Developing and using Character Strengths in the classroom

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Developing and using Character Strengths in the
classroom

• Jock McGinty

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MSc Teaching of Psychology

• Friday Breakout event one 3.00pm

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J.F. Kennedy

• We choose to go to the moon

https//www.youtube.com/watch?vkwFvJog2dMw
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• Over the past 20 years, changes in the U.K. and
  world economies have raised the stakes for
  educational attainment.
• U.K. adolescents have responded by dramatically
  increasing their educational aspirations and
  expectations to go to university.

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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
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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.
• 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.
• What do positive education and positive schools
  look like?

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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.
• McGrath 2009

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Authentic Happiness

• Positive emotion
• Engagement
• Meaning
• Life satisfaction
• Subjective well being

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Well being

• Positive emotion
• Engagement
• Relationships
• Meaning
• Accomplishment
• PERMA

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Chris Peterson and Nansook Park
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http//www.viacharacter.org/www/
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VIA Inventory of Strengths for Youth (VIA-Youth)
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Barbara L. Fredrickson

• The Broaden and
• Build Theory
• Is There a Critical
• Positivity Ratio for
• flourishing?

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Grit perseverance resilience

• Your I can is more important than your IQ

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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

• Bottom 5 typically

• Humour
• Love
• Gratitude
• Honesty
• Curiosity

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

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• True Grit

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Angela Lee Duckworth
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Grit

• A never yielding form of self-discipline
• Typifies high levels of accomplishment
• As essential as IQ to high achievement

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Grit versus self-discipline
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Resilience

• Resilience is the process and capacity for
  successful adaption despite challenging
  circumstances
• 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
• Foundation two Positive emotions
• Foundation Three Strengths and engagement
• Foundation Four Meaning and purpose

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Developing mastery and competence through skills

• Social skills such as negotiation and positive
  discussion
• Skills that lead to mastery and a sense of
  success such as thinking skills, reflection and
  metacognition
• Goalachievement skills such as planning, setting
  time-lines, solving problems and seeking
  assistance
• 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
• how we feel (emotional response) and how we act
  (behavioural response).
• 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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• A Activating Event
• I cant answer this question on explanations of
  schizophrenia
• B Belief/thought
• C Consequence feelings
• D Dispute
•  

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• A Activating Event
• I have my A2 Psychology exam approaching
• B Belief/thought
• Im going to fail! This is unbearable, I cant
  stand it. Ill never be able to prepare for it,
  not with life the way it is right now. Im
  useless, why am I bothering? Theres no point.
• C Consequence feelings
• Anxious cant sleep cant focus.
• 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)
• Magnifying and minimizing (tendency to devote
  greater focus on bad events and lesser focus on
  good events)
• Externalizing (blaming others or external
  circumstances for the outcome of events)
• TASK Discuss examples of when your students fall
  into these traps

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Using critical questions

• These questions prompt people to correct their
  faulty beliefs by testing the accuracy of the
  beliefs and evaluating their usefulness.
• TASK discuss how you would use critical
  questions for each of these thinking traps
• Jumping to conclusions
• Magnifying and minimizing
• Externalizing
• 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
• Discuss your thoughts and settle on 5
• Thoughts
• How does putting things into perspective build
  resilience?
• Can you see any similarities with AfL?

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Improve your well being
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Other techniques

• Best possible selves
• Gratitude letter

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Summary