Browsing by Author "Ala-Luopa, Laura"

The school world has long focused on the problem-based assessment of students. When the focus is on the pupil's deficiencies and areas for improvement, the aspects that should be valued and praised may be left behind. Positive education is a pedagogical application based on positive psychology that focuses on enhancing the well-being and learning of students. The focus is on the student's strengths and successes rather than weaknesses. In recent years, the emphasis on positive education has also increased in Finnish schools. Research has typically focused on measuring the effectiveness of methods and developing well-being measures in the form of intervention or action research. Since teachers' perceptions of positive education have not been studied much, this study aims to chart how positive education has been carried out in the ordinary Finnish classroom environment. The research was carried out by using qualitative research methods. Six classroom teachers that were interested in and using positive education were interviewed about their perceptions and experiences of positive education. The interviews were conducted with a semi-structured theme interview and analyzed by theme analysis. According to the results of this study, teachers perceived positive education as character strengths and their further development, positive perception and positive feedback. Teachers shared their thoughts and experiences of teaching positive education from the point of view of their desires, benefits, hands-on teaching, attitudes, recommendations, distribution and applicability. Based on the positive experiences of teachers, positive education can be taught in school as separate lessons or as embedded into other lessons. The study suggests that positive education could be implemented more widely in schools, as it could be a potential way to increase the well-being of the whole school community.