“Maslow before Bloom”—we hear it all the time. Students need their most fundamental emotional and physical needs met before they can be challenged to effectively think and learn. In other words, the idea that educators should meet students’ basic needs for safety and belonging before turning to challenging academic tasks is one that guides the work of many schools.

Students need teachers to prioritize mental health over (or at least along with) academic learning. This means incorporating compassion and empathy into one’s teaching practice by asking students about their day and really listening. It means asking students if their basic needs are being met and helping to connect school families with community resources that can help with things like hunger. Some students may need to vent, others may benefit from an extended deadline or a differentiated assignment.

Waht to do? WELCOMING STUDENTS

It starts before students enter the room: Taking a few minutes to personally greet every student at the beginning of the day, or the beginning of each class in middle and high school, can bolster students’ feeling that they belong to a community of learners. A 2018 study showed that positive greetings at the door increased academic engagement by 20 percentage points, and decreased disruptive behavior by 9 percentage points—adding as much as “an additional hour of engagement over the course of a five-hour instructional day,” the researchers said.

You may face pressure to focus on academics, but putting Maslow before Bloom isn’t antithetical to learning—research demonstrates that it’s a way to support better learning. 

References:

• https://ateacherislikeacandle.wordpress.com/2020/11/28/2062/
• https://www.boredteachers.com/post/maslow-before-bloom-for-students
• https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-maslow-bloom-all-day-long/