Keynote 1:

Embedding Positive Education in University Teaching

Deborah Hall (Heriot-Watt University Malaysia, Malaysia)

Contemporary debate proposes that adolescent growth extends to age 24. This in turn extends the window of opportunity for skills development, especially in cooperative activities that require emotional awareness and regulation.
Research has shown that enhancing students’ strengths in positive emotion, engagement, and meaning in life promotes a growth mindset, facilitates improved learning, increases life satisfaction and counteracts the risk of poor mental health. Therefore, the goal of positive education is to improve students’ well-being and learning.

Two thirds of the world’s population lives in Asia, yet most of the academic literature on positive education is conducted in Western countries. Moreover, while there are numerous examples of positive education in schools, the discipline has made fewer inroads in the higher education setting.

This presentation maps out the literature on positive education in university teaching, seen through an Asian lens. Key points will be drawn on illustrative evidence from a compulsory positive education course for all first-year students enrolled at Heriot-Watt University Malaysia. Course design and educator style incorporate the principles of positive psychology by blending development in personal effectiveness skills (such as self-confidence, self-reflection, personal responsibility, leadership, and time management) with an emphasis on developing self-awareness, discovering purpose, and creating a plan to mobilize that purpose into positive impact.