Oral Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Placing Students' Well-Being At The Heart Of School Improvement (#391)

Anat Shoshani 1
  1. Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya , Herzliya , Israel

Most parents and educators deem well-being and socio-emotional development as important aspects of schooling. They want children who are   happy, confident, and emotionally healthy, who have positive relationships with other people, and whose characters are imbued with a strong ethical compass. Children with a sense of achievement and progress toward goals, and who reach their full potential both in school and in life.  

This presentation will discuss how schools can place well-being at the heart of their work with children, and how to build the capacity of schools to develop learning environments that support students' motivation and subjective well-being. Prof. Shoshani has developed and studied positive-psychology educational interventions for teachers and for students in preschools and schools (the Maytiv programs) that have served over 10,000 teachers and 300,000 children and adolescents in the Israeli educational system.

  1. Shoshani, A., & Guttmann-Steinmetz, S. (2014). Positive psychology at school: A school-based intervention to promote adolescents' mental health and well-being. The Journal of Happiness Studies, 15, 1289-1311. doi:10.1007/s10902-013-9476-1
  2. Shoshani, A., Steinmetz, S., & Kanat-Maymon, Y. (2016). Effects of the Maytiv positive psychology school program on early adolescents' well-being, engagement, and achievement. Journal of School Psychology, 57, 73-92. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2016.05.003
  3. Shoshani, A., & Slone, M. (2017). Positive Education for Young Children: Effects of a Positive Psychology Intervention for Preschool Children on Subjective Well Being and Learning Behaviors. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1866