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Developing Future-Ready University Graduates: Nurturing Wellbeing and Life Skills as Well as Academic Talent

Higher education is starting to embrace its role in promoting student wellbeing and life skills, especially given the concerning levels of poor mental health and uncertainties in the future job market. Yet, many of the published studies evaluating positive educational teaching methods thus far are l...

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Autores principales: Gan, Tzyy Yang, Beevi, Zuhrah, Low, Jasmine, Lee, Peter J., Hall, Deborah Ann
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8931502/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35310246
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.827517
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author Gan, Tzyy Yang
Beevi, Zuhrah
Low, Jasmine
Lee, Peter J.
Hall, Deborah Ann
author_facet Gan, Tzyy Yang
Beevi, Zuhrah
Low, Jasmine
Lee, Peter J.
Hall, Deborah Ann
author_sort Gan, Tzyy Yang
collection PubMed
description Higher education is starting to embrace its role in promoting student wellbeing and life skills, especially given the concerning levels of poor mental health and uncertainties in the future job market. Yet, many of the published studies evaluating positive educational teaching methods thus far are limited to interventions delivered to small student cohorts and/or imbedded within elective wellbeing courses, and are focussed on developed Western countries. This study addressed this gap by investigating the effectiveness of an institution-wide compulsory course informed by the principles of Seligman’s Wellbeing Theory. The course was delivered at a British university in a developing country in Southeast Asia. It purposefully sought to nurture growth-oriented outcomes (including self-awareness, positive emotions, and personal effectiveness) and was taken by an entire cohort of year one undergraduate students. We tested the effectiveness of the curriculum content and staff coaching style in achieving life skills, and evaluated how these perceptions influenced students’ subjective wellbeing. A convergent mixed-methods design was used with 350 survey respondents and 11 interviewees. Perceived life skills scores showed a 2.5% improvement at the end of the course. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling tested the predicted relationships between variables. All relationships were statistically significant, but the influence of course design and educators’ style on life skills acquisition (50.8% of the variance) was moderate, while the effect on subjective happiness and life satisfaction (4–5% of the variance) was very weak. Qualitative data indicated that while quantifiable benefits to wellbeing might not be immediate, students did anticipate longer-term benefits for happiness and life satisfaction. This finding suggests that such a novel educational approach is well-received by Asian students and may sow the seeds for future benefit by positively impacting on their skills, behaviours, attitudes, and values. To achieve optimal flourishing at university, we recommend exploring teaching practises that combine positive education with coaching psychology practises.
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spelling pubmed-89315022022-03-19 Developing Future-Ready University Graduates: Nurturing Wellbeing and Life Skills as Well as Academic Talent Gan, Tzyy Yang Beevi, Zuhrah Low, Jasmine Lee, Peter J. Hall, Deborah Ann Front Psychol Psychology Higher education is starting to embrace its role in promoting student wellbeing and life skills, especially given the concerning levels of poor mental health and uncertainties in the future job market. Yet, many of the published studies evaluating positive educational teaching methods thus far are limited to interventions delivered to small student cohorts and/or imbedded within elective wellbeing courses, and are focussed on developed Western countries. This study addressed this gap by investigating the effectiveness of an institution-wide compulsory course informed by the principles of Seligman’s Wellbeing Theory. The course was delivered at a British university in a developing country in Southeast Asia. It purposefully sought to nurture growth-oriented outcomes (including self-awareness, positive emotions, and personal effectiveness) and was taken by an entire cohort of year one undergraduate students. We tested the effectiveness of the curriculum content and staff coaching style in achieving life skills, and evaluated how these perceptions influenced students’ subjective wellbeing. A convergent mixed-methods design was used with 350 survey respondents and 11 interviewees. Perceived life skills scores showed a 2.5% improvement at the end of the course. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling tested the predicted relationships between variables. All relationships were statistically significant, but the influence of course design and educators’ style on life skills acquisition (50.8% of the variance) was moderate, while the effect on subjective happiness and life satisfaction (4–5% of the variance) was very weak. Qualitative data indicated that while quantifiable benefits to wellbeing might not be immediate, students did anticipate longer-term benefits for happiness and life satisfaction. This finding suggests that such a novel educational approach is well-received by Asian students and may sow the seeds for future benefit by positively impacting on their skills, behaviours, attitudes, and values. To achieve optimal flourishing at university, we recommend exploring teaching practises that combine positive education with coaching psychology practises. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8931502/ /pubmed/35310246 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.827517 Text en Copyright © 2022 Gan, Beevi, Low, Lee and Hall. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Gan, Tzyy Yang
Beevi, Zuhrah
Low, Jasmine
Lee, Peter J.
Hall, Deborah Ann
Developing Future-Ready University Graduates: Nurturing Wellbeing and Life Skills as Well as Academic Talent
title Developing Future-Ready University Graduates: Nurturing Wellbeing and Life Skills as Well as Academic Talent
title_full Developing Future-Ready University Graduates: Nurturing Wellbeing and Life Skills as Well as Academic Talent
title_fullStr Developing Future-Ready University Graduates: Nurturing Wellbeing and Life Skills as Well as Academic Talent
title_full_unstemmed Developing Future-Ready University Graduates: Nurturing Wellbeing and Life Skills as Well as Academic Talent
title_short Developing Future-Ready University Graduates: Nurturing Wellbeing and Life Skills as Well as Academic Talent
title_sort developing future-ready university graduates: nurturing wellbeing and life skills as well as academic talent
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8931502/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35310246
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.827517
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