The BOUNCE BACK! Classroom resiliency program

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Author(s): Helen McGrath and Toni Noble
Date of development: 2003
Website: www.bounceback.com.au

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Aim(s):

The BOUNCE BACK! Classroom Resiliency Program addresses the environmental building blocks and the personal skills for fostering resilience in children and young people. The program focuses mainly on the teaching of coping skills to help children and young people respond positively to the complexity of their everyday lives. In other words, children are taught how to ‘bounce back’ after experiencing sadness, difficulties, frustrations and hard times.

Target group:

The program is written for teachers or psychologists/counsellors in mental health settings who want to teach resilience skills. It includes a Teacher’s Handbook and three Teacher’s Resource Books for the following year levels:

• Lower primary (K-2)
• Middle primary (years 3-4)
• Upper primary and junior secondary (years 5-9)

Program content and components:

The Teacher’s Handbook explores the theoretical constructs, rationale and research underpinning the program and outlines whole school and whole class protective practices. These include evidence based teaching and learning strategies for connecting children and young people to school and for teaching the skills of resilience.

The core of the program is the BOUNCE BACK acronym. This acronym helps children and young people to memorise and recall 10 basic coping statements based around positive self-talk. The three Teacher Resource Books contain ten curriculum units that allow teachers to revisit the key concepts of resilience and wellbeing each school year with age appropriate content in the following areas:

Self-knowledge

• Courage – developing the skills and perceptions that lead to being more courageous in many areas of one’s life
• Optimism – having confidence in one’s own ability to solve problems and take positive action and developing skills in focusing on the positives, even in difficult situations
• Success – identifying one’s own relative strengths and limitations, setting and achieving goals, being organised and persisting, becoming self-disciplined and being resourceful in solving problems

Social awareness

• Core values – acting on important pro-social beliefs about how one should behave towards others
• Emotions – skills for responding with empathy to the feelings of others and recognising the feelings and intentions of others
• Relationships – skills for successfully interacting with others, making and keeping friends and avoiding and managing conflict
• Bullying – activities that encourage awareness of the harm that is caused by bullying and developing skills and attitudes that enables bystanders to support individuals being bullied

Self-management

• Emotions – recognising and managing one’s own negative emotions such as anger, sadness and worry etc and recognising and enjoying one’s own positive emotions such as happiness, pride and excitement
• Helpful thinking – using rational and helpful thinking and positive self-talk to cope with negative events and feelings in one’s life
• Humour – learning how humour can be used to assist with coping in hard times as well as supporting others

In addition, an annotated list of over 200 children’s books which support the program is available by emailing Dr Helen McGrath at helenmc@deakin.edu.au.

PROGRAM EVALUATION

Identified theoretical framework:

The program synthesises the theoretical and therapeutic principles of cognitive behavioural therapy and counselling principles such as normalising and self-disclosing. It also draws on the theoretical/therapeutic principles that underpin positive psychology such as the role of positive emotions and emotional literacy, positive and optimistic thinking and the adoption of strengths-based approaches that contribute to optimal functioning.

Evidence of effectiveness:
(according to criteria developed by CASEL for rating program effectiveness)

No evaluations were submitted that met the inclusion criteria.

References supplied by program authors:

McGrath, H. (2000). The BOUNCE BACK! Resiliency Program: A pilot study. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
McGrath, H. & Anders, E., (2000). The BOUNCE BACK! Program. Turning the Tide in Schools Drug Education Project. Melbourne, Australia: Victorian Department of Education.

PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION

Program structure:

The program is not fixed or scripted but rather is based on a ‘smorgasbord model’ in which it is assumed that specific curriculum units or components will be selected and integrated with whatever is already happening within that school or setting. The program is literature-based so it can be incorporated in English lessons/Language Blocks and can be linked to other key learning areas such as Society and the Environment, Maths and Science and Technology.

Some units can be taught in a dedicated weekly session (e.g., entitled Personal Development, Life Skills or Pastoral Care). The program can be taught as a whole school or whole class program. Components and units can also be selected and taught in a small group structure either within a school or mental health setting.

Staff professional learning (PL):

There are no training requirements for conducting this program but training sessions are provided on request by the authors (contact Helen@bounceback.com.au OR Toni@bounceback.com.au ). Materials are readily available for purchase.

Program costs:

Bounce Back! Level 1: Lower Primary $66.95
Bounce Back! Level 2: Middle Primary $66.95
Bounce Back! Level 3: Upper Primary to Junior Secondary $66.95
Bounce Back! Teacher’s Handbook $61.95

About the author(s):

Dr. Helen McGrath and Dr. Toni Noble are both former classroom teachers who are currently Senior Lecturers in Psychology and Education. Dr. Helen McGrath is at Deakin University in Melbourne and Dr. Toni Noble is at the Australian Catholic University National in Sydney. Both authors are members of the Australian Psychological Society and registered psychologists. Dr Helen McGrath also has a private psychology practice.

Contact information:

Pearson Education Australia
Unit 4, Level 2
14 Aquatic Drive
Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086
Phone: 1800 656 685
Fax: 1800 642 270
Email: schools@pearsoned.com.au
Website: www.pearsoned.com.au

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It is important to note that inclusion of a program in this Guide does not constitute an endorsement by KidsMatter Primary. All program details were correct at time of publishing.