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Current Thinking in Mental Health & Wellbeing in Schools - EDU00103M

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  • Department: Education
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Nathalie Noret
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

This module will advance your critical understanding of psychological and neurobiological determinants of mental health and wellbeing in children and adolescents in relation to educational policy from an applied perspective. The module will mostly consist of guest lectures delivered by mental health practitioners and educational professionals presenting their perspectives and experience of developing, delivering and evaluating mental health and wellbeing interventions in schools.

Professional requirements

none

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Spring Term 2022-23

Module aims

This module aims to advance your critical understanding of developmental psychological and neurobiological determinants of mental health and wellbeing in children and adolescents in relation to educational policy from an applied perspective. The module will expand your critical knowledge and analytical skills by engaging with targeted specific topics in mental health and wellbeing via guest lectures delivered by mental health practitioners and educational professionals. You will gain critical insights into the complexities, often including inter-agency collaborations, and practical challenges in formulating, delivering and evaluating mental health and wellbeing strategies and provisions in schools. In addition, you will acquire a range of transferable skills in assimilating information from different sources and developing your own perspective on it, formulating reasoned arguments, analysing and synthesising research evidence and policy information from different sources, and developing effective communication, literature search and digital literacy skills.

Module learning outcomes

At the end of this module:

1. You will have expanded the scope of your critical review of the evidence base on mental health and wellbeing in schools.

2. You will develop in in-depth knowledge of relevant policy applied in educational practice in relation to research on mental health and wellbeing.

3. You will confidently, critically and effectively communicate the complexities of policy, practice and research to a range of audiences.

4. You will be able to further build on practical examples of mental health and wellbeing policy and interventions in schools in formulating innovative strategies and interventions in education.

5. You will have gained advanced background knowledge on policy, research and practice needed for effective engaging in complex collaborative work with researchers, policy makers and teachers in schools.

Module content

The following provides an indicative list of session content for the module:

Week 2 - Risks and protective factors of mental health and wellbeing in early childhood

Week 3 - Early interventions targeting mental health and wellbeing in schools - Research, policy and implementation issues

Week 4 - Parenting interventions in early years

Week 5 - School readiness from a mental health and wellbeing perspective - Integrating research, policy and practice

Week 6 - Assessing mental health and wellbeing in schools

Week 7 - Clinical psychologist perspectives on mental health and wellbeing childhood

Week 8 - Mental health and wellbeing during transition from primary to secondary schools

Week 9 - Risk behaviours and mental health and wellbeing interventions in secondary schools

Week 10 - Mental health and wellbeing during transition from secondary schools into employment and in sixth form.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
3000 word provision proposal		 N/A 70
Essay/coursework
Case study		 N/A 30

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
3000 word provision proposal		 N/A 70
Essay/coursework
Case study		 N/A 30

Module feedback

Written feedback on assignment report sheet and face-to-face feedback in supervisions. The feedback is returned to students in line with university policy. Please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

Indicative reading

Weare, K. (2015). What works in promoting social and emotional well-being and responding to mental health problems in schools. London: National Children’s Bureau.

Cook, C. R., Frye, M., Slemrod, T., Lyon, A. R., Renshaw, T. L., & Zhang, Y. (2015). An integrated approach to universal prevention: Independent and combined effects of PBIS and SEL on youths’ mental health. School Psychology Quarterly, 30(2), 166.

Britto, P. R., Lye, S. J., Proulx, K., Yousafzai, A. K., Matthews, S. G., Vaivada, T., ... & MacMillan, H. (2017). Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development. The Lancet, 389(10064), 91-102.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.