WHY AN INSTITUTE OF POSITIVE EDUCATION
Welcome to the first edition of our Institute of Positive Education’s eNewsletter. As ‘Friends of the Institute’ we are excited to be able to communicate with you about the many exciting developments in the field of Positive Education. We hope our eNewsletter will support the growth of this important work in schools and showcase examples of Positive Education in action both at Geelong Grammar School (GGS) and in various schools throughout Australia and around the world.
Throughout our history, GGS, along with many schools, has placed a strong emphasis on educating the whole person. Our journey with Positive Psychology and the inception of Positive Education started with our official launch by Professor Martin Seligman and our Principal, Stephen Meek, back in 2007. The ensuing eight years have been a tremendous journey of learning, living, teaching and embedding the skills for wellbeing which are supported by a growing body of scientific research. Please refer to the timeline of key events in our ongoing journey with Positive Education.
A colleague from my previous school recently asked me, “Why an institute?” I imagine others may have the same question and would be interested in hearing our response. Geelong Grammar School made the decision to establish an Institute to serve the growth of Positive Education both at the school and beyond. The excitement generated within GGS over the past eight years, coupled with the significant interest from wider educational communities (local, national and international), suggests that Positive Education is capable of fulfilling a need and that it is something for which many school communities are searching. There is a call for a comprehensive, scientific and whole-school approach to acquiring the concepts and skills for wellbeing. My colleagues and I feel a tremendous sense of meaning and purpose in the work we are doing at GGS. To see the primary impact we are having on our own school community, and to hear many examples of the secondary impact we are having on schools throughout Australia and indeed internationally, is extremely exciting.
A major reason for the School’s decision to establish an Institute of Positive Education was because it could see many ongoing needs in this very young field. As pioneers of Positive Education and from the considerable experience gained, from both the achievements and the setbacks, the School had confidence in its role to drive the growth of Positive Education on a broader scale. The School has been fortunate to learn from many of the national and international experts in the fields of Positive Psychology and Positive Education. Over 25 scholars have resided at Geelong Grammar School and enriched our community and our Positive Education programme. With this privilege comes a sense of responsibility to share this knowledge and to assist other school communities to make progress towards developing their own thriving communities.
There remains much more to be done, both in the field of Positive Education and also at Geelong Grammar School. There are research, curriculum and staff training directives or opportunities to pursue. Longitudinal research in different cultural settings must be carried out to determine effective wellbeing activities and to measure the impact of wellbeing programmes. Additional research must be undertaken to determine how best to promote flourishing among students, staff, parents and the community. There is a need for further curriculum materials to be written and a comprehensive scope and sequence document to be established for Positive Education. And of course, there is a need to offer more training courses so that teachers can personally benefit from the science of wellbeing and secondly so they can authentically embed the principles and practices within their school environment.
We deliberately chose the tagline Learning to Flourish for the Institute of Positive Education. It is taken from within our GGS Purpose document and indicates that we are not a finished product. It illustrates that we (the Institute and our work) are on an ongoing journey, learning how to describe, measure and promote flourishing within all members of our community. Hopefully through collaboration with like-minded people we can help to place wellbeing at the core of education. We hope that the articles shared within our newsletters and the authentic stories, examples and resources provided will assist you and your school community to flourish.
With additional resources in our Institute we are committed to establishing and facilitating regular communication within the network of Positive Education educators. We are very interested to hear and share stories of Positive Education in action, and would welcome any suggestions and requests for information that readers would like to see within our regular eNewsletters.
Members of our Institute team
From left, back row: David Bott, Dr Georgie Cameron, Dr Meredith O’Connor, Judy Hand, Charlie Scudamore
Front row: Shannan O’Neill, Dr Jacci Norrish, Janis Coffey, Justin Robinson
RECOMMENDED PODCAST
‘Sonja Lyubomirsky on the Myths of Happiness’ on the Greater Good Podcast Series recorded February 2013 and is accessible here.
The Greater Good Science Center has been operating from the University of California, Berkeley, since 2001. The non-profit organisation has a strong commitment to understanding both how science can serve us in better understanding social and emotional wellbeing, as well as how to help others apply findings and insights from science for the betterment of people’s lives. In this interview leading researcher in Positive Psychology, Sonja Lyubomirsky, discusses her new book, The Myths of Happiness. For example, Lyubomirsky speaks about the two main myths around happiness. One type of myth revolves around our beliefs that happiness is contingent upon some future event, e.g. “I will be happy when I have a house.” Another type of myth refers to our predictions that we will be unhappy if a negative event occurs, e.g. “I will be unhappy if I lose my house.” Lyubomirsky refers to how research has demonstrated that humans are often more resilient than we think. Over the course of the interview, Lyubomirsky discusses the complexity of pursuing happiness in terms of how individuals differ and the effects of gender, culture and biology.
RECOMMENDED READING
Mindful Learning: Reduce stress and improve brain performance for effective learning
Dr Craig Hassed & Dr Richard Chambers
Mindful Learning provides a comprehensive guide for educators with varied experience and knowledge of mindfulness practices. The authors map out how mindfulness and education meet through defining and exploring the meaning of terms such as education, mindfulness, learning, attention, stress and memory. This approach allows us to understand the interconnections and integration between mindfulness and learning suggested in the book’s title Mindful Learning. Whilst a great deal of practical exercises are provided, the authors go beyond describing and justifying mindfulness as an additional technique or program which needs to be added into the curriculum. Through interweaving sound research in the fields of learning and mindfulness, the book continually increases our awareness of the effects of being present as an educator. In this way, the book carefully and succinctly outlines how mindfulness is most powerfully learned through both explicit teaching such as training attention and implicit teaching such as role-modelling moment to moment awareness. The authors comment, “Most of what we teach we actually do without awareness.” This book offers its reader the chance to learn about current research and practice, as well as reflect upon and improve their own lives in terms of teaching, health and home.
Hassed, C. & Chambers, R. (2014). Mindful Learning: Reduce stress and improve brain performance for effective learning. Wollombi: Exisle Publishing.