FAQ's
What is Positive Education?
Positive Education is an approach to education that combines traditional academic learning with the teaching of positive psychology concepts and well-being skills. It aims to foster the development of students' character strengths, resilience, emotional intelligence, and overall well-being alongside their academic achievements.
Key principles of Positive Education include:
1. Strengths-based approach: Identifying and nurturing students' strengths and virtues, such as creativity, kindness, perseverance, and curiosity, rather than focusing solely on weaknesses and deficits.
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2. Character education: Teaching and promoting the development of positive character traits and moral values, including honesty, integrity, empathy, and compassion.
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3. Mindfulness and meditation: Incorporating mindfulness practices and meditation techniques into the curriculum to help students develop self-awareness, emotional regulation, and stress management skills.
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4. Gratitude exercises: Encouraging students to cultivate a sense of gratitude through activities such as keeping gratitude journals, writing thank-you notes, or reflecting on things they are thankful for.
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5. Positive relationships: Emphasising the importance of building positive relationships among students and between students and teachers, as well as teaching social and emotional skills necessary for healthy interactions and connections.
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6. Resilience-building activities: Providing opportunities for students to develop resilience by facing challenges, learning from failures, and developing coping strategies to bounce back from setbacks.
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7. Optimism and growth mindset: Teaching students about the power of optimism and the growth mindset, which involves believing in one's ability to learn and improve through effort and perseverance.
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8. Goal setting and self-reflection: Helping students set meaningful goals, both academic and personal, and encouraging regular self-reflection to track progress, identify strengths and areas for growth, and adjust their strategies accordingly.
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9. Positive school culture and climate: Creating a supportive and inclusive school environment where students feel safe, valued, and respected, and where positive behaviours and achievements are celebrated.
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10. Well-being curriculum: Introducing topics related to well-being, mental health, and positive psychology into the curriculum, alongside traditional academic subjects, to promote holistic development and life skills.
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What is V.S.B.A?
Through ongoing research and development, VSBA is a term used in The Positive Mentor (TPM) programs to aid in understanding your Values, Strengths, Behaviours and Actions.
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Values are explored and identified to understand your roots.
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Strengths are identified to understand the growth from your roots to your trunk and limbs, as we believe these make up your structure.​
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Behaviours are influenced by your Strengths, which are motivations that are not always seen, by others. Behaviors are often influenced by a person's emotions, thoughts, and underlying strengths. They can be either conscious or unconscious and may reflect a person's habits or patterns of conduct.​
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Actions, on the other hand, primarily focus on the specific deeds or tasks performed by an individual. Actions tend to be more conscious and purposeful, driven by an individual's behaviours, goals, or reactions. Actions are the visible or tangible components of behavior, while behavior can be considered the broader context within which actions take place.​
What is M.S.N.B.A?
The Positive Mentor was utilising Movement, Service, Nature, Belonging and Art (M.S.N.BA) since 2017, when the program first began. It was used to aid students in school to overcome challenges and discomfort. Today, M.S.N.B.A is becoming increasingly prescribed by practitioners to assist individuals with discomfort in their life. Below is how we use these in The Positive Mentor Programs, however, recently, Julia Hotz has released a great resource, 'The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service, and Belonging' by Julia Hotz, which discusses the value of Movement, Nature, Art, Service and Belonging and how it is being used in the medical world.​
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Movement: In general, movement refers to the act or process of changing the position or location of something, such as physical movement (e.g., walking, running, dancing), social movement (e.g., civil rights movements), or artistic movement (e.g., Abstract Expressionism in painting).
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Service: Service generally refers to the act of helping or doing work for someone or a community, often in a voluntary capacity. It can involve providing support, assistance, or resources to individuals, groups, or organizations with the aim of contributing to their well-being or addressing their needs.
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Nature: Nature represents the physical world and its living organisms, encompassing the natural environment, plants, animals, and ecosystems, as well as the universal forces and phenomena that govern the physical world. It is often contrasted with human-made environments or activities.
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Belonging: Belonging is the feeling of being accepted and included as a member of a particular group, community, or society. It relates to the sense of feeling connected to others and feeling that one's presence is valued and appreciated within social contexts.​​
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Art: Art refers to a diverse range of human activities, products, and expressions that evoke creativity, imagination, and aesthetic beauty. Thi includes visual arts (e.g., painting, drawing, sculpture), performing arts (e.g., dance, music, theater), and literary arts (e.g., poetry, prose, drama).
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What is the Telescope Lens Perspective?
The Telescope Lens Perspective (TLP) is how we aid in building self perspective. This also can aid in fostering empathy in order to build your understanding of others, and the self. This was the foundational idea behind The Positive Mentor. Where I wanted to give mentees a process to look at themselves in the present moment where they are reflected in the world, and also how the world is reflected in them at any one time. ​
Further, TLP refers to elements of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs which allows us to essentially move up to the next level of needs, once we have accomplished the needs of a particular level. Whilst this can vary from person to person, culture to culture, we utilise a similar structure to move through levels and 'perspectives' of achieving particular goals, understanding how powerful they are and how they connect to your VSBA.
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In addition to empathy building and establishing needs, TLP also contributes to the understanding of the Self, referring to one's highest potential. The Self is an important element of education that Positive Education and wellbeing revolves around in our programs. However, instead of relying on external elements managing the growth of Self, we believe the individual should have intrinsic elements, meaning within you, to ensure stronger and stable development and structure to build the Self.
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Self Perspective: This perspective is from the self, looking as far as your own immediate needs. Think of it as the eyepiece of the Telescope. Which looks at the tiniest, most in-depth parts of you. It also, can only see so far, if we look at it from the eye piece. But if you reverse it, it zooms in and looks deep into the Self. Throughout our programs we delve into the different worlds that one sets up within their universe and how these vary in perspectives of the Self. We explore the dimensions, directions and directives of the Self perspectives and how they relate to your VSBA.
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Community Perspective: This perspective is the ​middle lens of the telescope. It can see from both ends, with little difference between the two ends, but shows enough to widen the view from the eyepiece side, with a slightly more focus view from the other side. This is where we step out of the self perspective and look at how others see you, and how you see yourself within your worlds and the wider community. Again this differences from person to person and also can differ in various parts of the world. The community perspective, or mid lens, can be the highway that drives you to the global perspective, or the return to the self and may require regular management to enhance stability and transitions.
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Global Perspective: This is the largest part of the Telescope lens, where we can see the world view and takes in the most amount of light. This is where having a strong understanding of the Self and Community in great detail is required to ensure you have the best view of your global perspective, but also so the world can see the clearest and most defined version of you. If you don't know how you got to achieve your goal, how likely are you to know your way home and understand your VSBA that got you there?
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Whilst each lens is incredibly powerful on their own, you can only go so far with the understanding of one section. By allowing our mentees to understand each section in great detail, you are then able to utilise the entire Telescope to see who you are, who you want to be each day and where you came from.
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The Telescope Perspective is a TPM researched product that should be referenced to Kane Felsinger if being used externally to this program.
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The original drawing of the Telescope Lens Perspective that started it all.
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