Teaching Hope & Optimism

About the course

Resilience was once perceived as a rare and special character trait of heroes. We now understand that it’s a form of ‘ordinary magic’ that can be learned and taught. Optimism and hope can also be learned – they are pathways to wellbeing. As relevant within the classroom as it is throughout everyday life, this course is designed to make a powerful impact by cultivating the skills and strengths underpinning resilience and wellbeing.

Grounded in the science of positive psychology, Teaching Hope and Optimism focuses on key practices and interventions that allow us to build the brain’s circuitry for optimism and help us cope with everyday adversity, as well as life’s hardships and trauma. It draws on a wealth of research and evidence-based techniques to equip you with the skills to build hope and optimism and boost wellbeing in yourself, your students and others, and offers a wealth of helpful information and resources to teachers who are devising wellbeing curricula in line with best practice and NCCA guidelines.

Who is this course aimed at?

This course is designed for teachers, SNAs, youth workers and those working with learners in many different contexts. It may also be of interest to social care workers, psychologists and other therapeutic or educational practitioners who want to learn more about the application of positive psychology to wellbeing and resilience.

Approved by the Department of Education

This course is approved by the Department of Education.

Three EPV days are allowed for primary school teachers who take the course during the summer term. Please note this provision applies only to the summer term as per Department guidelines.

This course has four terms each year, Spring, May/June, Summer & Autumn.

This course explores the practical application of positive psychology for building hope, optimism, and resilience, and preventing anxiety, depression, and emotional and behavioural difficulties. Drawing on the science of emotions and the latest research on optimism and hope, it will give you an in-depth understanding of the core components and key skills necessary for promoting emotional fitness, combating stress, and facilitating growth and psychological wellbeing in the school, classroom and beyond.

You will gain practical tools and skills for enhancing wellbeing and navigating life’s challenges and will become familiar with evidence-based approaches and exercises for teaching the skills of hope and optimism to children and adults. You will learn how to identify and nurture strengths in yourself and others and become familiar with methods for sustaining motivation, learning from mistakes and handling failure. We also examine how to strengthen relationships, providing you with the practical tools to improve communication.

Finally we explore a wide range of techniques and approaches for reducing stress and anxiety and enhancing self-regulation, including mindfulness, cognitive behavioural techniques, relaxation exercises, exercise, and spirituality, allowing you to assemble your own powerful toolkit of proven strategies for resilience.

Highlights

• Understand the key concepts underpinning the psychology of hope and optimism and their contribution to wellbeing and resilience
• Gain an in depth-understanding of how to promote emotional fitness, resilience and wellbeing using evidence-based approaches from positive psychology, and use these approaches to inform the development of a Wellbeing Curriculum  in line with NCCA guidelines
• Learn practical techniques, tools and exercises for teaching the skills of hope, optimism and resilience to children and adults
• Understand how to combat stress and anxiety using a wide range of positive psychology interventions including mindfulness and cognitive restructuring
• Enjoy rich opportunities for collaboration with our online network of learners and tutors.
• Save printable course materials and resources for future reference.