Character Strengths: a tool kit for character, well-being and academic excellence ECIS Brussels April 2015

What? Why? How?

What?

One of the core aims of education Individual development Development of the citizen Knowledge and skills

Aristotle Emulation and moral reasoning Seligman and Peterson Character strengths and well-being

Different frameworks Launcelot Andrewes ‘politeness, gentleness, patience, restraint and good manners,’ (Bradley, 2010, p. 9) The VIA – the Values in Action Character Strengths and Virtues (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)

Why? Two aspects to well-being – reducing negative feelings/behaviours Cultivating positive feelings/behaviours

It increases well-being Using your ‘signature strengths more’ increases well-being and decreases depressive symptoms (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) Growth in child and adolescent distress as seen by rise in self-harm – it might be protective and preventative

Preliminary research findings: Participants had significantly higher levels of life satisfaction Marginally significant effect on positive affect No effect on negative affect or self-esteem Results suggest the intervention increased life satisfaction

It’s educational Increase in self –awareness and awareness of others Increase in the ability to engage in moral reasoning – to think about action and motive, ethics and meaning

Individual Resilience ‘the strengths are all part of resilience…giving strength from within’ ‘positive thinking about who they are’ The children say things like ‘I can get things wrong and it’s ok’..and that’s because they know they’re still showing/using strengths *1

Institutional Resilience ‘in all this instability and inconsistency that we’ve had it’s been the one stable thread in improving…the vocabulary and language of strengths’ ‘it helps keep the school together’

Relationships Relationships between children Relationships between teacher and pupil Relationship of pupil with self and with learning ‘I’ve seen the impact it has on children, how it can change their perceptions of themselves

‘positive thinking about who they are’ ‘it supports their learning and their relationships with each other’ ‘seeing the beauty in all the children…even the really, really tricky ones…it helps the relationships, it helps keep the school together’ *2

How Stand alone programmes: Strengths Gym

Whole School Philosophy Celebrating Strengths

Cultivate stories and storytelling: Strengths in action stories

Cultivate a positive habit of thinking about and focusing on strengths: Philosophy for children/community of enquiry

Cultivate time to pause and think about strengths and root them in the daily, termly, annual cycle of your school: Rhythm, tradition and celebration Make the abstract, concrete – embody the strengths

What it needs…. ‘I constantly revisit it’ ‘the staff embody it’ ‘it depends on how the teacher and the teaching assistant keep it alive in the classroom’ ‘we use the strengths everyday, in everything we do’ ‘it forms the platform from which we function’

‘the most powerful vehicle communities have for transforming their conventions – their agreements on norms, values, policies, purposes and ideologies – is through the act of dialogue made possible by language. Alterations in linguistic practices, therefore, hold profound implications for changes in social practice,’ (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 2008, p. 360)

In the specific case of the UK, adults tend to construct children and childhood as a social problem,’ (Morrow and Mayall, 2009) *3

What language do you use? How are your concepts embodied? What do you pay attention to? *Pearls