Irish students are loving new positive ethos
EVERY day after lunch, teacher Margaret O’Riordan and her teenage students meditate for five minutes. The students love it.
O’Riordan, who has 27 years’ experience, teaches at St Michael’s special school in Chapelizod, which is for students aged four to 18 who have a mild learning disability.
“The students I work with have to deal with difficulties that other students don’t encounter,” she says. “As a teacher, one of the greatest joys I have is seeing the peace and calm on their faces. They really love the five minutes.”
The meditation is one aspect of the positive psychology Margaret has introduced to her classroom. Positive psychology uses scientific tools to make people flourish. Researchers have verified the power of positive emotions.
Good teachers know that happy children learn more effectively, but positive moods produce more creative and holistic thinking and better behaviour.
Studies demonstrate the benefits of well-being and positivity in relationships, health, and longevity. Happy people are more resilient, persistent, sociable and creative, develop their strengths and are more likely to be high-achievers.
An advocate of positive psychology, O’Riordan has taken a number of courses in the subject. Her training guides how she interacts with her pupils. It has huge benefits for students and teachers.
“I deliberately teach about happiness and well-being every day,” O’Riordan says, so children can cope with difficulties and challenges. Positive psychology determines how she talks to her pupils — O’Riordan emphasises how they feel, while the rules of the classroom are positively stated. “These would include ‘be kind, be gentle, be the best you can be’,” she says. “Positive thinking begets positive things — the children come in with a smile on their faces and they seem really happy to be at school and engaged with what is going on at school.”
In the three years since she introduced the concept into her teaching, parents have noticed a difference. “Parents would say to me that the kids are much happier. I get feedback from the home that the kids are in better form,” says Margaret. However, it’s no use just ‘teaching’ happiness — you have to be a role model.
“You have to model these behaviours constantly. They need to see me as a positive person. It changes the whole atmosphere in the classroom and I find, if you give a child the opportunity to be the best they can be — that is, a good, kind person — then they will be that person.”
There are benefits for her, too. “When I am within the four walls of my classroom, it feels like a little oasis of joy,” she says. Margaret has 12 pupils in her class — but school principal, Patricia Fahy, another advocate of positive psychology, has incorporated its principles into the running of her bustling, 700-pupil St Paul’s primary school in Navan, Co Meath.
This ethos is evident from the moment visitors arrive — big, colourful posters, carrying the motto ‘let’s see how we can spread a little happiness’, decorate the corridors and emphasise the positive atmosphere of St Paul’s. “Parents and visitors remark on it, and also on the happy environment, when they walk into the school,” says Fahy, an educator for 38 years, 26 of them as a mainstream classroom teacher.
She has taken several courses in positive psychology.
“Working with 700 children, and 35 teachers, you need optimism, and hope and mindfulness, to run a happy environment where children can live and learn,” she says.
“Positive psychology has been incorporated into the ethos of the school, and covers everything from the importance of gratitude and living in the ‘now’ to children’s attitude to school, the importance of being nice to their peers, to good manners and behaviour in the classroom and the playground.”
Positivity week at St Paul’s has just finished — the staff kick off the new term with ‘positivity week’ packs complete with lesson plans. The concept is discussed by the students.
“The children discuss ways to make other children happy, draw pictures, do posters, write poetry, make bookmarks and do role-plays about being nice and nasty. Our school ethos is to have the child as happy as he or she can be while they are at school — we consciously build an environment in the classroom which nurtures positivity in the school and the playground,” says Fahy. “There is a happiness and a positive approach permeating the school.”
There has been a noticeable knock-on effect on discipline and respect. “We have noticed an improvement in discipline and in the interaction between the children, and between the children and the teachers — and this is across the board,” she says.
Positive psychology is helpful in finding the trigger required to change a child’s attitude and behaviour. “The children are coming in happy to school, and respectful. There is so much focus on respect and manners. The parents are reporting it back to us.”
It takes effort, she says, but there is a big payback. “I feel it should be brought into the training colleges — I am aware there are modules on this in training colleges in England.”
Positive psychology should be incorporated not just into the teacher training syllabus, but into in-service post-college, says Mark Morgan, Cregan professor of education and psychology at St Patrick’s College of Education. “It should be part of teacher training and it should also be part of the in-service programme,” he says. “It should guide the way teachers behave in the classroom.”
The relationship between teacher and child is one of the biggest factors in a child’s achievement in school. “Liking the teacher is not just an add-on, it’s an intrinsic part of success in school and positive psychology is very important. If the teacher is positive, that has a positive effect on the child and on their achievement, and positive feelings are an inherent part of doing well in school.”
Positive psychology essentially is an emotional rescue-and-repair kit, says clinical psychologist Deirdre McIntyre, director of ICEPE, which provides positive psychology programmes for professionals who work with children. “Teaching happiness is not about a frivolous ‘feelgood’ factor. We’re talking about seeding positive emotions into our lives and learning the skills necessary to cope with failure and combat stress. By changing the way we behave, we can change the way we feel. This is not about a selfish happiness, it’s about teaching empathy, kindness and compassion.
“One of the things we’re teaching teachers is how to consciously monitor the idea of fun and flow, and engaging in the classroom.
“They work with the child’s strengths and don’t exclusively focus on any weakness.”
However, she says the feedback needs to be “realistic”.
“Resilience, grit and determination are the key things we are looking at. The happiness course is not just about happiness, but about teaching children flexible thinking, skills, and learned optimism, which is like a reset button and repairs us psychologically.”
*Teaching Happiness: positive psychology for behaviour and learning begins at ICEPE in October. 01-6510618, www.icepe.ie
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