Pupil resilience in the classroom : a teacher's framework

Abstract

This article describes the development of a teacher’s framework to identify a number of primary school classes in Malta characterized by high levels of pupil resilience, namely socio-emotional competence and educational engagement. The article starts by defining resilience as a proactive, contextual and relational phenomenon concerning all pupils, irrespective of individual characteristics or background. It outlines and discusses the construction, administration and scoring of a seven-item framework, followed by an analysis of responses by 22 teachers who rated 465 pupils in their classes, on the basis of which three classes in each school were selected for further study. The conclusion suggests how schools and teachers may use the framework as a descriptive tool in their efforts to promote socioemotional and cognitive competence.