The COVID-19 global pandemic continues, and in Hong Kong numerous measures have been put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus. One of the many facets of life that is being affected is education, with many face-to-face classes suspended and students having to go online for lessons. The virus continues to be active in the city, so our usual way of assisting secondary school students' character-building through visitation to elderly homes is restricted. Now we can only provide such service-learning in online mode. This paper explores how an online project helped adolescents in a boys' secondary school apply and adapt principles taught previously in their course dealing with positive character strengths such as kindness, love, social intelligence, gratitude, teamwork, and perseverance. Copyright © 2023 Routledge.

A Community of Practice (CoP) was established in 2020 to promote positive life values and well-being among university students in the Education University of Hong Kong. The CoP team has adopted the Heaven, People, Environment, and Self perspectives to conduct life education and positive education and help students learn about transcendental, communal, environmental, and personal well-being. In this symposium, the CoP team members will share the results of a cross-sectional survey study about the levels and predictors of university students’ meaning in life and positive mental health. The CoP team members will also introduce a newly developed online learning platform, the E-hub for Life Education and Positive Education, which shares learning resources and teaching materials related to life education and positive education. Moreover, the CoP team members will introduce a collaborative digital storytelling project related to positive education, in which students are trained to create and reflect on a series of digital stories that highlight different contributing factors of a positive life, including personal character strengths and positive values (e.g., determination, courage, and bravery), family love and support, and friendship and collaboration. The CoP team members will discuss how these non-formal learning activities help students enhance personal, family and social well-being, and develop reflective skills and values-laden perspectives in their personal and professional lives. Copyright © 2021 ICLT.

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of an intervention program based on the PROSPER, a comprehensive framework which emphasises the importance of positivity, relationships, outcome, strength, purpose, engagement, and resilience in pre-service teachers’ well-being in Hong Kong. Participants were pre-service pre-school teachers (N = 77) who participated in a 1-month randomised control trial with four intervention workshops. They were randomly assigned to either intervention (n = 40) or wait-list control conditions (n = 37). A survey with measures that assessed PROSPER well-being components was administered to participants before and after the intervention. Findings of repeated measures MANCOVA revealed no significant time x group interaction effect, Wilks’ Lambda F(7, 50) = 1.66, p = .14, η² = .19. Results of univariate analyses showed that a significant time x group interaction effect existed in relationship component (η² = .08), indicating that the intervention was effective in facilitating pre-service pre-school teachers’ positive relationships with their peers. Findings underscore the potential benefits of designing positive psychological interventions for teachers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Copyright © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

With the increasing concern in school teachers’ well-being and growing focus on the early childhood education sector in recent years, the present study explored the factors that contribute to the psychological well-being of kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. Based on a sample of 459 kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong, the authors demonstrated that teachers’ psychological well-being was strongly determined by their self-belief, which were contributed by their relationship with colleagues, and their positivity in attitude towards life and work. The authors further demonstrated that teachers’ self-belief was influenced by their perception of the school culture. Implications for establishing a positive attitude in kindergarten teachers and enhancing their psychological well-being were discussed. Copyright © 2021 The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) and Springer Nature B.V.

In the last 20 years, humane education (HE) has undergone a paradigm shift from a simple animal welfare education model to a teacher-led positive education approach that cultivates kindness, love, and empathy in children and youth. While teachers’ humane attitudes are considered a prerequisite for HE program success in school settings, their attitudes toward animals have received little attention to date. This study investigated pre-service teachers’ humane attitudes toward animals and assessed whether and to what extent these attitudes are correlated with empathetic tendencies as well as variables such as gender and current and previous pet ownership. A total of 226 pre-service teachers in Hong Kong completed the Animal Attitude Scale (AAS) and the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). The results showed that pre-service teachers showed moderate concern for the humane treatment of animals, and a difference in humane attitude was identified based on sex: female pre-service teachers tended to express more humane attitudes than their male counterparts. Moreover, pre-service teachers with greater tendencies toward warmth and compassion demonstrated a more welfare-oriented attitude toward animals. The results of the current study support using HE as a positive education approach and imply that the provision of training for pre-service teachers and teachers should be given higher priority by humane educators. Humane educators are recommended to recruit pre-service teachers as HE program instructors in their research projects. Copyright © 2020 ISAZ.

The multidimensional PERMA-H positive education model provided evaluation and education framework for the theoretical and practice development of positive psychology in schools. Character strengths use mediates the association of strength knowledge and well-being. Using the Assessment Program for Affective and Social Outcomes (2nd Version) (APASO-II), the Subjective Happiness Scale, and the Physical Health Subscale of the PERMA-profiler, a multidimensional measure of PERMA-H was validated using confirmatory factor analysis in the context of a positive education program evaluation in senior primary school students. The association of PERMA-H measurements with school well-being as measured by general satisfaction of school life, and levels of depression and anxiety, and the mediation mechanism of character strengths use in such association were studied using path analysis. A cross-sectional sample of 726 senior primary school students (i.e., grade 4-6) aged 8-13 from the two primary schools completed a baseline evaluation questionnaire of a positive education program. Satisfactory internal reliability of the scales was obtained with Cronbach's alpha coefficients <0.70. The scales were generally positively and moderately inter-correlated, except for level of anxiety and depression symptoms which was negative. Good psychometric properties of APASO-II were evidenced from the factor structure of sub-scale scores conforming to six factors of the PERMA-H model by confirmatory factor analysis. Path analyses showed that the APASO-II factors together with measures of subject happiness and positive health as the multidimensional PERMA-H model of positive education differentially predicted general satisfaction of school life, level of anxiety and depression, and character strengths use. Character strengths use mediated the relationship of Positive Engagement with general satisfaction of school life. Positive education utilizes knowledge and research findings from positive psychology