SEARCH: A Meta-Framework and Review of the Field of Positive Education

Abstract

This paper presents a data-driven, meta-framework to support evidence-based decisions for researchers and practitioners when designing, investigating and implementing positive education interventions: the SEARCH framework. SEARCH was developed through a two-stage process. Stage one comprised a large-scale bibliometric review and thematic grouping of topics based on natural language processing of over 18,403 positive psychology studies. Stage two involved action-research with ten schools testing the practical validity of the wellbeing themes identified in stage one with educators. The result of these two stages identified six overarching pathways to wellbeing that formed the SEARCH framework: 1) strengths, 2) emotional management, 3) attention and awareness, 4) relationships, 5) coping and 6) habits and goals. The aim of this current review paper was to examine the existing educational and psychology literature for evidence of whether each SEARCH pathway has been found to successfully foster student wellbeing. Seventy five peer-reviewed studies (total student N = 35,888) were reviewed from North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Results demonstrate the value and applicability of the SEARCH framework. The comprehensive review conducted in this paper is then used to discuss current gaps in positive education research as well as present the utility of SEARCH as a framework to support positive education science and practice.

Searching for Wellbeing in Schools: A New Framework to Guide the Science of Positive Education

“…Applying this logic to a positive education framework, researchers can build a higher-order dimensions of wellbeing such as emotional intelligence through the flexible delivery of a raft of smaller practices (e.g. gratitude practices, random acts of kindness, emotional thermometers) in interconnected ways [35]. When researchers see positive education through the lens of a metaframework they are able to 'join the dots' of the various PPIs they are researching and stop studying these in isolation.…”

“…2. an action research project involving ten schools to road test the data-driven, meta-framework [51]. 3. a systematic review of school intervention studies in both psychology and education data bases that involved 35,888 students from Australia, NZ, Europe, the UK, Asia and North America demonstrating the efffectiveness of the framework and each individual pathway on student illbeing, wellbeing and learning outcomes [35].…”

“…SEARCH provides a useful framework for a meta-map of the vast findings of positive psychology to date. Table 2 provides a summary of the significant outcomes arising from interventions that have studied each of the six SEARCH pathways as identified in the Waters and Loton review [35]. As can be seen, each pathway of SEARCH has been shown to significantly impact student mental health (either by reducing illbeing or increasing wellbeing) and learning.…”

“…The calls for schools to teach both traditional academic skills and wellbeing skills is at the heart of the field of Positive Education, a decade-old field that seeks to combine the science of positive psychology with the science of teaching and learning to promote student wellbeing [29,30]. Reviews of positive education have shown that the positive psychology interventions (PPIs) delivered in schools are generally successful in building student wellbeing [31][32][33][34][35]. PPIs in schools teach skills to students such as cognitive re-framing, progressive relaxation, empathy, active listening, constructive negotiation and goal setting.…”

“…In addition to the teaching of skills, some PPIs focus on the teaching of certain practices that build mental health such as mindfulness, gratitude, savouring, strengths use and kindness [36,37]. Teaching these skill sets and practices to students has been shown to promote a range of wellbeing outcomes including reductions in anxiety, depression and stress as well as increases in life satisfaction, coping, calmness, positive emotions and self-esteem [35,38,39].…”