Positive education is an approach to education that draws on positive psychology's emphasis on individual strengths and personal motivation to promote learning. Unlike traditional school approaches, positive schooling teachers use techniques that focus on individual students' well-being. Teachers use methods such as developing tailored goals for each student to engender learning and working with them to develop the plans and motivation to reach their goals. Rather than pushing students to achieve at a set grade level, seen through the emphasis of standardized testing, this approach attempts to customize learning goals to individual students' levels. Instead of setting students to compete against one another, learning is viewed as a cooperative process where teachers learn to respect their students and each student's input is valued.
Theoretical approaches Several early psychologists and thinkers, including those listed below, have paved the way for the adoption of positive psychology techniques in the classroom.
John Dewey was among the earliest advocates to impact the field of positive schooling. John Dewey recognized schools as primary institutions for the development of democracy. He opposed the repressive atmosphere of schools, especially elementary and secondary schools, and emphasized the importance of promoting learners' ability to absorb and recreate information in their minds. He proposed constructivism, which argues that individual learners should take in information and creatively construct it according to their own capacities and views. This approach opposes the traditional view of education in which teachers pass down knowledge to the students through direct communication. In summary, Dewey's view of education, similar to progressive education implies that people learn best in environments that are applicable to the real world and that allow them to learn through activities and practical problem solving.
Maria Montessori, the originator of the Montessori system, put forth views relating to positive schooling as well. The Montessori system reflects the positive psychology principle of creativity. Creativity, known as one of the twenty-four character strengths, is offered with the freedom for children to choose how they learn, known as self-directed learning. Children are provided with hands-on materials that not only inspire creativity but also stimulate interest in learning, as they can express themselves through learning rather than feel forced to work.
Sophie Christophy coined the term "Education Positivity" in 2018, with the founding of self-directed, consent-based, and children's rights-based education.The Cabin and the Lodge: the home of consent-based education, Team, accessed on 14 May 2026 "Education Positivity" is an approach that transcends traditional subject silos and hierarchies, instead finding educational and learning validity in emergent and diverse interests, curiosities, and problem-solving, pursued individually and/or in collaboration.
Elizabeth Hurlock was one of the first psychologists to actually carry out experiments with positive psychology techniques to measure the effects of positive schooling in the field of education. Hurlock studied the effectiveness of praise and reproach in the classroom, arguing that praise was a more effective long-term incentive. Her studies found that praise was more effective for children regardless of age, ability and gender.
Jennifer Henderlong and Mark Lepper echo Hurlock's arguments that praise is beneficial to enhancing children's intrinsic motivation. Although some research questions the effectiveness of praise, appropriate use of praise is shown to correlate positively with confidence and better academic performance. They support that praise increases personal beliefs about one's ability to perform given tasks. Also, cognitive evaluation theory supports that praise enhances individuals' perception about performance outcomes and that positive moods induced by praise may contribute to effective outcomes.
Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson focus on the pedagogy, the teacher's "how," rather than content and subject matter being taught, which is partly due to the scarce empirical research that has been done on college curriculum. Chickering and Gamson give seven research-supported principles regarding education and learning in the undergraduate environment for teachers to follow: Teachers are to encourage contact between students and faculty. Chickering and Gamson explain that student-faculty relationships motivate students to keep working hard toward future goals and provide support and resources. To develop reciprocity and cooperation among students, promoting a collaborative learning environment, rather than a competitive one. This gives students opportunities to work together and learn from one another, which has been shown to strengthen understanding. Teachers should use active learning techniques, relate material to topics students already care about, and get students to ask, "What does this concept look like in my own life?" Teachers are to give prompt feedback. Balancing assessment and feedback results in efficient learning, as students realize what they do and do not know and learn to assess themselves. Emphasizing time on task, or sharing effective time management strategies to give students an understanding for their time expectations. Communicating high expectations has shown to be very successful. Expectations that teachers implement give students a gage for how much potential they think that they have. Respecting students' diverse talents and ways of learning accounts for all learning styles and allows students to figure out how they learn best.
