Positive Psychology in Education
August 3, 2007
What happens when positive psychology principles are truly applied in an educational setting? Answering this question invites at least two tactics: 1st, identifying which principles are in question; and 2nd, considering schools which may not identify with the label “positive psychology”.
Let’s consider that the underlying principle of positive psychology as applied to education is simply focusing on what’s right with individual students while recognizing their learning difficulties and challenges. A school that successfully applies that method is Landmark School (http://www.landmarkschool.org), a school for elementary, middle- and high-school students with verbal learning disabilities. Practically speaking, this means that students who are not able to perform at their grade level in reading, writing, or arithmetic are not penalized for what they are not achieving. Instead, they are rewarded (generally with praise or encouragement) for every accomplishment, whether academic or social behavior, and regardless of its scope. Each step forward, no matter how small, is celebrated.
What happens when students begin to receive this new sort of response after years of low test grades, frequent reprimands, and continuous failure for their efforts? After a few months, they begin to respond differently, to take risks in class by volunteering for board work or asking a question. Put another way, the students begin to feel hope. The challenge to the teacher is to design the tasks to be small enough for student success, yet large enough to maintain student interest.
Landmark School includes micro-structure of tasks as one of their basic teaching principles, yet does not self-identify as a school based on positive psychology. It is my opinion that Landmark exemplifies positive psychology in education.
Please share your perspective! If you have experience of principles of positive psychology applied in another educational setting, let us know.
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I can’t but help but wonder how the students who may be coming from a negative feedback past learn to trust the new positive responses. It must also be confusing at first. How do you manage this transition point? Do others out there who work in education experience this transition phase?
I work for the Anchorage School District with elementary school students as a guidance counselor. The Director of Elementary Education, Patricia McRae, realized that a comparatively small number of students (that had not been identified as having high needs) in the 60 elementary schools were disruptive and were continuing these behavior problems throughout their educational careers. This concept became a grant to have the students bussed to a short term (8 weeks) program to learn the skills they needed to be successful in school. The result is now 3 classrooms that work with students that are between Kindergarten and 3rd grade.
I am in the counselor in one of the classrooms(9 students who have a full time teacher, .5 counselor and 2.5 teacher’s aides. The program is called Creating Successful Futures has just begun its 8th year and has served more than 250 students.
The focus is on success at school and at home. The students are set up for success by being taught what is expected repeatedly, in detail and with practice(i.e. walking down the hall, listening, focusing on their work, talking out problems, etc).
The student’s successes are celebrated while they are held to a high expectation to follow directions, do their work and be respectful to others. The students earn a play time with special toys if they have succeeded in meeting their goal of an 85% or better day.
When the students realize they have control over their day and can simply choose to be successful, they work hard to earn their rewards and change negative behaviors. Both the students and their parents have struggled with a sense of failure before being identified and having the opportunity to attend the program. Their relationships with other students become increasingly positive as they feel the power to control their day and to succeed with their studies and relationships. Then they are ready to try out their skills in a larger class room and with their home school teacher with support.
Parents and teachers often ask what causes this transformation in many of the students (we have some that need more comprehensive and long term services.). It seems that the combination of comprehending the specifics of expectation and the presence of clear and consistent consequences is a part of it. However, by far the most powerful aspect that motivates the change is descriptive praise and learning to trust themselves to make wise decisions.
I enjoy the challenge of teaching these students the social emotional resiliency skills they need to cope with the trials of having to yield, compromise, assert, contain and respect using programs like Pumsy (positive thinking, positive feeling, positive doing), Kelso (social problem solving), Cool Cat (anger management and social problem solving), I Care Cat (basic rules to live by) and Sparky (words and acts of kindness). Our classroom is infused with the concepts, rituals and reminders from Becky Bailey’s Conscious Discipline.
Elayne Hunter
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