Skills to recognise and understand the impacts of trauma will be embedded in all Deakin University early childhood, primary and secondary initial teacher education courses from next year.
The innovative trauma-informed approach will equip new teachers with the tools to operate in modern classrooms, while helping to tackle chronic teacher shortages by stemming the tide of new graduates abandoning the profession.
The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM), to be rolled out at Deakin from Trimester 1 2026, will be delivered in partnership with leading family service not-for-profit Berry Street. It will cover the impacts of trauma on child development, how to create a supportive, trauma-informed classroom environment and tips for fostering positive student-teacher relationships.
Deakin School of Education Head of School Professor Damian Blake said incorporating the BSEM workshops within Deakin’s course offering would be a game-changer for teaching graduates. It will empower new teachers to manage students with complex personal needs while supporting them to thrive.
“Young people are affected by a range of homelife issues including domestic and family violence, parental relationship breakdowns, a death in the family, mortgage and financial stress or come from difficult contexts, such as refugee backgrounds. This can affect their learning, that of their classmates, and create difficult work environments for teachers,” Professor Blake said.
“Embedding the Berry Street model, which focuses on helping every student to learn and thrive, will prepare Deakin teaching graduates to recognise when a student is struggling and give them the skills to respond effectively.”
The four-day workshops will be delivered by Berry Street and equip Deakin trainee teachers with student-centred strategies to regulate students’ stress, promote on-task learning, create a culture of academic persistence and nurture resilience.
They will also learn methods to de-escalate difficult classroom situations and to harness a child’s values and character strengths to aid effective learning.
Professor Blake said Deakin was the first Australian university to adopt the BSEM course in its initial teaching education qualifications. Feedback from current Deakin students who trialled the workshops has been promising.
“The workshops give them new ways of operating in the classroom, including handling tricky situations,” Professor Blake said.
“Deakin is the first to embed trauma-informed practice across its entire initial teacher education courses. We have taken this step because our research shows that a trauma-informed approach to teaching and learning makes a difference to the academic outcomes of young people.
“Nationally there are high rates of attrition in initial teacher education and one of the contributing factors is limited preparation for new teachers in dealing with classroom circumstances. They come into the job for the right reasons but some leave soon after because they are ill-prepared to cope with the issues we are seeing in today’s schools.
“We’ve got a generation of great young people and career changers coming into teaching. They’re optimistic and want to make a difference. But we need to prepare them with the tools to do the job. This is what embedding the Berry Street model is about.”
