Positive Humanities: the integration of Positive
Psychology and the teaching of English Literature.
Table 3: Example of Year 11 Student Work
Walter Barbieri, Junior English Coordinator, St Peter’s College, Adelaide
Emily FitzSimons, Head of English, St Peter’s College, Adelaide
Darren Pitt, Director of Student Development, St Peter’s College, Adelaide
Dr Mathew White, Director of Wellbeing & Positive Education, St Peter’s College, Adelaide &
Fellow, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.
Introduction and Aims
Does positive psychology enrich a student’s capability to interpret literature? Pawelski
(2011) argues that humanities curriculum in schools can adopt a “positive turn” so that
curriculum explores subject matter investigating human flourishing in addition to those
more traditional topics that seek to understand the tragic side of human nature.
Research suggests that students who actively engage their character strengths prevent
undesirable life outcomes and those teachers who act as positive role models by using
their own strengths can have an impact on this. Can literature be one method to play a
role in bridging this gap? It has been well documented that positive role models are
important in the development of good character and this has been seen in teaching.
St Peter’s College, Adelaide
Established in 1847 St Peter’s College, Adelaide, Australia, is a leading independent Anglican
day and boarding school providing the highest quality education for boys from the Early
Learning Centre through to Year 12 (1350 students). Our vision is to be a world-class
school where boys flourish. Based on Christian values, St Peter’s College aims to provide
an education that brings out the best in every boy. St Peter’s College focuses on boys
education, values diversity and individuality, and welcomes students from a broad
cross-section of society.
St Peter’s College aims to develop educated, considerate and outward-looking young
men who will use their talents responsibly for the good of the wider community. With
a strong commitment to social justice and building character amongst her alumni are
3 Noble Laureates, 42 Rhodes Scholars and 8 South Australian Premiers. In 2011 St Peter’s
College commenced incorporating wellbeing as a central part of school life. One
method central to this has been to integrate positive psychology into areas of curricular,
co-curricular and pastoral programs. One of the early adopters of positive psychology
was the English Department.
Positive Humanities
The teaching of literature is often seen as a significant
cultural tool to explore, challenge and expand
children’s understanding of their own strengths.
This poster reports on how teaching methodologies
in literature that consider aspects of text including:
diction, imagery, tone, structure, style, technique, and
effect, can be studied via the integration of Peterson and
Seligman’s Character Strengths profile.
Peterson and Seligman (2004) identified 24
strengths and classified these under six
core virtues and from this developed the
Values in Action (VIA) Strengths Survey.
Character strengths were defined by
considering core virtues across a number
of cultures. Strengths
that could be
described as culture
bound were excluded.
This case study outlines an
exploration into the impacts
of positive psychology onto
the teaching and learning of
literature. The aim of the study
was to determine whether an
understanding of key principles of
positive psychology would affect
students’ analysis of characterisation in
film and fiction writing and establishes
what the effect was in the study of
Edward Scissorhands and
Metamorphosis and Flight and
Regeneration. The teaching sequence
below highlights the learning process
undertaken with 85 boys: a Year 8
English class (n = 26 boys: age = 13)
and Year 11 English (n = 59: age 16)
at St Peter’s College, Adelaide, in 2011.
Persistence
Utilising the Australian Curriculum and its sub-strands for Year 8 English is also a helpful
analytical tool through which to evaluate the students’ responses. While each of the Year 8
responses preceding and following the learning aspects of positive psychology
successfully address ACELY1733, ACELY1735 and ACELA1547, the other listed assessment
sub-strands (ACELT1626, ACELT1806, ACELY1734, ACELY1735, ACELT1628, ACELT1627)
are only adequately fulfilled by the responses, which follow the students’ engagement with
positive psychology.
Integrity
Bravery
Vitality
Creativity
Courage
Wisdom and
Knowledge
Kindness
Humanity
Love of
Learning
Social
Intelligence
Perspective
A Life of
Pleasure,
Engagement
and Meaning
Appreciation of
Beauty and
Excellence
Citizenship
Fairness
Year 11 Post-intervention
Alice is presented as naive and fun
loving in Doris Lessing’s Flight. From
her opening introduction she is
portrayed as relaxed; she appears as a
friendly character to the reader, happy
and carefree. Daring her grandfather
by responding to his question about
meeting Steven with, “any objection?”,
the audience can see she is also
mischievous and cheeky willing to
rebel and tease her authorities.
However, her gift of the pigeon to her
grandfather, and attempt at being
“affectionate, concerned, trying to
charm away wet eyes and his misery”
shows that she does care for other
people, and the effect she has on
them. This is reiterated at the end
of the text when she has “tears run
shivering off her face,” as she is
aware of the effect she has had on
her grandfather, and feels sorry for
her actions.
Alice has several character strengths, which are presented to the
reader. Primarily, she is open-minded, loving, caring, appreciative
of life, playful and humorous, perseverant, forgiving and selfcontrolled. The author has conveyed these character strengths to
the reader through descriptions of her, her actions and her dialogue.
