Positive Youth Development in Education

Positive youth development (PYD) is an approach to child and adolescent education that provides resources in the school and community to enable youth to reach their full potential and to flourish in a democratic society. The approach draws on various disciplines and legacies in its practices and approaches, ranging from school curricula to out-of-school activities that have long traditions, such as scouting and 4-H clubs. We take note of the philosophical tradition stemming from Aristotle that prioritized acquiring various virtues as the path to human happiness and how virtues of justice, temperance, courage, and prudence are the focus for many present-day programs under the umbrella of PYD. We review the dominant theories of PYD as well as school programs that have been developed to encourage PYD, including social-emotional learning, character education, civics education, and service learning. We also examine the effects of out-of-school programs on PYD outcomes. We conclude with the prospects for PYD and the challenges that remain for its future development.

Positive Professional Practice: A Strength-Based Reflective Practice Teaching Model

While positive education research has grown over the past decade, making strides in measurement, interventions, and applications, it has also been criticised for lacking consistent guiding theoretical frameworks, heavily emphasising psychology over education, and being driven by unacknowledged pedagogical assumptions. This chapter argues that a particular stumbling block has been ignoring the professional practice of positive education; that is, what positive education teachers do and how they know they are having an impact. To addresses this gap, this chapter introduces a strength-based reflective practice model for teachers that integrates the Values in Action classification of character strengths with Brookfield’s four lenses for reflective practice, which consists of: (1) the students’ eyes, (2) colleagues’ perceptions, (3) personal experience, and (4) theory. The model aims to provide a method for critical self-reflection, thereby helping to enable effective professional practice. Through this model, perhaps positive education can become a pedagogy that has found its practice.

Positive Education in Practice

In recent years, there has been significant growth in positive education programs and experiences around the world. From an international perspective, there is considerable variety in practices in this field. It is encouraging to note that positive psychology is entering the classrooms and becoming an important movement for educators in many countries. But at the same time, it is critical to reflect on the evolution of this movement and assess whether its implementation is having the desired effects. Current practices are varied and not all of them meet necessary quality standards. Furthermore, it is necessary to analyse the enabling and hindering conditions that arise from practice in educational settings, so as to better understand what is working well and what needs to be improved. This chapter discusses these issues, suggests proposals for implementation for practitioners, and highlights the necessity for positive education to be available for all educational settings and contexts, regardless of characteristics or financial resources.

Four Fundamental Distinctions in Conceptions of Wellbeing Across Cultures

One of the key roles of culture is to shape how human groups pursue personal and collective wellbeing, and thus each culture contains prescriptions and customs about how to achieve optimal functioning and wellbeing. This chapter identifies four fundamental differences in the conceptualizations of mental wellbeing across cultures. The identified differences are in the centrality of hedonic experience, self-enhancement, autonomy, and the relevance of contextual factors in determining wellbeing. These overlapping dynamics provide a framework for categorizing and making sense of existing cross-cultural findings on mental wellbeing. The chapter discusses the theoretical and empirical implications of the reviewed cross-cultural findings for international measurements of wellbeing. We argue that various measures of wellbeing may function differently in different global regions, with crucial implications for how countries are ranked based on wellbeing. Our review also highlights the relevance of cross-cultural variations in the concepts of wellbeing for designing interventions and policies and evaluating their effectiveness across cultures.

Mindfulness in Education: Insights Towards an Integrative Paradigm

This chapter reviews mindfulness in education and presents its role in the context of holistic well-being and a whole-child approach. We discuss the diverse initiatives and pedagogies of mindfulness in education around the world and present their potential contributions to students and teachers. Research outcomes, empirical findings, and synergy with positive education are examined.

