Marta Pellegrini, University of Cagliari, Italy

A recent study examined the Positive Education Programme (PEP), a whole school approach developed in the Netherlands. The PEP aims to promote a new perspective of teaching approach informed by student wellbeing and engagement. Furthermore, the program focuses on working in teams at the school level to identify shared values, such as kindness and respect.

PEP was evaluated through a quasi-experimental study that matched schools in the intervention group and four schools in the control group. The intervention group received PEP for one school year while the control group continued with its usual practice. Two schools and 401 students were allocated to the control group and two schools and 238 students to the PEP group. The researchers considered student wellbeing and engagement as proximal outcomes and student social-emotional and behavioral functioning as the distal outcome. Wellbeing was measured through a self-reported instrument by the…