Short Course in Teacher Wellbeing
Driven by factors such as rapid technological, pedagogical and social change, the intensification of work has meant that members of the teaching profession have in recent years been required to demonstrate unprecedented levels of productivity, agility and resilience.
Despite flexibility being every teacher's middle name, too many skilled and dedicated teachers now find themselves facing personal and professional crises, living with chronic exhaustion and on the verge of burnout. For schools, this is an intolerable and unsustainable trend that demands reform at the system level, and urgent preventative and remedial action at every school and individual level.
This course is a timely response to the clear call from classroom teachers and school principals alike for a comprehensive overview of evidence-based strategies to meet the daily challenge of generating and radiating the positive energy required to live, relate, and work well. At the heart of this call is the indisputable understanding that teacher wellbeing and student wellbeing are two sides of the same coin (Roffey, 2012).
Evidence-based learning and action
Over 5 hours of online professional learning, the Short Course in Teacher Wellbeing will synthesise recent literature from the fields of positive psychology, positive education, neuroscience, positive organisational scholarship, and social psychology to strengthen your knowledge of the elements, concepts, theories, and evidence-based strategies related to teacher wellbeing and its relationship to quality teaching and student outcomes.
Although solidly grounded in the academic literature, the course is essentially a practical one. Together, we will explore the research to discover how to cultivate positive emotion, even in times of suffering; how to nurture positive and real relationships, despite the difficulty of some conversations; and how to modify our mindset to magnify the positive meaning of work.
The Short Course in Teacher Wellbeing aims to inspire and equip you to take intentional action to improve your personal wellbeing and professional practice. Through the development of an Action Plan, it encourages you to immediately adopt many of the evidence-based strategies identified in the video presentations to the mutual benefit of yourself, your colleagues, and your students.
By diligently watching the course videos and reflecting on the companion activities in the course workbook, you can expect to exit the Short Course in Teacher Wellbeing with a heightened capacity to generate and radiate the positive energy you need to function at your best - at home, in your staffroom and, most importantly, in your classroom.
Learning objectives
Consistent with Standard 6.2.2 of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, the Short Course in Teacher Wellbeing provides teachers with the opportunity to participate in reflective online learning to update their knowledge and practice targeted to their professional needs and the priorities of their school and system.
Specifically, through a structured synthesis of recent educational and psychological research literature, the course aims to:
- Update teacher knowledge of the elements, core concepts and key theories relevant to teacher wellbeing and its relationship to quality teaching and student outcomes
- Update teacher knowledge of evidence-based strategies found by researchers to improve personal wellbeing and professional practice, especially those that help to cultivate positivity, nurture real relationships, and magnify the meaning of work
- Facilitate the development of an evidence-based, personal action plan to nurture and protect teacher wellbeing and performance, to the mutual benefit of the wellbeing and productivity of colleagues, and the wellbeing, engagement and learning of students
Course feedback
Course organisation
Guiding questions:
- Why must personal wellbeing be a priority of every teacher?
- What helpful habits and risk factors impact your current wellbeing?
- From the research literature, what are the elements of psychological wellbeing?
- What additional elements comprise holistic wellbeing?
Key concepts:
- Wellbeing
- Evidence-based strategies
- PERMA Model
- PERMA Plus
Guiding questions:
- Is there a research-validated relationship between high teacher wellbeing and positive student outcomes?
- What three theories provide evidence that nurturing teacher wellbeing benefits student engagement and student learning?
- According to the research, how are students likely to be advantaged in a positive classroom climate?
- How are teachers with high wellbeing better equipped to meet the psychological needs of their students?
Key concepts:
- Broaden-and-Build Theory
- Self-Determination Theory
- Choice Theory
Guiding questions:
- What important roles do positive emotions play in our wellbeing and resilience?
- What are the keys to coping with, and moving forward from, suffering in our lives?
- Through what evidence-based strategies might we be able to raise our positivity ratio?
- What deliberate steps could a teacher take to help create an upward spiral of positivity in their staffroom and classroom?
Key concepts:
- Positivity ratio
- Positive emotions
- Negative emotions
- Post-traumatic growth
- Resilience
- Savouring
- Gratitude
- Positive reminiscence
- Rumination
- Equanimity
- Upward spiral of positivity
Guiding questions:
- According to the research, how is our wellbeing enhanced by the presence of positive relationships?
- What evidence-based strategies suggested by the research might enable us to better build positive relationships?
- According to the research, what barriers exist to authenticity and closeness?
- What daily habits and mindful interventions help protect our positive connection with others by supporting our equanimity and reducing our risk of amygdala hijack?
- What light does research shed on how to effectively participate in a difficult conversation?
Key concepts:
- Active-constructive responding
- Amygdala hijack
- Iceberg beliefs
- Reflective responding
- Imposter syndrome
- Vulnerability
- Courage
- Armouring up
- Shame resilience
- Transactional analysis
Guiding questions:
- What is the relationship between one's wellbeing and the meaning one makes of work?
- According to the research, what change in mindset might help some teachers raise their sense of purpose and hence their wellbeing?
- What other pathways are available to help people raise their sense of meaning in life?
Key concepts:
- Meaning
- Purpose
- Calling
- Hedonism
- Eudaimonia
Guiding questions:
- According to the research, what three factors explain differences in how people rate their subjective happiness level?
- What daily thinking and behavioural patterns are happy people likely to have in common?
- From the evidence-based strategies you have encountered in this course, which do you choose to adopt to assist your wellbeing and performance, and why?
- From your acquired knowledge of the research gained from this course, how do you anticipate your personal action plan will impact the wellbeing and productivity of your colleagues, and the wellbeing, engagement and learning of your students in particular?
Key concepts:
- Happiness Pie
- Intentional Activities
- Action Plan
Course structure
The course is delivered online and on-demand. Participants will:
- Watch 6 course videos
- Write responses to pre-module and post-module questions in the course workbook
- Check understanding through a short multiple-choice quiz
- Optionally join and contribute to the Positive Difference Teacher Wellbeing group on Facebook
Course presenter
The course is presented by Robert Ritchie.
Rob founded Positive Difference with the mission to deliver comprehensive, research-validated training to optimise individual and organisational wellbeing, performance and leadership capacity. Through Positive Difference, Rob has helped hundreds of people do good better.
Rob's strengths are his capacity to see the big picture to draw connections between research fields; synthesise complex research findings into clearly structured frameworks and immediately applicable actions; and share this knowledge in a warm, inspiring and highly engaging way. His VIA signature strengths are perspective, judgement, honesty, creativity and humour.
Rob holds a Master of Education degree, a Bachelor of Education, a Bachelor of Arts with Honours, and a Diploma of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing. He is also an accredited practitioner of CAPP's Strengths Profile.
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Course fee and inclusions
Course fee
Preparing the fees
Recognition of learning
- A Certificate of Teacher Wellbeing will be awarded upon course completion.
- The course offers 5 hours of professional development in teacher wellbeing. Additional hours may be claimable for reading recommended books listed in the course workbook.
Other inclusions
- 180 days access
- 6 professionally recorded videos streamed in high definition
- A companion course workbook with pre-module and post-module activities
- A multiple-choice quiz
- Online community support