EmpowerED effective Classroom management. Game on!

Problem definition:

Education in Flanders is struggling with increasing socio-emotional, learning and care needs among pupils, which can manifest itself in difficult-to-handle behaviour. Many (starting) teacher quit he profession due to a lack of grip on classroom management. The EmpowerED project (2023-2025) focused on warm teacher-student relationships (one-to-one) as a prevention of behavioral problems. This follow-up project focuses on deepening strategies and reflection skills for a broader view of classroom management from a systemic perspective.

Methodology:

We adopt the Design Thinking methodology, an iterative, user-centred process with five phases: empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test. Teachers and field experts are closely involved to ensure authenticity and quality.

Expected results:

As a primary goal, we apply an evidence-informed approach to make more conscious choices of classroom interventions for challenging student behavior from different perspectives and conduct a survey of professionalisation needs among Flemish primary schools in collaboration with PXL Innovation Office. As a secondary goal, we design a serious game to implement enriched approach strategies in the school team. As a tertiary goal, we investigate what coaches need to guide their school team in order to strengthen their pedagogical-didactical skills through realistic cases, feedback and intervision. To this end, we develop an educational learning kit for coaches that can later be implemented in Flemish schools through a broad learning and implementation process.