What influences student well-being?

In a 2009 report written by The Australian Catholic University and Erebus International to the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, student well-being is defined as “a sustainable state of positive mood and attitude, resilience, and satisfaction with self, relationships and experiences at school. Student wellbeing is described as pervasive in that it affects most aspects of a student’s functioning at school.”

From this definition, we can see just how important well-being is in our students…

it affects most aspects of a student’s functioning at school.

So then, what are the influences of student well-being?

The report mentioned above has listed 7 pathways, or ways to impact on student well-being.

They are:

1. Physical and emotional safety
2. Pro-social values
3. A supportive and caring School Community
4. Social and emotional learning
5. A strengths-based approach
6. A sense of meaning and purpose
7. A healthy lifestyle

“These pathways to student wellbeing are interrelated but still separable. They interact with each other to enhance student wellbeing. The whole (i.e. wellbeing) is greater than just the sum of the parts (i.e. the pathways).”

I don’t think that these 7 pathways are limited to student well-being, they can be applied to teachers and any other person as well. It might be time we all thought about our well-being, and about how we are travelling along these pathways. Where could you spend a little time and attention?

Tomorrow we’ll look at a few specific ways that educators can positively impact student well-being, in ways that won’t detract from their teaching time and that are evidence based and data driven.