Browsing by Author "Makkonen, Heli"

This thesis is a literature review which aims to describe positive pedagogy and how it pursues to contribute pupils’ well-being in schools. The purpose of this thesis was to specify positive pedagogy as an educational approach and to describe its perspective for increasing the well- being of pupils in schools. The previous recearch of well-being has emphasized the faults of well-being as well as the decreasing factors of it. The previous recearch of children’s well- being hasn’t observed enough the children’s own perspective to their well-being. Teachers see the goal of increasing pupils’ well-being as a challenging task. Thus new pedagogical ways are needed. Positive pedagogy is an educational approach which targets to contribute to pupils’ well-being with positive interaction and by teaching character strenghts as well as highlighting the potential in individuals. In addition positive pedagogy emphasizes the meaning of subjective well-being. Subjective well-being means childrens’ own judgment and estimation of their well-being. In the thesis positive pedagogy and its approach to well-being were studied by reviewing current Finnish work of positive pedagogy. Furthermore, the theoretical background of positive pedagogy and well-being were researched by reviewing the Finnish and foreign source material to which the work of positive pedagogy referenced. According to the results of this thesis, the theories in the source material apporoached well- being from different aspects. These aspects were educational, psychological and sociological. Their definitions for well-being term slightly differed from each other. However, all the aspects emphasized the meaning of subjective well-being. The results of this thesis pointed out that positive pedagogy sees well-being as a holistic construction. Especially, positive pedagogy emphasizes the importance of taking subjective well-being into account in schools. According to the reviewed literature and work in this thesis, increasement in pupils’ well being can be achieved by considering the children’s own judgment of their wellbeing and benefitting this knowledge when making the pedagogical decisions. Positive pedagogy emphasizes the role of schools as contributors to pupils’ well-being. The approach also provides various teaching methods which aim to increase pupils’ well-being.