Background 

The positive psychology approach to teaching and learning inevitably correlates to motivation and academic success. It strongly influences the mental health and happiness of children and adolescents. In 2021 Russia introduced a national plan for developing education programs to improve mental health and decrease depression. Nevertheless, the government didn't provide the tools to support it. The goals of the education system and the inability of practitioners create a conflict. A positive educational program is an effective tool to solve this problem.

Aims

The project aims to provide a profound theoretical review, analyze similar positive education programs worldwide, create a structure, content, and implementation plan for the positive educational program, and design research on the program's effectiveness.

Method

The pilot research design for 2023 is experimental, with pre-testing and post-testing and a control group. Thirty classroom teachers (age, experience, and gender are not specified) and 700 students in grades 5 through 8 (ages 11-15) identify as project participants. The experimental group will receive 14 seminars/1.5 hours per week. 

"E. Diener's Life Satisfaction Scales" (Leontiev, 2004), "Professional Motivation Questionnaire" (Osin, Ivanova, & Gordeeva, 2013), "Situations at School" (Gordeeva, Sychev 2021), "Scales of Academic Motivation" (Gordeeva, Sychev, and Osin, 2014), "Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale for Students" (Sychev, Gordeeva, 2018) are defined as research methods.

Results

As a result, we developed an innovative, Russian first-in-class positive education program focused on mindfulness, EQ, signature strengths, positive thinking, and self-determination theory. The program bears on the combination of implicit and explicit approaches, school system integrity, flexibility, and plasticity. It also has a clear plan for effectiveness evaluation. 

Conclusion

The educational program helps to put the results of positive psychology studies into practice. It considers the political, cultural, and historical context of the education system in Russia. Increasing students' motivation and well-being is aimed at a sense of happiness and creates opportunities to develop a well-off society.