Eliot Aronson has pioneered the jigsaw classroom, a theoretical approach for 3rd-12th grade classes which emphasizes the individual academic strengths of children and seeks to make them peer-teachers in a cooperative learning setting. In this approach, students are divided into competency groups of four to six students; then individual group members break off and work with "experts" on their topic from other groups, researching that specific section of material together. These students then return to their groups and present on their part of the material. This approach encourages group engagement, listening, and cooperation among peers, and incorporates aspects of play into learning. It has shown positive effects on academic performance and liking for school and peers. This may be because increased liking leads to self-esteem, which, if absent, can affect academic performance. It is also possible that jigsaw methods increase participation while reducing anxiety, increase empathy, and change attributions of success and failure. The Jigsaw method has been proposed as a strategy to improve race relations since it meets the criteria posed by contact theory for reducing racial prejudice. Intergroup contact theory states that interracial contact will only improve race relations if ethnic groups are of equal status, pursue a common goal of mutual interest for groups, and are sanctioned by institutions.
Another model which utilizes positive education in school is the response to intervention model. Response to intervention is a preventative model that works to provide tailored assistance to at-risk students who are exhibiting insufficient academic achievement, though its principles have been used to address behavioral issues as well. The central components of this model include a core curriculum based on scientific evidence, universal screening, progress monitoring, and decisions about acceptable progress in subsequent tiers. RTI utilizes a multi-tiered structure: at each tier, students are screened and then monitored. The model was originally created to help identify learning disabilities, so that the adoption of a core curriculum ensures that inadequate teaching is not the cause for poor performance. Those who struggle even when adhering to a research-supported curriculum are given more intense instruction at a higher tier. When behavior is being considered, school or local norms for behavior rates are used when screening.
The Positive Behavior Support (PBS) model is structured similarly to RTI but addresses behavior problems. This model adopts a prevention and intervention approach, emphasizing the importance of building prosocial skills, in addition to reducing bad behavior while implementing a three-tiered "continuum of supports" from a universal to an individual level. The strategies at the universal level include defined expected behaviors, strategies to teach expected behavior, strategies to encourage and practice appropriate behavior, and consistency within and across school systems. The second level involves providing targeted support for individuals and groups that are at risk. The final level concerns individuals that persist in their bad behavior and involves functional behavior assessments, instruction-based plans, and collective comprehensive plans including families and community agencies. PBS can be implemented at a school-wide (SWPBIS), district-wide or even statewide level. Recently, local school systems and even state departments of education have been demonstrating a rising interest in PBS because the program requires little training time and limited money and staff. In 2002, the New Hampshire Department of Education organized a statewide initiative to introduce PBS into New Hampshire schools. PBS has also become popular in Maryland, as more than 33% of state's schools implemented the program in 2006.
Empirical findings One major empirical finding in support for positive learning techniques has been the positive effect of praise-based discipline techniques in classrooms. Elizabeth Hurlock studied the day-to-day improvement of students who were praised, reproached, and ignored. Students were divided into these groups in addition to a control group after they had been administered an arithmetic test, and were subsequently tested each day over an additional period of four days. After the first testing session, the control group was tested in a separate room from the other groups. In the treatment room, the "praise" group of students were invited to the front of the room and praised for their work as well as encouraged to do better. The "reproach" group was called up and reproved for their poor performance, while the ignored group received no recognition. Some significant findings include the fact that the praised group experienced the most initial improvement, followed by the reproach group and then the ignored group, while no improvement was seen in the control group. The ignored and control group also showed a decrease in accuracy towards the end of the testing period. When children were grouped according to academic achievement into the categories "superior", "average" and "inferior" after the first test, praise was the most influential incentive for all students, though it was most effective for the "inferior" group. As a whole, the results suggested that praise was the most accurate incentive regardless of age, sex, initial ability, or accuracy.