Developing and using Character Strengths in the classroom

Jock McGinty

MSc Teaching of Psychology

J.F. Kennedy

‘We choose to go to the moon’�

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwFvJog2dMw

Expectations

• Over the past 20 years, changes in the U.K. and world economies have raised the stakes for educational attainment.

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• U.K. adolescents have responded by dramatically increasing their educational aspirations and expectations to go to university.

Challenges for students

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• Students need the capacity to strive for, and succeed at, long-term and higher-order goals so they can persist in the face of the array of challenges they encounter in their studies and life.

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Martin Seligman and positive psychology

Introduction to Positive Psychology

• Positive psychology is the scientific study of optimal human functioning. It aims to discover and promote factors that allow individuals, communities, societies to thrive and flourish.

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• Haidt and Gable (2005)

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Positive Education

• Schools are not places just to learn the skills of achievement or to use as a stepping stone for a career, but institutions to educate children on how to live lives signified by good character and values.

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• What do positive education and positive schools look like?

Positive education and schools

• Positive Psychology, when applied to schools, focuses on the intentional cultivation of student wellbeing and resilience, their intellectual/cognitive strengths and character strengths and the development of their sense of meaning or purpose in life.

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• McGrath 2009

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Authentic Happiness

• Positive emotion
• Engagement
• Meaning

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• Life satisfaction
• Subjective well being

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PERMA

Well being

• Positive emotion
• Engagement
• Relationships
• Meaning
• Accomplishment

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• PERMA

Chris Peterson and Nansook Park

http://www.viacharacter.org/www/

VIA Inventory of Strengths for Youth (VIA-Youth)

Barbara L. Fredrickson

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The Broaden and

Build Theory

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Is There a Critical

Positivity Ratio for

flourishing?

Grit perseverance resilience�

• Your ‘I can’ is more important than your IQ

Seligman and Duckworth (2005) �

• Academic performance depends in large part on students’ self-control or Conscientiousness, concluding that “a major reason for students falling short of their intellectual potential [is] their failure to exercise self-discipline” p.939

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Ratings of character strengths

TOP 5 TYPICALLY

• Humour
• Love
• Gratitude
• Honesty
• Curiosity

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BOTTOM 5 TYPICALLY

• Perseverance
• Prudence
• Love of learning
• Self regulation
• Spirituality

True Grit

Angela Lee Duckworth

Grit

• A never yielding form of self-discipline

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• Typifies high levels of accomplishment

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• As essential as IQ to high achievement

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Grit versus self-discipline

Resilience

• Resilience is the process and capacity for successful adaption despite challenging circumstances

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• Task:
• Think individually of 4 factors that are required for your students to become resilient
• Discuss these factors and settle on the most important 5
• Feedback for group discussion

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Foundations for positive education

• Foundation One: Mastery and competence

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• Foundation two: Positive emotions

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• Foundation Three: Strengths and engagement

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• Foundation Four: Meaning and purpose

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Developing mastery and competence through skills

• Social skills such as negotiation and positive discussion

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• Skills that lead to mastery and a sense of success such as thinking skills, reflection and metacognition

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• Goal–achievement skills such as planning, setting time-lines, solving problems and seeking assistance

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• Resilience skills such as optimistic thinking, courage, coping skills, helpful thinking

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Activities to develop resilient students

• Using the ABC model

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ABC model

• An activating event (A) occurs, our beliefs (B) influence the consequences (C) in two ways

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• how we feel (emotional response) and how we act (behavioural response).

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• If we are able to be more mindful of our beliefs, evaluate how realistic our beliefs are and consider alternative evidence, we might be able to detect patterns that may be counterproductive and stop the downward spiral that could occur.

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ABC

• A = Activating Event

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• I can’t answer this question on explanations of schizophrenia

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• B = Belief/thought
• C = Consequence feelings
• D = Dispute

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ABC

• A = Activating Event

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• I have my A2 Psychology exam approaching

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• B = Belief/thought

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• ‘I’m going to fail! This is unbearable, I can’t stand it. I’ll never be able to prepare for it, not with life the way it is right now. I’m useless, why am I bothering? There’s no point.

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• C = Consequence feelings

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• Anxious – can’t sleep – can’t focus.

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• D = Dispute 

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Possible activating events in the classroom.

• Thinking traps
• Jumping to conclusions (coming to a conclusion without gathering sufficient evidence)

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• Magnifying and minimizing (tendency to devote greater focus on bad events and lesser focus on good events)

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• Externalizing (blaming others or external circumstances for the outcome of events)

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• TASK: Discuss examples of when your students fall into these traps

Using critical questions

• These questions prompt people to correct their faulty beliefs by testing the accuracy of the beliefs and evaluating their usefulness.

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• TASK: discuss how you would use critical questions for each of these thinking traps
• Jumping to conclusions
• Magnifying and minimizing
• Externalizing

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• How does this help build resilience?

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Putting it in perspective

• On your own, identify 4 ways in which you put students work and challenges into perspective

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• Discuss your thoughts and settle on 5

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• Thoughts
• How does putting things into perspective build resilience?
• Can you see any similarities with AfL?

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Improve your well being

Other techniques

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• Best possible selves

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• Gratitude letter