In February, 9 teachers from CE Dolmen, a school in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, completed the second round of the RemixED Teacher Professional Development Program. The 15-hour programme introduced participating teachers to open educational resources (OER) on the science of stress and had teams of teachers adapt the resources for their specific contexts before piloting them with students. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles were used to guide the adaptation of resources. Participants then documented their reflections of the piloting in the form of case studies that are to be shared with the educational community via the RemixED Community Platform (https://remixed.upf.edu/).

The professional development approach used is called team-based learning design and involves teachers working together to conduct ‘research lessons’ – in which the aim of the lessons is to gain insights into one’s teaching practice. 

During the 2023-24 academic year, 5 research lessons were conducted by teams of three or more teachers from CE Dolmen.Theoretical content selected included teaching students about the stress response, sensations of stress, survival behaviours, the relationship between stress and learning, stress mindsets, and self-regulation. Practical content taught included breathing techniques and cognitive reappraisal (reframing) while technological tools and resources such as Google Jamboards, ClassMood App, YouTube videos,  and NearPod were frequently used.

Participating teachers found the lessons had a positive impact on students – yet also identified a number of aspects to improve on in future implementations of pilots. For example, one teacher commented that, “Students have made a change in their negative view of stress towards moderation, but not in the application of self-regulation techniques to modify their response to stress.” If repeated, the teacher would aim to provide students with more situated practice of the techniques – in other words, have them practice the techniques when faced with stressful situations in the classroom and not just in the three designated research lessons.

RemixED website: https://remixed.upf.edu/