A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
I’ve never received such a response to a Generation Next article like the one I received to last week’s column, 3 Common Myths About Positive Psychology. I was overwhelmed by the amount of emails I got, the majority of which were saying, “I’ve heard of positive psychology, but where can I find out more?” So [...]
You’d be well aware that late last year, the OECD published the latest of their PISA tables. But did you know that as this article shows, the tests are not all about numeracy and literacy? As part of the tests, students were asked to agree or disagree with a whole range of statements. One of which was: [...]
Why do kids like playing video games so much? Is it because they’re violent, misogynistic or just plain mind-numbing? Generation Next speaker Dr Wayne Warburton has conducted research that shows the impact of violent games on the adolescent brain has both short and long term effects. None of them good. Let’s leave violent [...]
I’ve had too many conversations with teachers who believe that the whole, “Pastoral care, touchy feely, emotional, welfare, wellbeing stuff” isn’t what they signed up for when they decided to become a teacher. As strange as you and or I – I’m assuming we’re on the same page given you subscribe to, or have [...]
Over the past 10 years, the research company Gallup have surveyed over a million US students with regard to their strengths, levels of hope and engagement and their wellbeing. Gallup recently published their Student Success Model in which they described some of the wellbeing factors that impact on success. 1. Strengths identification remains as simple as [...]
I believe that being genuinely engaged does wonders for your wellbeing. One of the determinants of engagement is a level of independence, or autonomy. Schools go to great lengths to give students (and teachers) the impression that they encourage independence. However, in the scheme of things, most of what occurs at school is prescribed for [...]
Children’s interest and engagement in school influences their prospects of educational and occupational success 20 years later, over and above their academic attainment and socioeconomic background, researchers have found. The more children felt connected to their school community and felt engaged, rather than bored, the greater their likelihood of achieving a higher educational qualification and [...]
I’m currently in Denmark where I gave the keynote address at the Innovation in Education conference. As well the conference, I’ve been working with different schools and organisations around the concept of student (and staff) engagement. Whilst working with the Department of Pedagogy at the University of Aarhus, one researcher told me of [...]
On Saturday, I gave a talk at the First Australian Positive Education Conference. One of the key themes that all speakers, and workshop facilitators spoke about was that of character strengths. 24 Character Strengths were identified by Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson as being valued across all cultures, races and religions. Each of us [...]
'Family-school and community partnerships are re-defining the boundaries and functions of education. They enlarge parental and community capacity; they create conditions in which children learn more effectively. In these ways they take education beyond the school gates'.* The Family-School and Community Partnership Bureau recently commissioned a report into the effects parental engagement on children’s educational [...]
