Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemPositive professional practice: A strength-based reflective practice teaching model(Springer International Publishing, 2021-06-24)Abstract 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.
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ItemPart III Policy - Overview(Springer, 2017)Over the last two decades, well-being has become increasingly central to public consciousness and the policy agenda (Diener et al. 2009). At a national level, we are increasingly seeing strategies designed to increase the well-being of citizens and well-being is now measured in a similar way to gross domestic product in many countries, providing information about progress beyond what is possible with traditional economic indicators alone. Such subjective indicators of well-being are now widely used by policy makers in community planning, resourcing, and policy reform – all with the aim to enhance the quality of life of ordinary citizens (Adler and Seligman 2016; Seligman 2013).
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ItemPart II Organizations - Overview(Springer, 2017)Positive psychology is a field that is heavily embedded in models of individual behavior change (Kristjánsson 2012; Slemp et al. 2017). Accordingly, we now have a solid research foundation on the impact of behavioral interventions on individual students, workers, and community members, as well as the individual correlates and outcomes of positive psychological phenomena. Yet, it was Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000), in their foundational article who identified collective wellbeing as one of the fundamental challenges for the field.
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ItemPart I: Education - Overview(Springer, 2017)Over the past decade, there has been a rapid rise of interest in the application of positive psychology within education settings. Seligman et al. (2009) defined positive education as “education for both traditional skills and happiness”, however, in line with the more nuanced and comprehensive models of well-being in the field, positive education targets more than just happiness. More recently it has become an umbrella term to describe empirically validated interventions and programs from positive psychology that have an impact on student well-being. Positive education also aligns with educational agendas or initiatives that sit outside of the traditional academic skills of literacy and numeracy, and aim to foster adaptive dispositions and social emotional learning for continued growth across the lifespan. While terminologies differ, these agendas are sometimes referred to as character education, lifelong learning, twenty-first century skills, and social and emotional learning. The positive education movement has now encroached into kindergarten, early years, junior, middle and senior schooling. We have even seen the application of positive psychology within tertiary educational colleges across the world.
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ItemIntroduction(Wipf and Stock, 2017)This book arose from a landmark Australian conference run at St Peter’s College-Adelaide in September 2014, Flourishing in Faith: Positive Psychology and Theology. The conference was jointly hosted by St Barnabas College, an Anglican theological college, and St Peter’s College, an Anglican school for boys (K-12).
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ItemMary-Theotókos: Fulfillment of God’s Grace and Embodiment of Virtues—A Strengths-Based Reading(Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2017)The chapter is an exploration of two fields of inquiry and the question: “Is it possible to have a deeper understanding of Mary by integrating Peterson and Seligman’s language of virtues and character strengths?”
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ItemAn introduction positive psychology, positive education and wellbeing(Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2017)This chapter provides the reader with an introduction to the foundation of Positive Psychology, positive education, and wellbeing. It acts as an introduction to the science. To grasp fully the origins of Positive Psychology it is important to consider the culture and context of the movement.
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ItemImpact of activity: Future directions of positive education(Springer, 2017-06-16)It's now about time the conversation around positive education matured. After a decade I feel we are approaching an intersection within the positive education movement. Depending on which train, or, on which platform you are on. We appear to be either: Stopping all stations, catching an express regular or on a one special event train! I argue that the potential of the positive education movement is being held back. We need to slow down the train, realign the positive education movement and clearly focusing our work on demonstrating the impact of activity within positive education rather the focus on what we have been doing. The question critical readers in the field should always ask is "where is the evidence of impact?" I am optimistic that with bold leadership we can do this within the next 5 years.