by Bryony Shaw | November, 2021 | Bryony Shaw, Education
Positive education interventions are very slowly making their way into some mainstream schools and colleges. However, there are very few that offer a whole-school approach. Notable ones are Wellington College, an independent school in England and Geelong Grammar in Australia. These are both trailblazing institutions that are pioneers in the field of positive education. What is positive education? Positive education focuses on teaching students practical ways to boost their wellbeing. Students are taught ways to increase the amount of positive emotions they experience. Frequently the positive education curriculum is based on the PERMA model proposed by Martin Seligman. This model proposes that there are five factors that can be developed in all of us to aid flourishing. P stands for positive emotions. These are cultivated through activities such as gratitude, kindness and savouring. E stands for engagement which describes how involved students are in their tasks. Their involvement can be strengthened by helping students to identify and use their strengths when working on a task. When students are deeply engaged, they may enter a flow state where the degree of challenge is created that is appropriate for their skill level. R stands for relationships, this includes improving the quality of our social connections, we can achieve this by helping students to feel part of a community and encouraging them to contribute to that community. M stands for meaning and this involves helping students to find a sense of purpose and meaning in what they are doing. Often this is achieved by helping students to see how what they are doing is connected to something bigger than them such...
by Geoff Walters | May, 2020 | Education
My whole life long, I’ve been a misfit. In school, I was the nerdy kid with glasses who was always studying. At university, I went out only 2 times in my first year, only to overcompensate and subsequently turn into a party animal. And after graduating, when my peers were all getting regular jobs, I found that I much preferred to work for myself. Modern society talks a lot about the value of diversity, often regarding superficial qualities like gender or skin colour. I would argue that the most important type of diversity is diversity of character. Society is a richer place when each individual is in touch with his or her unique temperament and lives that out in the world. Let the introverts become librarians; let the people highest in openness become travel bloggers. We all benefit from such an arrangement. School promotes obedience and conformity Sounds reasonable, right? Then why is it that the school system is set up to promote obedience and conformity, instead of each person following their individual path? If you think that assessment is too harsh, consider the following: Schools tell children when they can speak, how they should spend their time, and sometimes what they should wear. All children have to study the same material until a certain age (in my case that was 14). If you have the level of self-awareness to know that you’re not interested in a given compulsory subject, you are shamed as an unruly student. The people who designed the modern education system were heavily influenced by the Prussian school system of the 19th century, the main...
by Lisa Jones | October, 2019 | Education, Happiness, Health, Lisa Jones, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Positive Psychology
What am I good for? I recently attended the International Meaning Conference (IMeC) in London (July 2019), which held many inspiring talks by inspiring people. It led me to reflect on the journey of positive psychology and how it has come a long way from being all about finding happiness to a place that also values having a meaningful life. This blog reflects on a statement, inspired by Viktor Frankl, which is: Ask not ‘what makes me feel good?’ instead ask ‘what am I good for?’ Origins of positive psychology Most people with an interest in positive psychology will be aware that the seeds were planted by the thought that we should be studying the outliers of data that seemed to buck the trend of what most people experienced in life. These outliers were individuals who, despite difficulties and challenges, still flourished and thrived. Usually psychologists would ignore these oddities (they upset their charts!), but in the late 1990s Seligman, Peterson and Csikszentmihalyi decided to explore them further. What makes me feel good? Most of the researchers under the umbrella field of positive psychology wanted to understand what made people happy and satisfied in life. This was important to create better well-being in society. However over time this first wave of positive psychology was challenged by researchers and critics who thought this was far too superficial and limited. Many studies began to emerge that demonstrated that chasing happiness as a means to an end in itself led to more unhappiness. It seemed that happiness was always out of reach, like the end of a rainbow. Positive psychology had attracted...
by Stuart Dickson | September, 2019 | Education
There is no denying that family life can be demanding, juggling parenting with working and running a home. Children need interaction in some form or other and often there isn’t the time or opportunity to give them the attention that they need. Parents look to their available resources to compensate for this and in today’s age an easy option is to give their children some form of device for entertainment. Often this is used as a form of bribery, but I believe that is a dangerous path to follow. Whilst I don’t have children, I fully appreciate why parents will resort to this, as I am sure I would do the same. Children love their devices and will happily spend hours on them if they are allowed. Is it wrong to for children to spend time on devices or is it an important part of their development? The Cons So, what are the concerns regarding device use? In terms of research it is still relatively early days with the results being inconclusive. In its guide to screen time, The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says research is difficult to apply to children and young people because their use of screens is evolving so rapidly. Potentially, there are quite a few different cons ranging from lack of quality parent and child time, decreased social skills, addiction, sleep disruption and tantrums to name but a few. These can not only be applied to babies and children but also to adults. Another side effect of tablet use is that it can actually get in the way of family interaction...
by Lynn Soots | June, 2019 | Education
As I set out to write this piece, I thought of who my audience might be. Should I write for elementary age learning, adult learning, in the classroom, or online? After a few seconds of thought, I determined that there are benefits across the board. Learning and development walk the path of education hand in hand. Development and the way in which all students learn in a positive manner do not stop at the gates of high school. Time-tested, through the over twenty years I have been teaching, tells me that these practices not only support educational success but a person’s reflective positive esteem and self-efficacy. Are you ready to RAISE the bar? Let’s RAISE the Bar Over my many years of teaching, and through the many collaborative interactions with students, I have developed the acronym RAISE. First, because it signifies elevation, which I have always been a fan of evaluating students to new levels. Second, it acts as a reminder of the actions and behaviors that reflect a growth environment that I want to be a part of. RAISE is a reflective tool for servant educators who mindfully desire to incorporate educational elements that go beyond teaching curriculum and support perpetuated growth of students personally. It models what, we as servant educators, want to put out there to the world; behaviors, and actions that are created through “pass it on” positive role model mentorship. We have the power to RAISE the bar of education. R—Respect Respect encapsulates ways in which a person wants to be viewed or treated; revered, admired, etc. What do you admire about your students?...
by Fizza Shah | May, 2019 | Education, Fizza Shah, Uncategorized
The science of Positive Education What is positive education? Well it is perceived in Positive Psychology as positive emotions and attitudes derived from subjective wellbeing student’s experiences within their schooling environment. So how would we create a school environment whereby you have the opportunities to experience positive affect (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) ? . The fundamental goal of positive education is to promote flourishing or positive mental health within the school community.” (Norrish et. al., 2013). Positive Psychology advocates that the younger years of a child are the optimal functioning period of childhood to cultivate healthy Subjective Well being habits. It goes further with the broaden and build model proposed by Barbara Fredrickson (2001) explores this notion by advocating upon the implementation of play/exploration thought and action repertoire behaviours within children thus promoting adaptive positive behaviours. Over a period of time a child learns to develop a range of personal resources as positive social relationships, flexiable coping behaviours and learning opportunities with many positive effect experiences builds an abundance of personal resources. The importance of having certain acquired personal characteristics such as self esteem (Karatzias et al., 2002), academic self efficacy (Vekuyten & Thisjs, 2002) intrinsic motivation (Gilman & Anderman, 2006) hope (Huebner & Gilman, 2006) and external locus control (gilman & Anderman, 2006) have been suggested as contributing factors for students to experience optimal levels of school satisfaction. Other behavioural factors are enganging in extracurriculum activities (Gilman, 2001) building social competent skills (Eamon, 2002) and positive life experiences (Huebner and McCullough, 2000). Teacher-classroom factors that effect student life satisfaction are as followed support/structure provided to students for...
