What Do Educators Know and Want to Know about Childhood Brain Injury?

ABSTRACT

Educators report a lack of knowledge and preparedness to work with students with traumatic brain injury. A total of 330 Australian educators completed a cross-sectional online questionnaire examining current knowledge of available resources related to traumatic brain injury in their school and community, and educators’ perspectives on what additional resources or training would help to improve their capacity to teach students with experience of brain injury. The majority of participants (60%; 197/330) reported that their school did not provide informational resources following a concussive event at school or they were unaware if such information existed. Many participants (40%; 127/315) were not able to identify services within the wider community that could assist and support students with traumatic brain injury. Qualitative analysis indicated that participants were aware of their lack of knowledge regarding traumatic brain injury and wanted access to further training opportunities. Incorporating training on traumatic brain injury into undergraduate teaching curricula and in-service professional development programmes may enhance educators’ confidence and capacity to support students with traumatic brain injury in the school environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• concussion
• disability
• education
• professional development
• school
• teacher behaviour
• traumatic brain injury

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.