Shyam Barr
Helping people become better, self-regulated learners

Blog

 

PREFACE

This blog discusses topics that exist between the fields cognitive psychology and leadership, teaching and learning. Although I make connections between research and personal experience (my attempt at bridging the age-old ‘theory-practice’ gap), I write for a general audience. It is as Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi stated in the preface of his book FLOW:

“To take this step is somewhat dangerous, because as soon as one strays from the stylised constraints of academic prose, it is easy to become careless or overly enthusiastic about such a topic” (p. xi)

To avoid carelessness, I will endeavour to include references to journal articles, books and alike (as commonly expected in academic writing), but not at the expense of accessibility and ease of reading. This will be a delicate balance and one I will endeavour to achieve.

To end, I chose the word ‘discusses’ in the first sentence of this preface, to highlight that although the blog articles themselves are very much a dialogue between myself and what I read, I encourage you to share your comments and questions, so that we may start a more authentic discussion. 

 
 

When Students Can’t Learn: Trauma and Self-Regulated Learning

A student avoids the task.
Another reacts quickly to a small prompt.
One more looks disengaged, distracted, or simply “not trying”.

It’s easy to interpret these moments through a lens of motivation, behaviour, or effort. But what if a more useful question is: What is this student’s system trying to do right now?

Trauma, self-regulation, and learning

Trauma is not just something students carry with them—it actively shapes how they learn. At the centre of this is self-regulation. Panlilio et al. (2019) described this as the ability to manage attention, emotions, and behaviour—things like focusing, controlling impulses, setting goals, and monitoring actions. These systems—emotional, behavioural, and cognitive—work together to support learning.

However, when students experience early adversity, these systems can be disrupted. This can show up as difficulty managing emotions, challenges with attention and executive functioning, or behaviours that seem reactive or disengaged. Importantly, this is not random. Panlilio et al. (2019) explained that these patterns can be understood as adaptive responses to stressful environments—but ones that are not always well suited to classroom learning.

So while we might be asking students to:

  • focus

  • persist

  • plan

  • reflect

Some students are operating in a state where those capacities are significantly compromised.

A useful way to think about trauma

Shanker (2017) offered a helpful analogy to understand trauma:

 

“A really good way to understand the effect of trauma is to think about what happens when your body gets really cold. The brain starts trying to ‘turn up the heat’ in order to prevent hypothermia. First, you start to shiver. A small center in the brain sends a signal to the muscles to start vibrating in order to generate heat. Your heart rate and blood pressure and even your breathing rate go up for this purpose. But all this burns a lot of energy. So the brain turns off some body functions in order to keep going.

All that matters is to keep you warm enough to protect the brain from getting damaged by the cold. Things like digestion, blood flow to your fingers and toes, and even parts of the brain that we use to pay attention, make decisions and control impulses are all slowed down in order to conserve energy.

Whatever the trauma… the effect on the brain is similar. The brain adapts to protect itself… Certain parts of the brain are placed on high alert, while other parts become much less active. This has a significant impact on a child’s ability to control emotions, stay calm, pay attention… and form healthy relationships. Even fairly ordinary events… can be very hard for a child that has experienced the effects of trauma.”
(Shanker, 2017, para 2-5)

 

Thinking of trauma as above, reframes the way we see students’ learning behaviours in classrooms.

What looks like:

  • disengagement

  • defiance

  • lack of effort

may actually be a system working hard to stay safe.

Where do you start when teaching SRL for students who have experienced trauma?  

A useful place to start is with the SEE framework (Callan et al., 2021) as it organises how teachers can support SRL through three elements:

  • Settings (the environment we create)

  • Exchanges (our interactions with students)

  • Events (the tasks and learning experiences we design)

For most learners, these elements work together.

But for trauma-affected learners, the sequence may matter more than we think.

Start with the setting

Callan et al. (2021) described the setting as the physical, social, and instructional environment—including routines, relationships, and expectations.

They emphasise that students need environments where they feel safe enough to engage, take risks, and learn from mistakes.

For trauma-affected learners, this is not just helpful—it may be essential.

If a student’s system is on high alert, then:

  • unpredictability increases load

  • unclear expectations increase threat

  • inconsistent relationships reduce trust

So before we ask students to regulate their learning, we may need to ensure the environment supports regulation more broadly.

Then focus on exchanges and events.

The SEE framework positions exchanges as the interactions that build SRL—things like modelling, feedback, prompting, and explicit instruction.

But here’s the nuance for trauma-informed practice:

These exchanges may need to prioritise emotional regulation before cognitive regulation.

That might look like:

  • co-regulating before prompting reflection

  • acknowledging emotion before redirecting behaviour

  • slowing down feedback rather than escalating it

  • using relational trust to reduce perceived threat

Panlilio et al. (2019) highlighted that trauma can disrupt metacognitive processes—meaning that asking students to “think about their thinking” may not land if their emotional system is overwhelmed.

So the role of the teacher becomes not just instructional—but  co-regulatory*

*Note: Co-regulation should only be viewed as a scaffold as we gradually release responsibility to the learner, working toward building their own independent self-regulatory capabilities. 

The final element—events—includes the tasks and learning experiences where students practise self-regulated learning. But for trauma-affected learners, task design becomes critical.

Callan et al. (2021) noted that tasks need to be appropriately challenging—too easy and students don’t engage in regulation; too hard and they disengage.

Through a trauma-informed lens, we might extend this further:

  • Is the task predictable enough?

  • Does it feel safe enough?

  • Is there enough structure to support success?

Because if the task overwhelms the system, we are unlikely to see strategic learning—we are more likely to see avoidance or reactivity.

A final reflection

There’s a strong push in education to develop self-regulated learners.

And rightly so.

But for some students—particularly those impacted by trauma—the pathway might look different:

  • Safe setting → regulated learner

  • Supportive exchanges → emerging regulation

  • Thoughtful events → strategic learning

And perhaps that’s the shift.

Not lowering expectations.

But recognising that for some learners, regulation is the gateway to learning—not a byproduct of it.

References (APA 7th)

Callan, G. L., Longhurst, D., Ariotti, A., & Bundock, K. (2021). Settings, exchanges, and events: The SEE framework of self-regulated learning supportive practices. Psychology in the Schools, 58(4), 773–788. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22468

Panlilio, C. C., Ferrara, A., & MacNeill, L. (2019). Trauma, self-regulation, and learning. In C. C. Panlilio (Ed.), Trauma-informed schools (pp. 61–78). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332062838_Trauma_Self-Regulation_and_Learning

Shanker, S. (n.d.). The impact of trauma. Self-Reg. https://self-reg.ca/the-impact-of-trauma/

Shyam Barr