From her first introduction she is presented as naive and fun loving,
“swinging on the gate... Her head loose on her arms, singing.” The
repeated descriptions of “her hair falling down her back in a wave
of sunlight” are a symbol of her freedom, as it indicates there are no
rules she has to abide by. Her acceptance of the life and nature
around her makes her seem open-minded and appreciative of life,
obviously enjoying her surroundings. Lessing also portrays her
humour in her dialogue, teasing her grandfather by tempting him to
take the bait of argument by asking if he has, “any objection” to her
meeting Steven. Her perseverance is shown as she ignores her
grandfather’s defiant attitude to her having a boyfriend, consistently
shrugging off her grandfather’s objections and threats, rather than
taking them to heart. This also shows her self-control; to stay calm
and not get angry with her grandfather. The final major strength
shown is her ability to forgive, and be kind and caring. This is
identified in her gift of the pigeon to her grandfather, and her attempt
at being “affectionate, concerned, trying to charm away wet eyes.”
The character strengths that I identify in her are similar to my
character strengths, such as open-mindedness, humour, appreciation
of life and forgiveness. This allows me to relate to her easier than a
character who does not share similar strengths, such as the
grandfather.
Love
Curiosity
Openmindedness
Year 11 Pre-intervention
Gratitude
Transcedence
Justice
Leadership
Hope
Humour
Spirituality
Temperance
Forgiveness
and Mercy
Humility/
Modesty
Year 11 responses were assessed against the South Australian Certificate of Education
(SACE) Performance Standards. This included knowledge and understanding of the ideas
and conventions of the text; analysis of Literary Features of the text; application of
evidence from the text to the ideas and the student’s written communication skills.
Table 1: Example of Year 8 Student Work
Year 8 Pre-intervention
Year 8 Post-intervention
In the film Edward Scissorhands,
In the powerfully symbolic novella The Metamorphosis,
Prudence
Edward is a mystical, dark kind of
and zips on it. Edward has no hands,
monstrous creature I refuse to pronounce my brother’s name,
10
8
6
them with his wrist muscles. His face
now”. At the start of the novel, just after Gregor’s transformation,
on it. His hair is straight and black.
visit him, and bring him food. This interprets that she did
make-up around them. The people in
reversed. This slowly changes throughout the book, and Grete
is unusually pale and has many scars
His eyes are very dark and have black
Grete is the only member of the family who has the courage to
actually have hope that Gregor’s transformation would be
this film are very wary of him and his
ends up being the family member who wishes to drive him out.
get across that Edward is scary and
much the same way that Gregor changed from a human into a
actions. The director Burton tries to
Kafka’s intention was to show that Grete’s hope changes, in
is the kind of person that should be
dung beetle. The reader is made to believe that Grete is at fault
• Analysing literature: studying characterisation
before learning about character strengths
• Before the workshop students read Doris
Lessing’s, Flight
sorry for Edward at the same time.
Mrs Samsa are affected by Grete’s statement and agree
• Learning about character strengths character
strengths survey
• The students were asked to write a brief character
profile, commenting upon the presentation of that
character to the reader
makes the viewer feel scared and
Post Intervention Mean Score
for blaming Gregor for being a bug. Gregor is presented as not
Table 5: Sample Teacher Analysis of Student Work
Year 8 Preintervention
“Fairness had escaped her grasp in troubled
times and without thinking clearly the
antagonist shaped the plot, killing her
brother despite his labour for years
preceding. She is, in the end, a prejudiced
character who sets a sense of uneasiness
towards the reader about what her
intentions were”.
The specificity of the student’s adjectival
phrases in the second response indicate a
greater confidence not only in his reading
of character, but also in his expression of
his insight.
“Edward is scary and is
the kind of person that
should be avoided”.
“Evidently Greta has lost hope, generosity
and certainly fairness, unlike Gregor who
had been caring for them without complaint
for years on end, much harder than the
family had ever done – now the sister was
discriminating the other.”
Higher-order thinking is evident in the later
commentaries. The whole concept of “the
other” infers a sophisticated understanding
of how societies interact with minorities.
Furthermore, the students seemed to be
more adept at exploring and questioning the
authorial intent after their study of positive
psychology.
is starving him to death and assaulting poor Gregor. Mr and
completely. When Grete says “he has left us now” the reader
be very hard for Gregor, who was listening at the time and is a
result of a lack of hope from Grete.
Table 2: Example of Year 11 Student Work
• Whole-group discussion of how our own character
strengths impact our assessment of literary
characters (reader-response theory)
Year 11 Pre-intervention
Year 11 Post-intervention
• Students then re-wrote an analysis of their
character form the initial task.
