Using Classroom Pedagogy to Promote Mental Health in Secondary School Setting
Using Classroom Pedagogy to Promote Mental Health in Secondary School Setting

Author(s): Madhuvanti Mukherjee, Priyanka Ghosh, Indrani Banerjee
Subject(s): Psychology, School education, Health and medicine and law, Pedagogy
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: school-based intervention; alienation; literacy; in-school support services; education;
Summary/Abstract: The developed curricula covered subjects like mental-health awareness, support systems, stigma, and/or discrimination. Each lesson provided students with a general overview of mental health facts and strategies for stigma identification. Qualitative measures were also utilized. We conducted semistructured interviews with staff, peer educators, and parents in India. The interviews, lasting between 30-75 minutes, were audio-recorded and transcribed. Furthermore, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQs) were completed by the parents and teachers of students who accessed the curricula. In the SDQs, parents reported steady increases in their children’s social engagement levels throughout the course of the trial. They also reported steady declines in their children’s emotional, attention, behavioral, and social difficulties. Teachers and parents also noticed a positive rise in their children’s kind and helpful behavior following their interaction with and usage of the classroom curricula. Without exception, every interviewee reported that they had noticed an increase in general wellbeing, either in their child, themselves, or in the school overall. Teachers discussed how the curricula “encouraged students to participate more in class” and “interact more with the material”. Following the implementation of the curricula in classrooms, parents and administrators noticed that their children were ‘calmer’, ‘more confident’, and ‘more focused on their learning’. Further development of this syllabi is needed to implement it on a large scale. However, this project has shown that classroom intervention has the potential to transform school culture into an environment where children can learn and achieve, irrespective of any social, emotional, or behavioral challenges they may face. We recommend the utilization of a curriculum of this nature in schools to stimulate students’ social engagement and raise awareness of mental health issues common to children and young adults.

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