Apply Presentation - 30 minutes International Positive Psychology Association 8th IPPA World Congress 2023

Empowering the Hong Kong School Community to Implement Positive Education: A DD-R Approach (#300)

Samantha WYW Wong 1 , Antony MHL Li 1 , Chun Yin CYL Leung 1
  1. Bei Shan Tang Foundation, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong

Background

As an endeavor to promote well-being among Hong Kong schools, Bei Shan Tang Foundation has been introducing Positive Education (PosEd) to Hong Kong educators since 2014. Seeing the increasing number of schools on board, the Foundation consolidated a series of development-delivery (DD) initiatives to foster schools’ professional capacity to implement school-based interventions. The Foundation also established its research offerings to inform schools’ practices.

Aims

To illustrate how the Foundation’s work contributes to schools’ implementation, two school cases (Schools A & B) were discussed.

Method

On the DD front, the Foundation empowered educators of the two schools to become change agents through three consecutive steps: 1) immersive training to equip educators with scientific knowledge of PosEd, 2) a learning community to explore technical know-how of interventions, and 3) school-based consultation to help schools incubate their contextual well-being interventions. On the research front, measurements were designed to help schools identify targets and their well-being needs, and to provide formative feedback along the intervention process.

Results

Pre-post-intervention measurement indicated that, School A 5th graders had demonstrated positive changes in Positive Meaning (F=2.157, g=.31), Hope (F=2.602, g=.35) and Academic Self-efficacy (F=1.965, g=.30) when teachers employed a set of PosEd-infused teaching languages into classroom teaching. In School B, 8th graders had shown enhanced School Connectedness (F=12.263, g=.43), after emotional learning programme was introduced. Qualitative data revealed frontline educators’ professional growth from acquiring PosEd knowledge and essential skills, leveraging network resources, and embedding PosEd into school context.

Conclusion

To foster impactful and sustainable PosEd development among Hong Kong schools, the Foundation regards both DD and research efforts as indispensable. The discussion of the Foundation’s DD-R approach shall shed light on the organization of future endeavors.

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