(McLeod, 2020).

In our experience, the original model developed by Maslow can be used to link both character education and wellbeing. For the purpose of explanation we’ve adapted the original terms into the five major applications.

Physical:

We recognise that the physical needs, in the main, are those which parents need to focus upon in terms of the food, shelter and care they give their children. This can then be related to school activities as many children need to be supported with their physical needs in the educational environment. This may include provision of school meals along with physical education and sports.

Security:

This is a key area, both for parents and school teachers. In an age when safeguarding is paramount, teachers’ responsibilities are increasingly spelt out not only by the law but by the local and departmental requirements with regard to duty of care (protecting students from foreseeable dangers and accidents). Cyber safety is an increasing issue, and Amazing People Schools aims to provide a safe learning domain that teachers can comfortably direct students to for support.

Relationships:

All activities in school are centred around relationships, which are essential to character education. Students learn how to work effectively with others and collaborate in team environments on projects. At the same time, they learn how to express themselves both at a student level and when talking with adults. There is increasingly considerable attention being focused on oracy skills and the ability to form an argument and articulate / communicate ones points of view, while at the same time appreciating that of others. Character strengths like empathy, fairness

Respect:

Respect is an integral part of character education. It involves the recognition of other people’s strengths and weaknesses. Too often, students pick on the weaknesses of others. A major part of character education is to help each student respect that other people are different and to help them rather than demean them. Likewise part of character education is learning how to respect people from different cultures and treat people on merit rather than via stereotypes. The teacher has the ability to act as a role-model in this domain, setting an example for how students can interact with each other, and adults.

Self-development:

At the heart of all character education is the ability to learn ways of managing one’s self. Self-development involves action learning, where one reflects upon experience and makes judgements on how to improve one’s responses to difficult situations which are not always in their control. In our work on Amazing People, we have found that those who succeeded were effective in their own personal self-development. They did not allow other people to dictate who they could be. They decided (as in the case of Mozart) to be the best musician they could be. Likewise, Marie Curie was not defeated by the authorities in Poland who stopped her going to university. Amazing People created their own pathways for self-development. This is what we aim to encourage amongst all students. By giving them the confidence to turn their talents into achievements, they can forge their own path to success and self-actualization.

Amazing People Examples Framed by Maslow’s Hierarchy

Helen Keller is a person who had major physical problems after suffering an accident that left her both blind and deaf. Despite this, her mind was still working. She decided she would develop herself through education. As a result, she became a leader for those who suffered disabilities and an advocate for women’s rights. She lead the way in helping other, less fortunate people receive an education. Despite her physical problems, she put respect for others, positive relationships and self-development high on her agenda and helped thousands of people by giving them hope and inspiration.

Harriet Tubman was a slave for 29 years before she resolved to escape. Having succeeded, she could have just taken life easily. Instead, she boldly returned to the fields of slavery and lead other slaves to freedom. She is an example of someone who put the physical and safety issues behind her and focused on developing relationships to free people who were downtrodden. This is a great example for students, when it comes to understanding character development and respect for others.

Action Learning to Support Character Development

We’ve provided a methodology through Amazing People Schools, so students can be inspired and develop themselves. The activities within this resource use the action learning approach of putting theory into practice, by encouraging students to take part in self-reflection, discussion and tasks related to positive character strengths. By fostering these character strengths, we hope to improve students’ self-awareness, self-confidence and ability to help themselves achieve success. By giving students examples of Amazing People and their achievements, we also hope to inspire students to realise that they too can achieve great things with their time. In turn, this may result in them helping others to achieve similar success. 

Amazing People Schools does not aim to provide all of the answers when it comes to character development. This is a subjective and unique experience for each person. Instead, the program is designed to provide inspiring examples and introspective activities, which can hopefully act as a catalyst for self-reflection and aspiration.  

Reflective activities, discussions, team exercises and other character-building activities are all designed to support self-development, respect and relationships in the classroom. By providing teachers with the Amazing People Schools resources, it is our hope that these developmental activities can be easily facilitated so that teachers, students and the school environment can flourish. Of course, self-directed learning alone will not give allow students to reach their full potential. We acknowledge the pivotal role that teachers play in facilitating character education and discuss this in detail below.

Supporting Wellbeing in the Classroom

The teacher is a facilitator, who helps students explore character and wellbeing issues. From the Amazing People Schools suite, there are many inspiring life stories that provide students with exemplars for character development and wellbeing. Therefore, the approach is applicable to all curriculum subject areas, with teachers able to share the achievements of musicians, mathematicians, writers, scientists, artists, humanitarians and more.

Each day, teachers support the wellbeing of students. By providing a nurturing classroom where young minds can learn in safety, teachers are fostering conducive environments for learning and personal development. By implementing effective behaviour management plans, and encouraging students to strive, teachers can also provide much of the foundation required to fulfill Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

As a major role-model to students, teachers have the opportunity to demonstrate good character throughout the school schedule, on a daily basis by:

• Presenting arguments for fairness, empathy and collaboration with others
• Demonstrating enthusiasm, kindness and humility towards others
• Creating and setting collaborative tasks that require tolerance and adaptability
• Encouraging curiosity, good sense and creativity during learning, and;
• Applying systems for self-discipline, gratitude and initiative

These are just a few examples of the ways in which teachers can influence students through their own behaviour. These powerful and re-iterative displays of positive character will provide students with an admirable role-model to emulate and / or learn from.

Furthermore, designed and ongoing classroom systems such as; behaviour charts, job charts, gratitude journals, thank-you letters and homework also help to establish routines and good practices, which further bolster the aforementioned character strengths. 

By establishing these elements in the classroom and using resources like Amazing People Schools, teachers will be able to provide students with the best chance to develop their character. Not only will these character strengths help students to know themselves better, it will help them to interact with others on a more considerate and productive level, fostering better relationships.

The flow on effect of these positive relationships has wonderful repercussions for society. It is often said that happiness is contagious, indeed this has even been proven by researchers investigating the  contagiousness of smiling (Wild, Erb, Eyb, Bartels & Grodd, 2003). With more positive interactions occurring, more people are likely to feel happy, mentally healthy, supported and uplifted by those around them. This creates a cyclical effect that can be spread to others and then throughout the community.

By demonstrating and teaching good character, teachers can encourage the character development and wellbeing of their students, who in turn can support the wellbeing of other students around the class and school environments.

Examples from the Classroom: Case Studies with Primary School Students

For each lesson below, a quick walkthrough and familiarisation with the Amazing People Schools site was provided to students. After discussing certain people of interest and exploring some of their achievements, the conversation was directed toward their character strengths. It was agreed that each of these Amazing People had demonstrated particular strengths in particular areas to overcome challenges and strive for success.

Students were then shown the Character Strengths Matrix, and each characteristic was defined and discussed.