Ina-Mari van Aarde - Educational Psychologist

07/11/2025

E K S A M E N S

Hierdie week bid ons vir eksamens om ons leerders en kinders te ondersteun.

Lees die volledige eredienswenk hier:
https://dinkjeug.co.za/wenk-van-die-week-bid-vir-eksamens/

18/06/2025

Follow the link to read my recent blog post:

https://www.motherhoodmoms.com/post/building-resilience-in-children Building resilience in children

18/06/2025

Last night I joined Motherhood Moms for a discussion on school readiness. Grateful to be part of this initiative that creates an online platform for supporting and empowering moms.

18/03/2025

12/03/2025

👏 🤍🙏

We Nurture Collective

08/03/2025

Beroepe van die Toekoms is ’n reeks video's as deel van Solidariteit se Skoliere-aanbod wat kinders en ouers bewus maak van interessante...

14/10/2024

15/09/2024

14/09/2024

Some of the best research in education will tell you this: Positive relationships are key. ❤️

When students feel supported, they’re more likely to engage in learning and have better academic outcomes. Positive relationships build motivation. Positive relationships create safe spaces for learning. They build new pathways for learning. When students have positive interactions with teachers, they have fewer behavioral problems. These relationships are often more important than learning itself. Relationships last long after the content is taught. Educators also know relationships are challenging to build when children come to school with trauma, but, despite the many challenges in education today we know that without building meaningful relationships with children, not a lot can be achieved.

Some strategies to help establish and bring relationships along:
🩶Life-story narrative
Stories help make schooling a more personal experience. Sharing stories and small tidbits from your own life allows students to connect with you. Students can engage more with you and then trust what you have to say or teach. Each story shared allows students to see your values, your strengths, weaknesses, and inner thoughts.

🩶The 2×10 strategy
This strategy involves giving 2 minutes per day for 10 days to talk with a student about their interests. This could be using specific questions to help guide or ones that come naturally from one another.

A study by Gragg and Collett (2023) showed how using the 2x10 strategy changed teachers’ perceptions of the targeted student, which influenced how they viewed the student’s off-task behaviour, and how they used pedagogical interventions to support the student’s learning. This strategy could start in morning meetings with the question, “What was the best part of your weekend?” This not only allows the students to open up to one another and begin to build peer relationships, but also gives the teacher valuable insight into background information of each student.

Ultimately, stories help students feel seen and valued. They possess an inherent inclusivity, illuminating the fundamental human ties that connect people of diverse backgrounds. Humans are innately social beings and stories help us to empathically connect with one another.

References:
https://www.understood.org/en/articles/brain-science-says-4-reasons-to-build-positive-relationships-with-students

https://www.pedagogy4change.org/james-p-comer-significant-learning/ #:~:text=%E2%80%9CNo%20significant%20learning%20can%20occur%20without%20a%20significant%20relationship.%E2%80%9D,-%E2%80%93%20Dr.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/building-positive-relationships-is-critical-to-helping-young-people-flourish-1.4855747

https://www.school-news.com.au/news/how-to-build-positive-teacher-student-relationships/

https://www.edutopia.org/article/strengthening-student-relationships-through-oral-storytelling/ #:~:text=Stories%20help%20personalize%20the%20school,stay%20more%20engaged%20in%20school.

✨ Meet Neuro: The World’s First Wellbeing Social Network: https://bit.ly/4dBsPg3

✨ You can access our courses here: https://academy.neuroecosystem.com/

12/09/2024

Join us at ten! Participate in the comments and you could win a R500 Takealot voucher. Thank you, JungleVites

10/09/2024

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