Articles

According to Daniel Cordaro, contentment is our felt sense of unconditional completeness regardless of circumstance. It is an emotion that sits at the deepest core of human wellbeing and is foundational to the experience of fulfillment in life. Contentment is available to us at any given moment.

At heart I’m an optimist. Honestly, I am. However, the ‘eyes down’ movement disturbs me. As we edge closer to the middle of 2021, one of the more noticeable trends occurring in adolescents is an unhealthy relationship with their digital devices (Burns & Gottschalk, 2020).

In its most basic, mindfulness helps us to be more aware of what is actually happening, rather than worrying about what has happened or might happen. We learn to bring greater curiosity to whatever it is that we are experiencing. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founding father of secular mindfulness, described this skill as ‘being alive and knowing it’.

Learning dispositions, or habits of learning, are the different characteristics with which children approach the learning process. More specifically, some have referred to dispositions as “enduring habits of mind and action; the tendency to respond to situations in characteristic ways”.

What began as a ground-up initiative on the part of the Student Development team at Bukit View Secondary School has evolved into a whole school approach in formalizing the adoption of positive education, and the integration of the six domains of PERMAH (Seligman, 2020) into the academic and student development curriculum, as well as culture and ethos of the school. SPEN speaks with Principal Kevin Ang, and Vice Principal, Shirley Lee about the journey they have taken with their staff.

Many people think about Optimism as something which is “unrealistically positive”. Until I read about Optimism from a psychological perspective, I, too, had many misconceptions about Optimism. Here are some of the most common myths about Optimism and debunking them.

Stories are important because they enable us to better understand the world and ourselves. Cognitive psychologist, Jerome Bruner, referred to the role of stories in helping us to make sense of the world.

Christ Church Secondary School has had a very successful year of strengthening staff and student engagement in spite of Covid-19 measures in 2020. Undergirded by the school’s vision to nurture purposeful leaders...

SPEN spoke to Sherman Ho, co-founder of Happiness Initiative and key driver behind the world’s first Happiness Film Festival which took place in Mar 2019.

SPEN spoke with Mr Peter Ong, Managing Partner of Rested Edge Advisory, who is the initiator of One Dream, a charity that is focused on societal improvement.

This is a reflection piece and best read after you have viewed the Da Qiao (DQ) Story video as well as browsed through “Weaving Joy” – a DQ publication to capture the tapestry and threads of joy before its merger in December 2018.

Schools in the 21st century play more complex roles in educating the young. More than moulding minds, schools bear an increasing responsibility in cultivating the character and well-being of the students who come into their fold.