of safety. View the video below for more details on each tip.

  1. Build relationships first
  2. Set community guidelines
  3. Make disclosure safe
  4. Adopt an authoritative teaching style
  5. Provide seating options
  6. Consider safety in virtual settings too
  7. Design assessments with safety in mind
  8. Be sensitive with sensitive content
  9. Use the platinum rule

Video

References

  • Bernard, S. (2010, December 1). To enable learning, put (emotional) safety first. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/neuroscience-brain-based-learning-emotional-safety
  • Ham, J. [Jacob Ham] (2017, July 25). Understanding Trauma: Learning Brain vs. Survival Brain [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoqaUANGvpA

Principle 2: Trustworthiness and Transparency

Introduction
For some who are experiencing the effects of trauma, it may be more difficult for them to trust others. These students may be confused about who and what are safe, and the support systems we offer may even appear dangerous (International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, 2016).

In general, instructors can alleviate this stress and allow students to learn more effectively by making expectations clear, keeping consistent policies, maintaining appropriate boundaries, and minimizing the chances of disappointment.

Here are 7 quick tips for instructors to increase trustworthiness and transparency. View the video below for more details on each tip:

  • Create fair policies and stick to them
  • Make your policies clear
  • Provide models for assignments
  • Grade with rubrics
  • Avoid grading surprises
  • Communicate your work schedule
  • Be responsive

Video

References

  • Carello, J. (2022, February 9). Using trauma-informed principles to support college students in distress.
  • Darby, F., & Lang, J. M. (2019). Small teaching online: Applying learning science in online classes. John Wiley & Sons.
  • International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. (2016). Trauma and Relationships. https://istss.org/ISTSS_Main/media/Documents/ISTSS_TraumaAndRelationships_FNL.pdf
  • Pate, A. N., Fleming, L., Jones-Bodie, A., Wagner, J. L., Fleming, J. W., Davis, C., & Brown, M. A. (2022). Impact of Communication Method and Timeliness on Student and Faculty Perception of Professionalism and Value. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 86(2), ajpe8391. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe8391

More about rubrics: https://mcblogs.montgomerycollege.edu/thehub/fundamentals-of-teaching/multiple-levels-of-assessment/rubrics/

Principle 3: Support and Connection

Introduction
When we apply the principle of support and connection to our teaching, we focus on connecting students with appropriate peer and professional resources to support academic, personal and professional success. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, define school connectedness as students’ feeling that “adults and peers in school care about their learning as well as about them as individuals.” They cite research showing that connectedness decreases the likelihood of poor mental health, sexual health risks, substance abuse and violence and that the effects are long-lasting (2022). Research has also demonstrated a positive correlation between a sense of school belonging and students’ academic achievement (Korpershoek et al., 2020).

Watch this video for tips on how instructors can increase a sense of support and connectedness for students in the classroom. The second half of the video also gives a brief overview of the many academic, personal, and career support resources that the college offers.

Video

References

  • Carello, J. (2022, February 9). Using trauma-informed principles to support college students in distress.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, September 22). School Connectedness: Strategies for Increasing Protective Factors Among Youth. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/protective/school_connectedness.htm
  • H. Korpershoek, E. T. Canrinus, M. Fokkens-Bruinsma & H. de Boer (2020) The relationships between school belonging and students’ motivational, social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes in secondary education: a meta-analytic review, Research Papers in Education, 35:6, 641-680, DOI: 10.1080/02671522.2019.1615116

Principle 4: Collaboration and Mutuality

Introduction
In the midst of working through papers and dealing with strict attendance policies, instructors and students can sometimes feel as if they are enemies competing against each other. A simple shift in mindset, however, reminds us that instructors and students are in fact allies rather than adversaries and that both share the goal of meeting learning outcomes. Particularly when trauma is involved, taking a more collaborative, more egalitarian approach to your teaching in which power and decision making are shared can have great benefits for learning.

