Promoting Student Resilience: The Overlooked 4th ‘R’ of Education

The focus here is the importance of creating positive classroom climates and healthy school cultures which foster resilience and psycho-social well-being among international school students. Research has continually identified school and classroom cultures, not curriculum or organization, as the critical factors distinguishing high-performing schools and teachers from lower-performing. Studies on adolescent well-being have continually noted that the quality of student’s family connectedness and sense of school connectedness as equally protective against every major mental health difficulty including suicidality, violence, substance abuse, and emotional distress (i.e., depression and anxiety). Moreover, when schools provide supportive services to students and their families, benefits are realized including higher grades, higher test scores, improved school attendance, fewer special education placements, more positive attitudes and behavior, and fewer social adjustment problems. School/Home collaboration programs result in improved teacher morale, higher community ratings of schools and teachers, and higher academic achievement.