Self-Determination in Positive Education

One of the constructs that has been widely researched in positive psychology is self-determination, which refers generally to acting volitionally, based upon one’s own preferences, interests, and values. This chapter overviews conceptualizations of self-determination in the context of theories of agentic human behaviour, motivational psychology, and disability. Two primary theoretical perspectives on self-determination, Self-Determination Theory and Causal Agency Theory, are discussed, and their relative contributions to understanding the development of self-determination examined. Three education-based interventions that have been derived from these theoretical perspectives are described, as well as the evidence supporting their implementation: an intervention to increase teacher skills and knowledge to be autonomy-supportive; a schoolwide intervention that emphasizes autonomy, competency, and relationships; and a teaching model that enables teachers to teach students to self-regulate problem-solving leading to setting and attaining educational goals. To create schools that benefit all students, we need to focus on promoting student agency, student ownership over learning, and meaningfulness and purpose.

Teacher and Staff Wellbeing: Understanding the Experiences of School Staff

The health of the teaching profession is essential for the innovation and productivity potential of our young people. Teachers are faced with preparing young people for an unknown future, with the reduction of manual tasks and an increased focus on people skills, problem-solving, and creative thinking. Teachers are critical in helping students achieve, belong, and develop socially and emotionally. But how well prepared are teachers and other school staff for shifting conditions, and how satisfied and productive are they? The reality is that many teachers, leaders, and school staff are struggling. Drawing on two research studies, this chapter explores experiences of staff wellbeing. Findings indicate that for young people to be well, to achieve at school, and to be prepared for the future, teachers must also be well. Strategies for supporting teacher wellbeing and implications for the future are discussed. A well-educated population is key to a nation’s prosperity, peace, and human flourishing.

Shifting Mindsets: Transforming Self, School, and Society

We are living in a time of profound disruption and planetary crises which is calling on all of us to show up and make a contribution that serves the wellbeing of all. A central aspect of making such a contribution is the capacity to shift our mindsets towards more caring, inclusive, and interdependent perspectives. This chapter explores mindsets in an educational context. We begin with a general overview of mindset theory and examine the relationship between mindsets and the unfolding of human potential. Then we explore fixed and growth mindset theory in education, which is primarily focused on learning, achievement, and improvement. Next, we evolve this focus to include benefit mindset theory, which integrates leadership, contribution, and transformation, and focuses on how we can recognise our interdependence with the living Earth community, turn towards our individual and collective shadows, and realise our unique potential in a way that serves the wellbeing of all. We include a table of 10 mindset transformations, and we invite scholars and educators to explore implications.

Positive Spirituality

Positive spirituality is about acknowledging the personal spiritual growth that can occur through the use of some techniques from positive psychology. Contemporary educational philosophy within secular government educational departments rarely, if ever, addresses the notion of a spiritual life within educational institutions. Religious schools, on the other hand, usually include prayer and spirituality at the foundation of their educational aims. There is a clear disconnection between the two systems in this respect. Positive spirituality potentially provides a bridge between these two systems, bringing a focus on a broad notion of spirituality to otherwise secular government/public systems, and scientifically validated approaches to potentially narrowly focused religious schools. For instance, meditative techniques, relaxation, and physical stillness can help bring spiritual awareness to the fore, and in the process highlight a connection to something larger than oneself—the very goal of all mystics and a noble educational objective as teachers strive to inspire a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their students.

Engaging Education: The Foundation for Wellbeing and Academic Achievement

In a world of educational crisis, students who lack engagement and feel bored at school might not pursue further education when given opportunities to leave school. In the twenty-first century, there is a need for lifelong learners and it is therefore essential to focus on optimising education. How do we support deep learning and application of knowledge? How do we support student motivation for learning? How do we engage students in learning activities? How do we make students thrive in schools and learning activities? This chapter offers possible answers to these questions. The chapter starts by introducing important elements of learning and a framework for optimising education and engaging the students. Next, the PERMA model for optimising wellbeing for students is presented, and finally the two frameworks are combined to create thriving learners by focusing on active, involving, and engaging learning in combination with a focus on wellbeing.