Case Study of Good T&L Practices > List of Case Studies > JUMP: Joint University Mental-Wellness Project Team
Part I: Biography of Joint University Mental Wellness Project Team (JUMP team)
Team Leader
Professor Sylvia KWOK LAI Yu Ching
Associate Head (Research and Postgraduate Education)
Convenor, Positive Education Laboratory
Professor, Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences
City University of Hong Kong
Dr Kwok is a leading practitioner of positive education and teaching positive psychology theory and concepts, its applications and strategies to students and practitioners. She initiates a collaboration across the universities through the JUMP project to promote positive education, extend knowledge exchange, expand the coverage of benefactors, and build a community of practice on positive education.
Team Members
Professor Daniel WONG Fu Keung
Professor, Department of Social Work and Social administration
The University of Hong Kong
Professor Wong has been contributing extensive experience in evidence-based psychosocial intervention on mental health issues. In the project he holds up the conceptualisation of the JUMP project and teaching pedagogy. And he carries out project evaluation and research.
Dr TO Siu Ming
Associate Professor, Department of Social Work
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Dr To is an authority of transformational learning and service-learning. He has blended the rationale and components of positive education into social work education and service-learning programmes. And he supports promoting and recruiting participants, the project’s conceptualisation, and teaching pedagogy.
Dr PAN Jiayan
Associate Professor, Department of Social Work
Hong Kong Baptist University
Dr Pan has been putting the theory and concepts of positive education in a General Education course and developed students’ awareness and skills of positive psychology. She contributes to the project’s design and supports its implementation. Furthermore, she shares her expertise in project evaluation and resilience and wellbeing research.
Miss Loretta LEUNG Mee Kuen
Assistant Director of Student Affairs, Student Affairs Office
The Education University of Hong Kong
Miss Leung has been encouraging staff to enhance their knowledge and expertise in running positive education activities. She received a grant to design and conduct workshops on positive education for students and staff. And she supports the project’s design and implementation, promoting projects and recruiting participants.
People who demonstrate positive mental health and wellbeing have a solid foundation with which to handle the stresses that inevitably accompany life. Unfortunately, university students have been suffering from many frustrations in recent years in relation to Hong Kong’s pervading social realities, e.g., they are confronting intense competition for job opportunities, obstacles to social mobility, and the uncertainty of their futures due to unpredictable issues. The prevalence of distress currently exhibited by our students motivated the members of the Joint University Mental-Wellness Project (JUMP) team to adopt positive education as our key strategy to alleviate such trends in the belief that it would contribute to the sound mental health of tertiary students in Hong Kong. In the long term this would benefit not only the students themselves but society as a whole.
Positive Transformational Learning Pedagogy
Positive education was selected because it integrates the science of evidence-based practices in improving student wellbeing with effective educational pedagogy and practices, helping students to thrive and succeed academically, socially and emotionally. Studies have demonstrated that positive education is effective in decreasing mental health problems and enhancing the wellbeing of students (Seligman, 2018). Positive education, the application of positive psychology in education, is a pedagogy that fosters a systematic transformational change of life. Its successful execution necessitates a significant paradigm shift in educational pedagogy. It enables students to flourish through combining transformational learning principles with wellbeing literacy. Joint University Mental-Wellness Project Team (JUMP) formulated a structure which incorporated both content – in the form of positive education; and a pedagogical framework – by a six-level transformational learning process. This integration is termed “Positive Transformational Learning Pedagogy”.
With reference to the concepts of positive psychology developed by Professor Martin Seligman, the JUMP team selected two key components for this project. They began with the character strengths that every individual possesses, and which are applicable cross all aspects of life. These strengths are categorised into six universal virtues, and the development of these virtues leads to a meaningful life (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) (Figure 1).
The second component of positive education content that we adopted are the five elements of PERMA – positive emotions, positive engagement, positive relationships, positive meaning, and positive accomplishment (Figure 2). These are the key aspects of positivity and are critical for long-term wellbeing (Seligman, 2018). The JUMP team developed activities which enhance students’ experience of these aspects and foster their skills in enhancing wellbeing.
Six-level transformational pedagogical framework
The JUMP team then designed the six-level transformational pedagogical framework (Figure 3), through which to deliver the positive education content of character strengths and PERMA across the participating universities. They developed a range of activities along the framework in which students could “learn it, live it, reflect on it, conceptualise it, apply it and embed it”. “Learn it” refers to learning positive education theories and concepts. “Live it” refers to encouraging students to live out the principles of positive education in their daily lives. University students are assisted to “reflect” on what they have learned and experienced and “conceptualise” their experiences through analyzing and synthesising the concepts and principles of positive education. This helps consolidate existing knowledge and develop new knowledge. To “apply it”, students design and conduct positive education programmes for other students or the community. Meanwhile, students will “embed” a positive education atmosphere in the university and the community, and disseminate their knowledge to other professionals and the public by knowledge transfer. The “embed it” stage emphasises that education happens in and through the context.
