Curriculum links

Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum

Level 3: Achievement aim – Personal Growth and Development
Students will identify factors that affect personal, physical, social, and emotional growth and develop skills to manage changes (3A1).

Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 18
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/health/curriculum/statement/page18_e.php

Level 4: Achievement aim – Relationships
Students will identify the effects of changing situations, roles, and responsibilities on relationships and describe appropriate responses (4C1).

Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 20
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/health/curriculum/statement/page18_e.php

Underlying concepts

Hauora
Understanding how change and loss affect all dimensions of well-being.

Socio-ecological perspective
Identifying factors that influence people's well-being in relation to change and loss.

Health promotion
Identifying ways to be supportive to others in times of change and loss.

Attitudes and values
Showing care and concern for others and respecting the rights of other people.

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The learning context

This teacher wanted the students to understand that change and loss are part of life and that individuals have different ways of experiencing and expressing grief. She also wanted to help them develop skills for coping with change, loss, and grief and to explore ways of supporting others. The class took an inquiry-based approach to this two-week unit.

In groups, the students brainstormed definitions of the words 'change' and 'crisis'. Nick suggested:

A crisis is an unexpected happening where you are put into a difficult position where you might not be able to help.

When change happens, you can be treated differently, [it] can be good or bad. Can be confusing in strange ways. Can be difficult to adjust. That's definitely one.

The students used mind maps to record examples of crises and changes and of the different severity of crises that they had experienced. Ho Jun told her group:

The first one here is about my baby sister. She died in my mum's stomach about a month away from her getting born. That was really important to me.

And for the change that is not really important, I got moving houses and moving countries. It wasn't that important to me, but I was going to miss lots of my relatives and stuff like that.

The students also explored how thoughts, feelings, and physical symptoms change over time during a personal crisis. They used a reflective journal to identify ways of coping with a crisis and to describe helpful and unhelpful strategies for supporting themselves and others.

In the video, Georgina talks about a loss she experienced and Avi, Harriet, Melissa, and Nick talk about ways of responding to loss.

The level 3 exemplar Understanding Loss and Helping Others has related themes.

Safety guidelines

The students had not had any formal learning in this topic, but the teacher had prepared them for it by establishing a positive classroom environment.

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Teacher-student conversation and student-student conversations

The teacher encouraged the students to share their ideas in small groups and class discussions and supported the students in mentoring each other's learning.

See What the work shows.

Where to next?

To move the students towards the next learning step, the teacher could help them to:

• use drama and role-play strategies to demonstrate ways of supporting students who have experienced or are experiencing change or loss and to take action to enhance these practices
• investigate school procedures that support students who have experienced change or loss and to take action to enhance these practices.

The teacher could:

• make links to changes and losses at puberty and help students to develop some positive adjustment strategies
• model and reinforce effective practices for supporting people who have experienced loss or grief.

Reference

Ministry of Education (1999). Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education (2000). Change, Loss, and Grief: Mental Health: Years 1–8. The Curriculum in Action series. Wellington: Learning Media.

TKI Health and Physical Education

Print version of this exemplar (PDF, 90kb)

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