S1 Ep54: Wellbeing or academic success…and can we teach kindness? - Book Launch Panel 4 Part 2
For Flourishing's Sake
In the second half of the final For Flourishing's Sake book launch discussion, we discussed where the priorities should lie, between dealing with mental health and wellbeing in the context of Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement, or ensuring children “catch up” academically if they have fallen behind. We also had a fascinating conversation about whether kindness can be taught, and if so, how, and ended the discussion by sharing each of our dreams for the future of education.
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S1 Ep53: Wellbeing or academic success…and can we teach kindness? - Book Launch Panel 4 Part 1
For Flourishing's Sake
In this first half of the fourh For Flourishing's Sake book launch discussion, we shared our definitions of positive education, discussed whether educating for character and wellbeing are the same thing, and whether they come at the expense of academic progress. Finally, we shared our thoughts on and examples of whether Positive Education works anywhere, in any setting, with any age group.
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S1 Ep52: A whole school approach to education for good citizenship - Book Launch Panel 3 Part 2
For Flourishing's Sake
In this second half of the third For Flourishing's Sake book launch panel discussion, the panellists share their thoughts and experiences, with examples, of elements required for a whole school approach to positive education. They particularly focus on the important role that staff training and leadership play. And finally, they share how it feels when you get it right - when it goes well - and their hopes and dreams for the future of education.
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S1 Ep51: A whole school approach to education for good citizenship - Book Launch Panel 3 Part 1
For Flourishing's Sake
In this first half of the third For Flourishing's Sake book launch panel discussion, the panellists discuss their interpretation of positive education, character education and the role of wellbeing in education, particularly in relation to educating for good citizenship and promoting inclusion, diversity and social justice.
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S1 Ep50: Practical Examples of Character and Positive Education - Book Launch Panel 2 Part 2
For Flourishing's Sake
Another chance to hear part 2 of the 2nd panel of fantastic educators during the For Flourishing's Sake book launch. Panellists discussed their interpretations of a whole school approach to character and positive education, then moved onto discussing how we “catch” character and wellbeing behaviours, before progressing to a great discussion about bringing people on board that don’t understand what we’re trying to do.
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S1 Ep49: Practical Examples of Character and Positive Education - Book Launch Panel 2 Part 1
For Flourishing's Sake
Another chance to hear a panel discussion between great educators and school leaders. In this half of the discussion, the panellists shared their definitions of positive education, character education or wellbeing in education. They quickly moved on to some concrete examples of implementation in their schools, from specific staff wellbeing initiatives and their impacts, to whole school approaches and their effects on the entire school community, including parents.
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S1 Ep48: The what and how of Positive Education - Book Launch Panel 1 Part 2
For Flourishing's Sake
Today's episode features the 2nd half of the 1st panel discussion as part of the For Flourishing's Sake book launch events. Panellists discuss putting teacher wellbeing first and sharing a language for wellbeing in schools. The role of Appreciative Inquiry processes and Action Research are also touched upon to support empowering staff and creating lasting change. Panellists also address cost, and the role of Positive Education in the context of Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.
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S1 Ep47: The what and how of Positive Education - Book Launch Panel 1 Part 1
For Flourishing's Sake
Over the coming weeks, For Flourishing's Sake will feature extended podcast episodes, where you will be able to listen to the replays of the book launch events. Today's episode is the first half of the first panel discussion.
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S1 Ep46: Positive Education - from individual happiness to the greater good
For Flourishing's Sake
Is Positive Psychology all about individualism and selfish happiness endeavours, or does it support societal flourishing and encourage us to connect with and support one another? What role do schools play in this? In this episode, I explore some of the criticisms levelled at Positive Psychology and invite you to consider the opportunity we have as educators to change the world for the better.