JUMP Activities
The activities for the six levels are outlined in Figure 4. They were carefully designed to move from teacher-led, in the “learn it, reflect on it” end of the framework to student-led, in the “apply it, embed it” end. As students became equipped with the knowledge of positive education, they were supported to move from a participative learning role to one in which they became the organisers and were responsible for designing, disseminating and embedding a positive education ethos through both the universities and the community. This student-led pedagogical approach places students at the centre of the process and encourages them to develop greater autonomy. It builds their confidence and competence including in critical thinking, analytical and interpersonal skills, in addition to strengthening their identity as responsible citizens.
Fourteen themes were offered in the workshops and seven themes in the camps. As can be seen in Figure 4, the purpose of the workshops and camps was to implement the first four levels of the framework. The content that was delivered during these stages were the 24 character strengths (Figure 1), and the five domains of positive education or PERMA (Figure 2). The most popular topics were delivered on more than one campus, to facilitate students’ attendance. Students were then offered the opportunity to consolidate their learning from the first four levels in the “apply” phase which was, firstly, in the context of a study tour to Taiwan. Away from their everyday time-consuming lives in Hong Kong, the tour allowed students the space and opportunities for in-depth interaction and communication with each other which in turn increased students’ positive emotions and the quality of their interpersonal relationships, and enabled students to explore different possibilities in life.
The mental wellness festivals provided students with the opportunity to “reflect”, “conceptualise” and “apply” their knowledge, and to “embed” positive education in the wider university community. The process of organising the festivals enabled transformational learning to take place. Students became engaged in the process of interdependent discovery as they discussed and reflected on the strategies they could use to introduce the concepts of character strengths and PERMA to others. Students from all five participating universities worked in groups to design and implement their own projects that integrated positive education content with their own innovative ideas generated from their past experiences, expertise, talents, interests and study programme content. This preparation resulted in three festival workshops which were delivered twice at different times across the institutions. They were: 1) Be A Unique Detective; 2) ReLife; 3) A Cozy Hygge Night.
The community projects offered students yet another platform to apply the final four elements of the transformational framework. Students formed teams and participated in twenty community projects designed to promote mental wellness in the community. Each team identified a target group in the university, local schools, or the community. They analysed their target group’s needs and the specific services they would like to provide. They then formulated a proposal with a detailed design and implementation plan, followed by actual implementation and evaluation. These community projects enabled students to benefit the wider community while at the same time develop their understanding of positive education through activities which would embed the practice in the long-term. Examples of the community projects were 1) Bye Hi-Bye friends; 2) Applying Character Strengths in Primary Students’ PE Lessons; 3) Fly Away Annoyance-Cheering Pack; 4) Overcookies; 5) Positive Psychology Classroom Activities.
An online international conference was also organised through Zoom in August 2020. The JUMP team gave presentations on the conference theme of “Diverse Practices of Positive Education”. It attracted nearly 1,100 attendees including academic staff, primary and secondary school teachers, social workers, and students, and provided an opportunity to promote the transformational framework and spread knowledge of the benefits of positive education to the wider community.
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Effectiveness of JUMP
Over 4,000 university students participated in JUMP. Feedback from the participants has been very positive. The effectiveness of JUMP include:
- 1. Wellbeing literacy: Character strengths and PERMA
Participants reported that they gained a deeper understanding of positive education, including PERMA and character strengths.
- Mental wellness and resilience
Students learned to apply positive education knowledge and skills to help them improve their wellbeing both in study and in their everyday lives. An innovative Experience Sampling Method mobile App was utilised to record changes before and after the study tour – results indicated that participants experienced more frequent positive emotions and flow states (engaged in tasks) in their study and daily lives after the study tour.
- Peer learning
Students reported that they learned through sharing and discussing their ideas and experiences. The learning community that was created for students enabled them to cultivate the best of themselves by using their character strengths appropriately and to flourish through the application of PERMA.
- Leadership and collaboration
Students’ leadership skills were fostered within JUMP’s focus on positive purpose, team building and positive relationships. It is evident that leaders are now emerging from the project with a purpose in life who continuously strive to achieve their best selves and who act as agents of positive change.
- Impact on the wider community
JUMP provided participants with opportunities to build long-term and ongoing relationships within universities, education and social welfare sectors, and the community, through the development of community projects. They provided services to 1,500 people in the wider community, including primary and secondary school students, and the general public.
Generalisation to other disciplines
The Positive Transformational Learning Pedagogy can be universally applied to the teaching of all disciplines, as this is a teaching framework designed to enhance the wellbeing of all students.
Professional development for university staff
Two professional development workshops were conducted for university staff. It is essential that both academic and administrative staff are able to identify students with mental health issues early and can provide initial support to students who are exhibiting signs of mental distress. A total of 246 staff participated in the workshops. Feedback from the participants was positive, with an average score 5.6 (out of a maximum of 6), when rating their satisfaction towards the training.
Community projects
A total of 1,500 people joined JUMP’s community projects organised by the university students. The participants came from primary and secondary schools, universities, and the general public.
International conference
The online international conference held in August 2020 attracted nearly 1,100 participants including primary and secondary school teachers, social workers, and professionals such as counsellors and psychologists. The participants commented that the conference was informative and insightful, and that it provided many good examples and real-life cases to guide their future practice.
Funding support
The success of the project has attracted a total of $6 million funding from Quality Education Fund, Yan Tak Charity Fund Limited, and Wofoo Charity Fund to launch positive education projects in local primary and secondary schools in the coming years.
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