Maslow’s Before Bloom’s : A New Perspective to Lead

 

Maslow’s Before Bloom’s

A New Perspective to Lead

After Pandemic the scenario around the globe has been changed and we are enter into a new era of education. Now the old school structures are not supportive anymore to our current situation. As teacher leaders it’s time to shift our paradigm from old to new practices. More detail and in depth study is required for further improvement in education sector. Learners now in state of mind where they need more social emotional support ever before. “Maslow before Bloom”—we hear it all the time. An idea that educators should meet students’ basic needs for safety and belonging before turning to challenging academic tasks is one that guides the work of many schools.

If we search deeper for developing more understanding we as teachers need to work really hard to work on relationship with learners before we touch the academic side, we need to focus on making our environment more safe and secure for learners. If they feel safe they will be able to focus on learning. Here I want to discuss Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory which provide us platform for designing our learning environments. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid.

As Maslow explain different levels of need which every human needed to carry on with its life more effectively in better way. He describes 5 levels of needs which are necessary for humans to spend their life effectively. During the time of covid 19 we can use Maslow’s theory by finding answers of these questions which are:

Physiological:

 Are our students basic needs being met, such as food, water and sleep?

Safety:

Do our students and their families feel safe and secure from Covid 19?

Love and Belonging:

Do our students feel a sense of belonging to their family, friends, class, school and community?

Esteem:

How is our students’ self-esteem, do they have confidence to face challenges?

Self-Actualization:

Now our students can meet their full potential.

 

Let’s explore how we can address these questions

How we begin a day?

When students are working at home, we can create a short daily video to say hello, or use a tool like Zoom—which has a virtual waiting room feature—to queue kids up and then welcome them to class one by one. Alternately, you can adapt the 5x5 strategy—in which a teacher spends 25 minutes talking to five students for five minutes each—using the phone or video meetings via Zoom or Google Meet. Once students are in classroom, taking a few more minutes for non-academic chat involving all students can build a sparkling community, while giving us an opportunity to know whether each student is emotionally prepared for academic work. Students might discuss things like a question of the day—what’s your favorite food? or If you could have a superpower, what would you pick?—before describing how they feel by naming their personal roses and thorns, or by dropping a simple thumbs up, sideways thumb, or thumbs down into your chat feature.

How to use social and emotional tool kit?

Start a day with enthusiastic way is good strategy for engaging learners in learning but we need to normalize emotions, find inner peace, and be socially connected throughout the day is really matters in process of learning .Our tool kit for social and emotional strategies enabled us to check in with learners and support them to self-regulated, rejuvenate, and connect throughout the day.

Short Breaks:

If someone has an opinion that short breaks are wastage of time, suggest them to   research supporting breaks. Learners lose focus during the time of direct instructions especially at elementary level it occurs after 10 minutes, so we need to plan in a way to avoid these short falls. Short lessons with breaks during lesson boost up the learners ability to stay on task. If learners are focused for a long period of time, try to move them from their places with more intense kinetic break that works at home or in the classroom: like share a video of exercising or do some by ourselves and ask them to switch on their cameras and follow it.

Focusing on Breathing:

 When kids are feeling restless, researchers recommends using focused attention practices to help them regain their calm. Try different ways of focusing on breathing, such as inhaling for four beats, holding for four, and then exhaling for four, or visualizing colors as students inhale and exhale—if a student is upset, for example, they might exhale red.

 

Incorporates Mindfulness Activities:

Research shows that these activities helps to regulate the parts of the brain associated with the stress response, and is “associated with reduced levels of cortisol and other stress hormones” while positively influencing “the physiological indicators of an active stress response, like blood pressure and heart rate.” Mindfulness activities impact on learners shows clear changes in their behaviour like they become more confident and self-aware of their practices and varying needs. These activities decreased in anxiety around academic work.

 

We may face pressure to focus on academics, but putting Maslow before Bloom isn’t antithetical to learning—research demonstrates that it’s a way to support better learning. Build a toolkit and use it judiciously throughout the day, in accordance with read of our students. Using Maslow regularly will help them to Bloom.