Here are 8 quick tips for instructors to increase collaboration and mutuality. View the video below for more details on each tip:

  1. Reflect on your teaching philosophy
  2. Talk to students as if they are your future colleagues
  3. Invite student input on course decisions
  4. Tell students why
  5. Learn from your students
  6. Learn and explore with your students
  7. Involve students in grading
  8. Ask how you can help your students to learn

Video

References:

  • Carello, J. (2022, February 9). Using trauma-informed principles to support college students in distress.
  • Hanstedt, P. (2020). Wicked teaching. West Virginia University Press.

Principle 5: Empowerment, Voice, and Choice

Introduction
For some students, the experience of trauma can create a sense of helplessness (Lancer, 2021). These students may rely on their ability to control their environments and activities in order to feel a sense of safety. The more helpless or incompetent a student feels, the more their behavior and engagement may deteriorate (Wolpow et al., 2009). Keeping this in mind, trauma-informed educators seek to offer empowerment, voice, and choice to their students. They build in opportunities for learners to make choices, be heard, build skills, and develop confidence and competence (Carello, 2022).

Here are six quick tips for instructors to increase empowerment, voice, and choice in your teaching:

  1. Clarify your limits
  2. Offer choices whenever possible
  3. Teach metacognitive strategies
  4. Empower learners with active and experiential learning
  5. Vary group sizes and communication contexts
  6. Invite questions, concerns, and complaints

Video

References

  • CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. http://udlguidelines.cast.org
  • Lancer, D. (2021, June 1). How trauma can rob us of our power and make us feel helpless. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/toxic-relationships/202106/how-trauma-can-rob-us-our-power-and-makes-us-feel-helpless
  • Wilson, D & Conyers, M. (2014, Oct 7). Metacognition: The gift that keeps giving. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/metacognition-gift-that-keeps-giving-donna-wilson-marcus-conyers
  • Wolpow, R., Johnson, M. M., Hertel, R., & Kincaid, S. O. (2009). The heart of learning and teaching: Compassion, resiliency, and academic success. https://rems.ed.gov/docs/ospi_theheartoflearningandteaching.pdf

 

Principle 6: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

 Introduction 

Female students. LGBTQ+ students. Students of color. Students with physical or intellectual disabilities. Students with refugee or immigrant backgrounds. Students who have experienced mental illness, economic stress, or homelessness. These are not only some examples of the diverse characteristics present in Montgomery College classrooms, but they are also examples of specific populations who may be disproportionately exposed to potentially traumatic events such as physical hardship, violence, historical trauma, or discrimination. Part of trauma-informed teaching is to both avoid retraumatizing students through further discrimination and to make sure classrooms are as inclusive and welcoming as possible. According to Carello, this involves, “striving to be aware of and responsive to issues of privilege and power and respecting one another’s diverse experiences, perspectives, and identities.”   

Here are 7 quick tips to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in your classroom: 

  1. Diversify your content 
  2. Use students’ preferred names and pronouns 
  3. Make materials accessible 
  4. Allow space for linguistic diversity 
  5. Use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to reach all learners 
  6. Address stereotypes, biases, and microaggressions 
  7. Educate yourself 

Video

References 

Resources 

 

Principle 7: Resilience, Growth, and Change 

Introduction 

Trauma is not destiny. When we experience trauma, it does not define or confine us in any permanent way. Rather, we as humans have the capacity to adapt and recover, grow, and change for the better. Resilience has even been described as the “antidote” to trauma (Black, P., Henderson-Smith, L., & Flinspach, S., 2021) and one that teachers can and should help to foster in their students. This final principle guides us to see beyond the trauma, to recognize strengths and resilience and provide feedback to help each other grow and change. 

Here are seven quick tips for instructors to foster resilience, growth, and change: 

  1. Help students to set goals. 
  2. Adopt a growth mindset. 
  3. Use drafts and redos. 
  4. Coach students on exactly how to do better. 
  5. Give positive feedback too. 
  6. End your semester with a cumulative project. 
  7. Demonstrate resilience, growth, and change in yourself.  

Video 

References 

Resource:  

 

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