Addressing social and emotional learning: Fostering resilience and academic self-efficacy in educationally disadvantaged learners transitioning to university

Abstract

In recent years, the impact of mental health issues on university students’ ability to successfully access, transition and participate in university has gained increasing attention. Mental wellbeing is of particular concern in pre-university enabling programs which often specifically target educationally-disadvantaged equity groups. It has become increasingly clear that in addition to ‘academic skills’, these students also need to be equipped with social and emotional skills that support their transition to university, as well as promote resilience, sustained motivation and academic self- efficacy. In response to this, we reviewed and revised the curricula of two of Murdoch University’s key enabling programs to incorporate material which focused on developing these skills. This paper presents our rationale and examples of our diverse approaches to addressing social and emotional learning in curricula which aims to support and enable the transition of educationally disadvantaged students into undergraduate studies