Open AccessA PROPOSED PILOT STUDY OF A GRATITUDE PRACTICE PROGRAM TO INCREASE GRATITUDE AMONG EDUCATORS: THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF GRATITUDE PRACTICE TO INCREASE WORK ENGAGEMENT AND BUFFER AGAINST AND DECREASE BURNOUT
Author(s) -
Jasmin Wandell
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of child, youth and family studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1920-7298
DOI - 10.18357/ijcyfs72201615722
Subject(s) - gratitude , coaching , psychology , burnout , intervention (counseling) , medical education , applied psychology , positive psychology , pedagogy , social psychology , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , medicine , psychiatry
Burnout in educational settings is an international issue. Drawing on practitioner experience in Flexi schools for disenfranchised young people and the methods of positive psychology, this paper outlines a gratitude practice program (GPP) as a proposed intervention to address burnout within Flexi schools. The proposed intervention comprises a full-day workshop and 10 weekly group coaching sessions that aim to develop gratitude practice among teachers. The intention of the paper is to consider the GPP’s capacity to increase gratitude and the potential benefit of the program to participants. This proposed pilot study will be delivered to 14 educators in a single school. A pretest-posttest, multi-method design of evaluation will be presented and discussed. The GPP’s capacity to increase gratitude will be evaluated utilising a gratitude questionnaire. A focus group will be used to ascertain the benefit of the program. It is predicted that the GPP will increase gratitude and will be found beneficial by participants. The potential of the GPP to increase work engagement is discussed in terms of future studies. This proposed pilot study offers a practical intervention that can potentially address the real-world problem of burnout in alternative educational settings.