Teaching practices that are conducive to supporting the positive emotional well-being of learners in post-compulsory education: an implementation of PERMA in the classroom

The emotional well-being of learners in post-compulsory education (PCE) is a growing concern. It is well documented that there has been a continued increase in mental health difficulties among young people over the last decade. Many tutorial-based programmes have been introduced and evaluated in UK PCE environments to support the emotional well-being of learners; however, there has been a distinct lack of research exploring how the positive emotional well-being of learners can be supported in PCE classrooms. Therefore, this study explores the theories of positive psychology and PERMA and their implementation within teaching practices in post-compulsory education by answering the research question ‘Which teaching practices are conducive to supporting the positive emotional well-being of learners in post-compulsory education?’ This study explores the history of post-compulsory educational policy, positive psychology and mental health interventions for children and young people and their implementation in educational environments.
This study aimed to identify post-compulsory education teaching practices that could support each area of PERMA and evaluate their effectiveness in supporting the positive emotional well-being of learners within this sector. This study took place in a sizeable post-compulsory education college across multiple sites. The research was conducted by drawing upon an action research framework, and the data was collected through online questionnaires, participant group interviews, and classroom observations of teaching practices. Key findings identified specific teaching practices that supported each area of the PERMA theory, such as greeting learners, teachers’ movement around the classroom while teaching, the use of positive descriptive praise, inclusion of a range of activities and group tasks during lessons, building on learners’ interests or work experiences, and the use of practices such as the ‘think, pair and share’ method of questioning.
Identifying a range of teaching practices with the potential to support the positive emotional well-being of learners in post-compulsory education has recognised the possibility of teachers, through effective delivery of their lessons, being able to improve the emotional well-being of their learners. These teaching practices could significantly impact learners’ experience of post-compulsory education as their emotional well-being is improved. There is then the potential to improve retention, attendance, success and progression rates. By identifying teaching practices conducive to supporting the positive emotional well-being of learners in post-compulsory education, this research could inform educational policy changes to address the mental health challenges of young people in education in the UK, teacher training programmes across the country, as well as inform knowledge within the under-researched area of the emotional well-being of learners in post-compulsory education.