Poster Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

How Does Wellbeing Help Students Learn? (#597)

Ben S Hawthorne 1 , Dianne Vella-Brodrick 1 , John Hattie 2
  1. Centre for Positive Psychology, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, Australia
  2. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, Australia

In recent years’ schools have moved to focus on both the academic and wellbeing needs of students. While the benefits of wellbeing for adolescent aged students is widely documented, the mechanism of how wellbeing influences learning is not yet fully understood. This poster offers a review of the literature surrounding both wellbeing and the science of learning. An outline of how wellbeing factors may influence and improve student learning by helping reduce the mental effort a learner expends on a task is offered. The wellbeing factors of emotions and resilience are identified as two possible mechanisms through which wellbeing may improve learning. More specifically, the reduction of painful emotions as well as minimising behaviour regulation, are areas that will be discussed. This poster also outlines a PhD project aiming to (1) explore the relationship between wellbeing and mental effort from a cognitive load perspective and (2) highlight the instructional implications of this possible relationship.