Why instructors should actively foster student well-being
Posted August 29, 2014
By Dr. Aaron Jarden
For some of us final exams are approaching, for others a new term is at hand. Regardless of the time of year, if you’re an instructor you’ve probably got more than enough on your plate at any moment. But let me suggest another area of focus that’s critically important that you really ought to add to your instructional practice if it isn’t in the mix already – fostering student well-being.
Why should you care about student well-being?
Five reasons stick out from the crowd. The first is obvious. Well-being is good in itself, and you would be pretty mean spirited if you were not generally concerned with the welfare of others. So let’s move on from that one…
Secondly, research indicates that students on the whole have lower well-being than the general population. They report lower life satisfaction and less positive emotions, and report more depressed mood, anxiety, and stress. It’s damn hard being a student with all the change, financial strain, high achievement expectations, and need to constantly form new relationships. As such it is easy for them to neglect social relationships, emphasize extrinsic motivation (e.g., grades) over intrinsic interests (i.e., learning/innovation), work excessive hours, and engage in other patterns of behaviour that diminish well-being over both the short and long term (e.g. drug and alcohol use, inadequate sleep). These are the primary reasons why university environments continue to report significant student dropout rates and high levels of psychological distress amongst students. So the second reason is really that they are a group in need of well-being attention and support, but you probably already knew this one…
Thirdly, what you may not know is that research is confirming a strong link between well-being and academic achievement – in other words, intelligence and ability are not the only determinants of academic success. To sum this literature up in a sound bite, increased student well-being has been linked with greater creativity, task persistence, multitasking, achievement, optimism, engagement, attention, sociability, trust, and helpfulness, and with less illness and less hostility. If you want your students to succeed academically, they need these tools in their backpacks...
Fourthly, it’s likely that your boss, or the university administration, will turn to student well-being in the future, if they have not already at your institution, largely because of the aforementioned relationship between retention and success factors. Don’t wait to be directed, be ahead of this wave…
Lastly, increased student well-being is good for all of us. As Shane Lopez comments, “Imagine an educational system that develops the individual strengths of our young people so they may realize their personal potential and fulfill a loftier goal — that of creating a thriving community of civically responsible and productive members; it may very well be attainable”.
So, with these reasons in mind, consider the important role that you can play in fostering well-being and personal development amongst your students. Come on board the well-being bandwagon, recognizing that beyond academic success, attending to and increasing student well-being - along with teaching the traditional goals of education - will enable them to perform better at university and to perform better later in the workplace. Ask yourself: Can you think of initiatives to enhance student engagement, motivation, concentration, positive emotions, and sense of confidence and autonomy? Can you increase students’ ability to handle stressors by teaching skills such as optimistic thinking, assertiveness, decision making, relaxation, coping, and problem-solving skills? Can you increase students’ ability to capitalize on well-being by teaching skills such as strength identification and use, growth mind-sets, gratitude, and purpose? Can you change your instructional practices with well-being in mind? Can you infuse some well-being into your curricular development?
With your answers, go forth with vigour and develop the skills of well-being, flourishing, and optimal functioning in your students and be the instructor they remember…
Bio
Dr. Aaron Jarden is a Senior Lecturer at Auckland University of Technology, president of the New Zealand Association of Positive Psychology, lead investigator for the International Wellbeing Study and the New Zealand Wellbeing Index, founder of The Tuesday Program, co-editor of the International Journal of Wellbeing, and Senior Scientist for Work on Wellbeing.
