Abstract—Nowadays, one of the biggest challenges almost all teachers face is how to motivate students to be more eager, focused, and engaged in their learning process. Positive psychology is used in education as a framework for improving students’ positive emotions like joy, contentment, and gratitude, which in turn increases both their wellbeing and learning performance. This study showcases a prototype of integrating positive psychology into a 9th grade English class, and examines how students’ engagements flourish and thrive through specific learning experiences. Before the prototype lesson, the teacher was trained about how to use positive language and phrases with students, how to link the theoretical concepts to students’ interest, and possible ways to motivate them to be more involved in the lesson. The prototype lesson plan was prepared by the researchers and conducted by the English teacher. Data were collected through class observations as well as interviews with the teacher and students before and after the prototype lesson. The results showed a noticed increase in students’ participation, attention, creativity, and positive attitude.
Index Terms—Wellbeing, positive education, positive psychology, Qatar.
Reem S. Al-Mansoori and Dana H. Abdeen are with the College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Education City, Doha, Qatar (e-mail: ReeAlMansoori@hbku.edu.qa, danabdeen@hbku.edu.qa).
Fatma Kayan-Fadlelmula is with Qatar University, Qatar (e-mail: fkayan@qu.edu.qa).
Cite: Reem S. Al-Mansoori, Fatma Kayan-Fadlelmula, and Dana H. Abdeen, "Implementing Positive Education in a Preparatory School: A Case Study from Qatar," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 654-660, 2017.