Written by After an inspiring day and some very insightful conversations with Cohort 21ers at the MaRS Discovery District this past Friday, I walked away with exciting ideas about the various forms my action plan might take. For the rest of the weekend, my brain was abuzz with potential action plan prototypes (thanks to @lesmcbeth‘s wicked discussion on design thinking). Finally, I have arrived at defined action plan, as well as an action plan for my action plan, which I am eager to dive in to!
Drum roll, please…
A Toolkit for Flourishing (a.k.a. An inquiry into how schools can create a culture that promotes flourishing.)
*Thanks to @Think_teach for the catchy title!
Phase 1 (February): Research
- What exactly is positive education?
- What is flourishing? How can it be achieved?
- What schools/teachers are already practicing positive education? Any case studies?
- Is flourishing measurable?
Phase 2 (March): Develop Toolkit
- Develop “A Toolkit for Flourishing” based on research findings. This may include energizers, exercises, articles, etc.
- Include a tool that can be used to assess flourishing (if possible)
Phase 3 (April): Implementation
- Introduce the toolkit to the Intermediate Division and/or The Learning Centre at Ridley College; encourage faculty and students to make use of the tools
- Look for meaningful places in our schedule in which these tools can be used and discussed, and/or integrate them into everyday practice
Phase 4 (May/June): Assess Efficacy
- After several weeks of utilizing the toolkit, conduct an assessment in an attempt to measure if flourishing has increased amongst students and faculty
I will aim to publish blog posts at the end of each month, to summarize my findings and/or observations from each phase of the action plan, and to receive feedback. At this point, I am still unsure as to what format my final presentation for the April 24th F2F will take – but I do know that I intend to put to use some of the awesome tools I’ve learned about at Cohort 21.
Happy action planning everyone!
I am so happy that you are exploring this topic with your action plan. This reminds me that I should write a post about a project my Grade 7 girls on character strengths: http://www.viacharacter.org/www/ which is something very much connected to Positive Psych!
I’m also wondering if a useful tool would be a “before and after” snapshot. Are there some kinds of questions you could pose to your students as almost a “dip stick” to see where they are now and then compare to where they are after this transformative work?
A survey or just reflection questions might do the trick!
Thanks, Celeste!
I’ve taken the VIA Survey myself – and it’s something I’d like to try with my students as well. Identifying and building upon one’s strengths is definitely central to positive psychology! I’d love to hear about how it went with your Gr. 7 girls.
I agree that some sort of “before and after” snapshot would useful. I’ve been looking into some different tools – like the “Flourishing Scale” (FS) for example – but I have yet to decide on one. As you say – perhaps I could just come up with some of my own reflection questions!
Thanks for your suggestions and support. Much appreciated : )
Allison,
This is a great plan moving forward. @ckirsh reminds me of part of our F2F conversation around some sort of inventory so that you can have a benchmark for yourselves and teachers to assess any impact. Granted it will be hard to do with such a tough emotion to pin down.
Here is a great article on that topic: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/thanks-mom/309287/
Happy Happying and Flourishing!
garth.
Thanks, Garth!
I really enjoyed this article! It’s interesting that the Grant Study researchers concluded that relationships are key to happiness – I keep coming across this idea in the literature on well-being and happiness that I’ve been reading. It all seems to point to the importance of strong connections with other people.
Thanks again for all your support!
Allison,
Great plan! I like your plan within a plan 🙂
I agree with @gnichols and @ckirsh that the challenging part might be measuring the impact of the tools that you introduce.
On another note, here’s a resource that you might find useful – it’s something I use with my advisees when talking about character: https://characterlab.org/
Good luck! I look forward to learning from your research.
Les
What a great resource, Leslie – I hadn’t come across this one yet. There’s lots to look at here – I will definitely check it all out. Thank you!
Allison, have you read about this conference at Sterling Hall? I saw it and I thought of you: I’ll be there…hope you can be too!
https://www.netdirectories.com/~shs/oler2.cgi?1253
No, I have not heard about this conference! Thank you for sending along the information – it looks really interesting. I’ll definitely present it to my Head. I’d love to go!