EVIDENCE-BASED STRATEGIES

All Mansfield Hall team members are trained in the evidenced-based strategies necessary for promoting success with our students. These cohesive methods pay respect to the individual as the central agent in identifying, strategizing, and sustaining the change they wish to see in their own lives. Furthermore, these strategies focus on building the maintainable skills needed to generalize across contexts and situations. Here are some of the strategies and philosophical approaches which inform our programming:

Motivational interviewing (MI) refers to an approach in part developed by clinical psychologists Professor William R Miller, Ph.D. and Professor Stephen Rollnick, Ph.D. Motivational Interviewing is a method that works on facilitating and engaging intrinsic motivation within the student in order to set new habits and change behavior. MI is a goal-oriented, client-centered, relationally-based coaching style for eliciting lasting change by helping students explore and resolve ambivalence, set and achieve goals, and increase their capacity for effective self-monitoring. Read more.

Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) is a method for understanding and helping students work through challenges, originated by Dr. Stuart Ablon. The CPS model views challenges as an expression of a skill deficit or a learning disability and seeks to create fundamental changes in interactions between students and support staff by having them engage in solving problems collaboratively.  This is a relationally-based approach designed to increase student agency and efficacy. Read more.

Person-Centered Planning – Person-centered planning is an approach that empowers individuals by placing them at the heart of decision-making processes and actively involving them in creating and implementing plans for their own lives. It recognizes each person’s unique strengths, preferences, and aspirations, and aims to enhance their autonomy, self-determination, and overall well-being. Person-centered planning values the individual’s perspective, encourages active participation from family, friends, and support networks, and strives to ensure that services and supports align with the person’s goals, promoting a more inclusive and fulfilling life. Read More.

Social Emotional Learning 

Core to our model is providing structured and community based opportunities for our students to build their Social Emotional Learning. With the right guidance and interventions through coaching and case management, living and learning in a community setting and college environment creates unique and ideal conditions for students to develop the following skills: 

• Self Awareness
• Self Management
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness
• Responsible Decision Making

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Pre-storative & Restorative Practices

Pre-storative and restorative practices in a college life setting refer to approaches that foster a sense of community, promote positive relationships, and address conflicts and harm in a constructive and healing manner. Pre-storative practices focus on proactive measures, such as community-building activities, open communication, and conflict prevention strategies, with the aim of creating a supportive environment where conflicts are less likely to occur. Restorative practices, on the other hand, emphasize repairing harm and rebuilding relationships when conflicts do arise. They involve inclusive dialogue, accountability, and active participation from all parties involved, aiming to understand the impact of actions, facilitate empathy, and collectively work towards resolution and reconciliation. These practices encourage personal growth, mutual understanding, and the development of a healthier campus community. Read More.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework based on research in the learning sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, that guides the development of flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences.

Recognizing that the way individuals learn can be unique, the UDL framework, first defined by David H. Rose, Ed.D. of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) in the 1990s, calls for creating strategies from the outset that provides:

• Multiple means of representation to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge,
• Multiple means of expression to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know, and
• Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners’ interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn.

Curriculum, as defined in the UDL literature, has four parts: instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments. UDL is intended to increase access to learning by reducing physical, cognitive, intellectual, and organizational barriers to learning, as well as other obstacles. UDL principles also lend themselves to implementing inclusionary practices in the classroom. 

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(All excerpts replicated or adapted from material on various pages and resources on the internet. For specific references, please contact us.)