Proceedings of The 2nd International Conference on Advanced Research in Teaching and Education
Year: 2019
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/2nd.2nd.icate.2019.12.839
Positive Psychology in Education:A Systematic Literature Review
Soraia Garcês, Margarida Pocinho and Anita Figueira
ABSTRACT:
Positive Psychology has emerged in recent years as a new endeavor in the field of social sciences but with an impact in other fields. Education is one of these fields that has had enormous interest from the positive psychology community. At the same time, many educational actors have approached the need to change the conventional educational system in a way that includes the development of the student in a holistic way. Positive Education is one of these new ways of perceiving how education can go beyond the traditional way of teaching and learning. This study aims to identify which psychological factors are being empathized in the field of positive education. A Systematic Review of Literature was used with the keywords: “Positive Education” and Psychology”. The research was developed through BOn, the Online Knowledge Library. The first data retrieval included 110 articles, but after excluding duplicates 59 remained. The application of inclusion/ exclusion criteria led to the exclusion of 40 more articles. The remaining 19 were analyzed and read thoroughly leading to the exclusion of 13 more. The final sample consisted of 6 articles that met all the inclusion criteria. Content analysis showed the existence of eight psychological factors: wellbeing, positive emotions, resilience, weaknesses and strengths, happiness, engagement, creativity and positive relationships and confidence. Thus, the results contribute to a broader understanding of the complexity of the teaching-learning process and provide thoughts about how education can favor psychological variables in students’ development as a “whole” human being.
Keywords: Holistic development; Pedagogies; Positive Psychology; Psychological factors.