Empowering Students with Wellbeing & Resilience Skills and Strategies
Empowering Students with Wellbeing & Resilience Skills and Strategies
Ms Amanda Carlon, Ms Olivia Tunks
In 2021, the Co-Curricular & Student Development team launched a university wide development program, Leadership Foundations. This program aims to assist students develop core personal and professional skills.
A needs analysis with UNSW students and academics informed the program and revealed gaps in stress management and the ability to adapt to change. Leadership, emotional intelligence and resilience have been identified as desirable skills for graduates entering the workforce and for successful career progression( WEF, 2020; PwC, 2021). The need to develop resilience skills has also been amplified by the pandemic.
Drawing from expert thought leaders in a range of fields including organisational psychology, positive psychology, neuroscience, human development, and further areas( Brown, 2018; Goleman, 1995; Goleman, 2001; Edmondson, 1999) we designed a blended learning experience through a series of six modules, one of the modules being Wellbeing & Resilience.
This module focuses on evidence-based skills and strategies to expand personal capacity when encountering challenges. The theories drawn upon include PERMA +( Seligman, 2013; Seligman, 2012.), 5-Ways to Wellbeing( Aked et al., 2008), SEARCH framework( Waters, 2019), and the Resilience Factor( Reivich & Shatté, 2002).
As part of the learning experience students create a personal self-care plan and practice skills that can be used to navigate setbacks and change. Students then reflect how they plan to use the skills and strategies, what they would like to develop further, and identify support / s they can reach out to for assistance. We have received exceedingly positive feedback from students about the Wellbeing & Resilience module.
References:
Aked, J. Marks, N. Cordon, C. & Thompson, S.( 2008) 5-Ways to Wellbeing: A report presented to the Foresight Project on communicating the evidence base for improving people’ s well-being. Centre for well-being, nef( the new economics foundation).
Brown, B.( 2018). Dare to Lead. London, England: Vermilion.
Edmondson, A.( 1999) Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2( Jun., 1999), pp. 350-383. Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University.
Goleman, D.( 1995). Emotional intelligence. Bantam Books.
Goleman, D.( 2001). An EI-based theory of performance. In Cherniss, C. & Goleman, D.( Eds.), The emotionally intelligent workplace: How to select for, measure, and improve emotional intelligence in individuals, groups, and organizations( pp. 27 – 44). Jossey-Bass.
PwC.( 2021). Workforce of the future: The competing forces shaping 2030. https:// www. pwc. com / gx / en / services / people-organisation / workforce-of-the-future / workforce-of-the-future-the-competingforces-shaping-2030-pwc. pdf
Reivich, K., & Shatté, A.( 2002). The resilience factor: 7 essential skills for overcoming life’ s inevitable obstacles. Broadway Books. Seligman, M. E. P.( 2012). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. Seligman, M. E. P.( 2013). Building the state of well-being: A strategy for South Australia( Adelaide Thinker in Residence 2012 – 2013). South Australia: Government of South Australia. WEF( World Economic Forum)( 2020) The Future of Jobs Report 2020. https:// www. weforum. org / reports / the-future-of-jobs-report-2020.
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