Date Released: 19 January 2017
UCITE Session for Thursday, January 19: Creating a Positive Classroom Environment
Much has been written about the academic benefits of applying positive psychology to secondary, and even elementary school classrooms, but there can also be benefits using similar strategies at the college level.
Could positive psychology concepts such as mindfulness, positive emotions, strengths, gratitude, and growth mindset potentially improve the college classroom by enhancing the academic, social, and emotional functioning of the stressed-out college student? It turns out that they might.
These concepts were recently implemented in one college classroom as a pilot study. Self-reports across a number of psychological and educational measures, indicated that students exposed to positive psychology reported experiencing significantly more positive emotions, fewer negative emotions, fewer feelings of anxiety, and more engagement (Myatt, 2016). [Faculty Focus, 2017]
There are some specific ways that faculty can accomplish this "positive shift", no matter what the area of expertise, course content or course structure. Come hear about these and other ideas for creating a positive climate for learning at our first Thursday UCITE session of the Spring 2017 semester, on January 19th, from 12 - 1PM, in the Herrick Room [which is on the ground floor of the Allen Medical Library Buildiing at the corner of Euclid and Adelbert. Pizza lunch and sodas will be provided at this session.
To help us estimate the amount to order, please let us know if you plan to attend this session by sending a message to ucite@case.edu.