Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of integrating meaning-centered positive education (MCPE) and the second wave positive psychology (PP2.0) into a university English speaking class. The study adopted Wong’s CasMac model of PP2.0 and designed a series of English lessons which aimed to understand the meaning of life through the perspectives of PP2.0 and its focus on MCPE. The participants were 38 university students, with upper-intermediate English proficiency, enrolled in an English speaking class. They participated in the English program for 15 weeks and 2 h each week. The quantitative data was collected from survey of the CasMac Measure of Character and analyzed with the pairedt-test method, and the qualitative data analysis was collected from students’ weekly learning sheets and journals. The results show that the integration of MCPE and PP2.0 in a university English class is feasible to enhance students’ understanding of mature happiness through the CasMac model and to promote their meanings in life. According to the research findings, it is suggested that the CasMac model can be applied to other fields or other groups who need help to enhance life meaning and improve wellbeing. Particularly under the pandemic of COVID-19, there are people encountering traumas, losses, and sorrows and it is crucial to transform sufferings with the support of approaching mature happiness.
Highlights
In this era of constant changes and crizes, COVID-19 pandemic for example, we human beings have been revolutionizing and changing our assumptions on world orderliness and life patterns, which has further brought unprecedented anxiety, uncertainty, and doubt of the meaning of life
When it comes to the quantitative results, our interest was to determine whether there was statistical evidence to support our meaning-centered positive education (MCPE) intervention as measured by the CasMac Measure of Character pre- and post-test
This study applied the CasMac model in MCPE and PP2.0 and developed a series of lessons to discuss and explore virtues, values, and meaning, which are regarded as essential inner resources in order to develop a good character, resilience, and well-being even in the worst circumstances, as well as building personal growth in overcoming the dark side of living reality in view of the difficult times
Summary
In this era of constant changes and crizes, COVID-19 pandemic for example, we human beings have been revolutionizing and changing our assumptions on world orderliness and life patterns, which has further brought unprecedented anxiety, uncertainty, and doubt of the meaning of life. The meaning-centered positive education (MCPE) proposed by Wong et al (2016) was informed by existential positive psychology (Wong, 2010a) and second wave positive psychology (PP2.0) (Wong, 2011), and based on Frankl’s logotherapy (1985). It can be seen as a potential cure of the current era of chaos and upheaval such as the COVID-19 pandemic. What the world needs now is the pursuit and resurgence of spirituality, along with the hope to a world threatened by global terrorism and disasters, that is, to find mature happiness based on inner peace and life balance (Wong, 2020a; Wong, 2020b). The application of meaning-based education has been used in elementary classrooms (e.g., The D.R.E.A.M. program, Armstrong et al, 2019); in higher education, it is scarce and worth exploring
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