The Grandfather in Flight has been presented firstly as a
The grandfather does have some character
such through passages such as, “think you’re old enough
granddaughter makes him possessive and
hey? Think you can go running around the fields all night,
part of her life. From his experiences with
crotchety old man. Doris Lessing has portrayed him as
strengths. The love he feels for his
unkind towards her in an attempt to remain
Results
to go courting, hey?... Think you want to leave home,
When Year 8 pre and post intervention responses were assessed against standards,
which integrate both the South Australian Curriculum Standards and Accountability
Framework (SACSA 2011) and Australian Curriculum guidelines, the responses
completed by the students before and after their learning on positive psychology
produce significantly different results.
exaggerate his prickly demeanour. Although it seems that
things will play out, yet he retains some
that he is having trouble letting go of his grand-daughter.
releases his beloved birds. Strengths are
hey?” Lessing uses repetition of “hey” and “think” to
the old man is ill-tempered because of his age, we learn
his other granddaughters he knows how
hope for the future, as shown when he
Lessing portrays the grandfather as loving through her
conveyed to the reader through a variety of
culminates in the final stages of the short story where the
other three girls, transformed inside a few
Lastly, Lessing has portrayed the grand-father of Flight
to ensure that the reader understands the
use of birds as metaphors for his grandchildren. This
grandfather says to his favourite bird, “’Now you can go.’...
as afraid that he will be left alone. “Wet spread down over
descriptions, such as, “he thought of the
months...” Lessing uses these descriptions
perspective of the grandfather and why he
Year 8 Post-intervention
Teacher Reflection
on Student work and
intervention
“Yet, while he looks like
a baddie, he is in fact a
goodie”.
is made to think that Gregor is dead, which he isn’t. This would
• Students began their workshop by completing the
VIA Survey of Character Strengths
Year 8 student examples, highlighted in Table 1, were produced by two students and
demonstrates individual development before and after the learning of core virtues and
character strengths. Table 4: Mean Writing Scores Pre and Post Positive Psychology
Intervention summarises student work. The first set of responses were from the
twenty six Year 8 students who obtained a mean score of 13.9/20. The second set of
results (written after the boys had studied principles of positive psychology) produced
a mean score of 15.9/20.
Pre-Intervention Mean Score
we have to shake off the idea that it is Gregor. He has left us
doing anything wrong, and yet the family, encouraged by Grete
• Students wrote on another character in the
second part of the assessment.
Marks awarded
(max = 20)
0
baddie, he is in fact a goodie. This
• Analysing literature: studying characterisation
(like step I) with knowledge of character strengths
12
is discussing the fate of Gregor, Grete says “In front of this
avoided. Yet, while he looks like a
• Application of the character strengths to the short
story characters
Year 11 English (n = 59)
14
2
of hope. Towards the latter stage of the book, when the family
Year 11 Teaching Sequence
• Application of character strengths to chosen
character: spider diagram with quotations.
16
Gregor’s younger sister Grete lacks in the important quality
person. He wears a tight, black
Year 8 Teaching Sequence
• Discussion of their findings and the strengths
profile
Year 8 English (n = 26)
4
he has scissors instead. He controls
Based on the principles of Understanding by Design (2005) we created a teaching
sequence that focused on enriching a student’s capability to interpret text. The
method chosen for this approach asked students to complete the VIA Character
Strengths Survey and reflect on their own strengths and those of the characters
in the texts they were studying.
• Me at my best: recount paragraph for homework
18
Self-regulation
Method
• Whole-class interactive display to share
strengths: discussion
20
With Year 11 responses, whilst there was less change in the quality of work against the
communication and evidence standards, the marked improvement was in the
understanding of character and the analysis of literary features to demonstrate those
characters. An additional strength was in the students’ ability to recognise that readers
may respond differently to the characters, depending on their own bias. This is a
sophisticated way to approach character study in the senior years.
leather suit which has many studs
• Discuss strengths in pairs
Table 4: Mean Writing Scores Pre and Post Positive
Psychology Intervention
Conclusions
Effective learning of key principles of positive psychology, particularly around the concepts
of core virtues and character strengths, has a significantly beneficial impact on students’
responses to literature. Making the connection between fiction and real life is, after all,
what study of fiction is for. Understanding and analysis of character can be applied to
our own self-knowledge and our ability to analyse our own context in increasingly
balanced and sophisticated ways. Positive psychology (in particular core virtues and
character strengths) is the missing link. Its language is applicable both to the self and
to the character-as-construct, so it helps students learn for life through literature,
which is of course a metaphor for life.
References
ACARA (2012) The Australian Curriculum: English, Year 8, Literacy, Canberra.
Department of Education and Children’s Services (2011) South Australian Curriculum Standards and
Accountability Framework. www.sacsa.sa.edu.au/splash.asp
his chin, he took out a handkerchief and mopped his
acts the way he does. I found his actions,
Pawelski, J. (2011). The Positive Turn: Why Positive Psychology and the Humanities Need Each Other. Second
World Congress on Positive Psychology, Philadelphia, July 23-26.
grandfather is afraid to let his last grand-daughter grow
understandable as they are based upon his
Pawelski, J. (in-press). Conceptual Questions in Positive Psychology: French Anthology.
whole face. The garden was empty.” It is this fact that the
up that provides the catalyst for the metaphor for the
birds, signifying his love for her.
while far from the actions I would take, to be
intense love and care for his family.
Peterson, C., and Seligman, M., (2004). The VIA Classification of Strengths. Cincinnati:
Values in Action Institute.
Wiggins, G and McTugh, J. (2005) Understanding by Design. Merril Education / ASCD College Textbook Series.
stpeters.sa.edu.au
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