3 minute read
The happy place
Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program set about discovering which practices would enhance this Kent school’s students’ overall fulfilment. Mark Beverley discusses the project’s findings here
What does it mean to flourish? The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University defines flourishing as ‘complete human well being: a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good’ (VanderWeele 2017, 8149), including the following five domains: • happiness and life satisfaction • mental and physical health • meaning and purpose • character and virtue • close social relationships In 2021, we began a project with researchers from Research Schools International (RSI) and Harvard to discover to what degree our students
are flourishing, which research-based practices we already used to support flourishing, and which practices we might implement more often. We collected survey data from students across the school years and analysed this data using a mixedmethods approach. Student and teacher research fellows worked alongside RSI to learn about educational research and human flourishing, and to develop their research skills, including learning about survey design and analysis.
Many evidence-based activities compiled by Harvard to enhance student flourishing were reported in school. Exercise, use of humour, and volunteering ranked on the higher end, and are regularly encouraged and practised at Sevenoaks. There were also many examples of acts of kindness, inspiring wonder, and healthy sleep and eating being encouraged by teachers. Opportunities to engage with nature, express gratitude, receive social support and practise mindfulness were, however, ranked lowest in terms of how often students are encouraged to engage in these activities at school.
The research findings were shared with our staff, who were invited to reflect on ways that individual teaching practice could attend more explicitly to the above areas for growth. All teachers were asked to propose an activity that would address one of these areas and apply them through their own practice. Some teachers took a further step and developed their ideas into action research projects. For example, teachers are undertaking projects focusing on: mindfulness activities in lessons; using reflective practices to promote student thinking about the meaning and purpose of education; strategies for supporting students with perfectionist tendencies; and facilitating flow through teaching.
This research has inspired consideration at the most fundamental level of what education is for. As an IB school, we want to understand better how to help students develop meaningfully as happy
and healthy people, with a greater awareness of themselves and of others, just as much as they achieve academic success. This detailed focus has already made a significant difference to the way we understand the practical and ideological implications of this aim. We’re looking forward to implementing further changes in the future.
Mark Beverley is Director of Institute of Teaching & Learning at Sevenoaks School in Kent
FINDING FULFILMENT
What Sevenoaks School students learned from taking part in the research project
A particular feature of the project has been to involve students as active participants and research fellows. When asked to reflect on the process, their insight into flourishing in schools, and experience of helping to identify areas for growth, was overwhelmingly positive. One student wrote, ‘The project enabled students throughout different years to undertake research, and ran through lower, middle and upper school. For many of us, this was the first real research we’d participated in and it taught us valuable skills for designing surveys, filtering data, analysing it and drawing conclusions.’
