POSITIVE EDUCATION: TEACHING WELL-BEING TO YOUNG PEOPLE

Positive education pairs traditional schooling with positive psychology interventions to improve well-being.
Positive education is based on the science of well-being and happiness.
Positive Education is an approach to education that blends academic learning with character and well-being. It prepares students with life skills such as: grit, optimism, resilience, growth mindset, engagement, and mindfulness amongst others.
Positive education views school as a place where students not only cultivate their intellectual minds, but also develop a broad set of character strengths, virtues, and competencies, which together support their well-being.
Positive education is a whole-school approach to student and staff well-being: it brings together the science of positive psychology with best-practice teaching, encouraging and supporting individuals and communities to flourish.
Positive Education focuses on specific skills that assist students to strengthen their relationships, build positive emotions, enhance personal resilience, promote mindfulness and encourage a healthy lifestyle.
Positive Education brings together the science of Positive Psychology with best practice teaching to encourage and support individuals, schools and communities to flourish. We refer to flourishing as a combination of ‘feeling good and doing good’.
In consultation with world experts in positive psychology and based on Seligman’s PERMA approach, the Geelong Grammar School developed its ‘Model for Positive Education’ to complement traditional learning – an applied framework comprising six domains: Positive Relationships, Positive Emotions, Positive Health, Positive Engagement, Positive Accomplishment, and Positive Purpose. This model has been augmented with four fundamental active processes that underpin successful and sustained implementation of positive education: Learn It, Live It, Teach It, and Embed It.
Widespread support is necessary for the success of the positive education movement.