Background

Over the past few decades we pay more attention to the teaching strategies in early childhood education. Alongside the trend the rise of positive psychology is changing our philosophy of early education. Support for a new era of child centric teaching practices dedicated to children wellbeing enhancement has come from not only researchers and psychologists, but also schools and communities who are showing an increased concern for integrating positive psychology based programs into the education curriculum.

Aims

The present study reflects on the development of positive psychology preschool-based curriculum within the modern context in mainland Chinese society and offers insights into whether the curriculum could improve children’s wellbeing, social skills and mental health and how these initiatives can be enhanced to reach a wider demographic of young children.

Method

To achieve the purposes, we design a preschool textbook consisted of three parts: theoretical framework, empirical study review and lesson plans. To make this textbook more age-oriented, we designed the lesson plans for three age groups. In the youngest group (2-3 years old), the lesson plans include various activities based on PERMA model to help teachers integrate the five elements of well-beinginto the curriculum. In the middle and the eldest groups (4-7 years old), the lesson plans provide project-based curriculum that allows children to learn through play and enhance their happiness feeling.

Results

We plan to conduct a longitudinal study on 2-7-year-old children from mainland China to examine the effects of the positive education curriculum. Children’s well-being by using the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale, Attachment-Q-Sort, and Children Behavior Checklist will be assessed. The expected results are the positive education curriculum significantly increases children’s attachment with parents and teachers; and significantly reduce their externalizing and internalizing problems.

Conclusion

Being the first positive psychology education textbook for preschoolers in China, it not only promotes a localized positive education program in teacher training, also supports the positive educational initiatives in early childhood education.