DaveShearon

Advice to a fictional school board

As noted a couple of posts below, one of our assignments for this MAPP session is to think about how we might advise a school board interested in "integrating positive psychology into the curriculum."  Here are my notes:

Curriculum?  One word:  fuhgedaboutit!  Ok, ok, that's a little negative.  But, seriously, there are enough curriculum mandates floating around.  There's a better approach.

First, recognize that your system already has strengths.  School psychologists may know about this.   Some of your teachers may have read The Optimistic Child, The Happiness Hypothesis, Authentic Happiness, or Learned Optimism.  Some of your younger teachers may have even taken one of the Introduction to Positive Psychology courses now being offered in many universities.  So, find those strengths and set out to support and enhance them.

Second, model what you want.  If you want teachers to learn, be learners yourself.  Model how positive psychology can be applied in an organizational setting.  I'll be happy to participate in a book club with any of you who are interested, hold some discussion sessions, or whatever you think might help you learn and apply some of what we now know.

Third:  teacher-led instructional improvement!  Not a new program, but a new trust for teachers.  Help them learn and grow, make time for them to work together, and ask them to use what they learn to create better, healthier, more engaging schools for our students.  Then watch for ways to support the efforts that emerge.  You'll like the results.

That's it.  Three simple suggestions with a wealth of ways to implement.  Good luck and thank you.  I think you can do great things for our children.

2nd Semester of MAPP

Today was the first day of the second semester of MAPP, and I'm glad to be back at it.  This semester is obviously going to be more applied, including a service learning project that will be done in cohort's.  Don't know yet which one I will be assigned, but one of them is in Nashville!  It's cool and I could work with it, but then I really think I could enjoy working with any of the organizations.  The task will be to serve as positive psychology consultants identifying likely ways to use positive psychology insights in the organization.

Tomorrow ... my advice to the hypothetical school board from the notes below.

Positive Psychology for Teachers

The following is from  a chapter by Amy Fineburg entitled  "Introducing Positive Psychology to the Introductory Psychology Student" in Positive Psychology in Practice:

Positive psychology principles can give educators insight into the motivational problems inherent in the teaching process. While teachers can take their horses to water, they cannot make them drink. It takes creativity, inspiration, and hard work to prepare lessons that will reach the intellectual level of each student. But even when-teachers prepare outstanding lessons that appeal to a wide variety of students, motivational issues that could prevent students from learning and appreciating what is taught can distract them. If students have pessimistic beliefs about their academic ability, they may not learn. Therefore, teachers need to consider not only content and pedagogy but also motivational issues that may hinder the learning process. Positive psychology provides insight into some questions teachers should be asking about lesson planning in addition to content and pedagogy:

·         How optimistic are our students about their abilities as learners? Pessimistic students are more hostile toward school (Boman &

Yates, 2001). If students could be taught to be more optimistic about school, they would be more likely to succeed.

·         

What goals have our students set for this class and how realistic are their plans for achieving them? When students set realistic goals about school, develop plans to achieve those goals, and believe their goals can be achieved, they will likely achieve, earning higher grades and scores on achievement tests (Snyder, 2000).

·         How do students' comparisons of their achievement to others in the class affect their learning? Students who receive a higher grade than expected both feel good and praise the teacher, whereas those who receive a lower grade than expected both feel lousy and trash the teacher. Thus, a B grade could mean something quite different to the student who expected an F as compared to a student who expected an A, thus changing levels of satisfaction with the class (Fineburg, 2003; Snyder &

Clair, 1976).

·         

How can we make learning a flow experience for our students? Flow activities involve freely invested attention, challenge with requisite skill, and lack of worry about failure (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). If students can experience learning as flow, their enjoyment and intellectual stimulation about learning will likely be enhanced.

·         By developing lessons that address these questions, teachers can help make students' experiences under their tutelage more effective, helpful, and encouraging as students realize how to become better learners.

Positive Psychology for School Boards

MAPP starts back next Thursday.  Here's part of the assignment for one course:

For each of the first four on-site classes, we plan to have guest speakers talking about how they are applying positive psychology in their professions.  Our theme for the first on-site weekend will be education.  ____________ and __________will join us to talk about their work with the ___________ [high school] project.

I would like you to imagine that your local school board has found out that you are a MAPP student.  They invite you to make a presentation to them about positive psychology and to propose to them how positive psychology might be integrated into the curriculum.  Jot down some notes on what you would want to cover in your presentation.

This I should be able to do!  I'll post my notes later this week.