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S1 Ep45: Flourishing Despite Fear
For Flourishing's Sake
In this week's "For Flourishing's Sake", I share how we can flourish and thrive despite experiencing fear. Not by eliminating the fear, but by flooding our system with happy hormones from positive emotions, to counteract the negative effects of the fear. Learn to use Positive Psychology to your advantage so you can experience wellbeing even at times when you are feeling fear and uncertainty.
info_outlineWelcome to episode 29. Over the last week, our world seems to have changed dramatically! Coronavirus has been declared a Pandemic by the World Health Organisation and people don’t know which advice to follow and how best to protect themselves and their loved ones. I am not qualified to give any advice on this, so I won’t. But I want to help you navigate these challenging times for yourself and for the children you work with, with the help of Positive Psychology.
Children are often acutely aware of the world around them. Already the world has been feeling pretty uncertain for quite some time, but Coronavirus has added an additional layer and a certain level of urgency and panic for many people - this will include children you work with. So…what can you do to support their mental health at this time?
Now is an ideal time to encourage them to talk about their emotions in a safe space, to express the complexity and depth of what they’re feeling and help them unpack those emotions. For the youngest children, you may wish to have wall charts with various emojis and encourage them to place their names under the emoji that best reflects how they feel, and to move this around as each day and week progresses, to reflect their changing emotions throughout each day. You can have conversations in circle time around these. For older children and adolescents, you can have discussions about their emotions around the current crisis during tutor period, or when discussing related topics in History, Science, English Literature etc.
Now is also a good time to focus on strengths. You can encourage children to identify and discuss the strengths they need individually and that the country and the world needs at this time. They may identify the need for bravery as we all face our fears around the current situation, or for creativity to find new ways of working, learning and interacting. Curiosity may be a strength we all tap into as we learn more about the specific virus and about the spread of disease, historical pandemics and the way treatments are developed, for example. Honesty may also be a prominent strength to focus on as we need to self-isolate if we develop symptoms. They may discuss the need for the strength of leadership, and whether that only comes from country leaders, school leaders, business leaders etc, or from all of us. And how about love, prudence, self-regulation? Of course, we mustn’t forget kindness! Kindness towards those who need to self-isolate and may need help to get food and medication supplies, kindness towards others in not hoarding scarce supplies in supermarkets, kindness towards those who are worried about vulnerable loved ones. You can find out more about the 24 VIA character strengths from the VIA Institute on Character.
You can focus on strengths by specifically asking children to discuss or write about the strengths needed in the current situation, you can increase the way you use strengths vocabulary with children and adults in school, you can encourage strengths-spotting in others, or you can set children and colleagues strengths-challenges (use a particular strength in novel ways and see who comes up with the most unusual ways to use it). The possibilities are almost endless!
If you or any of your children display symptoms and need to follow the current advice to self-isolate for seven days, or if you need to close your school, this is an ideal opportunity to practise a couple of great positive psychology interventions:
- Write down three good things - or think of it as ‘what went well today?’ - each evening before bed for seven days.
- Identify one of your ‘signature strengths’ (you can do this on the VIA website for adults and children ages 10 or above…or you can discuss strengths and examples to help each pupil identify their key strengths ahead of any self-isolation or closure) and find seven new ways to use it in seven days.
Both these activities were found in one ground-breaking study (1) to cause lasting increases - for six months - in happiness and a reduction in depression for the same amount of time. A more recent replication of the study (2) also found that these interventions can lead to lasting increases in happiness.
I hope this episode helps you draw some positive inspiration from these challenging times we are living through. Keeping ourselves mentally well in addition to looking after our physical health is more important than ever. Look after yourself and, as always, I look forward to catching up with you next week. Until we speak again, For Flourishing’s Sake, have a great week!
References:
- Seligman, M. E. P. et al. (2005) ‘Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of intervention’, Positive Psychology, pp. 1–19. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.60.5.410.
- Mongrain, M. and Anselmo-Matthews, T. (2012) ‘Do Positive Psychology Exercises Work? A Replication of Seligman et al.’, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 68(4), pp. 382–389. doi: 10.1002/jclp.21839.