In recent years, the school environment has been changing rapidly. Young people are growing up in a world of fast changes, social pressures, and more frequent psychosocial stressors that significantly shape their learning experience. Many students experience stress, anxiety, depression, and other forms of severe and very severe mental distress, which is directly reflected in their behavior, relationships, and performance. School is often the first environment where these problems show up, and teachers are the first to notice them. They're the ones who see changes in mood, social conflicts, overload, or withdrawal in students every day in class.
Educating and training teachers on emotional literacy, regulation, resilience, and support strategies is one of the strongest protective factors that schools can offer. Teachers are not just conveyors of knowledge; they are individuals who, through their presence, communication style, and responses, contribute to creating a positive climate and environment in the classroom. This is also confirmed by research, as teachers' mental health and the quality of their relationships largely predict students' motivation, behavior, and sense of security in the classroom. Introducing positive psychological approaches into schools means building an environment where students have the opportunity to develop the skills they will need throughout their lives, from emotional regulation and perseverance to empathy, responsibility, and the ability to find meaning. These are the skills that today often predict success more strongly than traditional academic indicators.
Training teachers to use positive psychological interventions (PPI) when working with students is an investment in the professional identity of teachers, in school culture, and in the long-term well-being of young people. It gives teachers the tools to recognize their own limits and sources of strength, and enables students to experience school as a place of understanding, support, and personal growth. If teachers master stress management strategies, understand the dynamics of emotions, and know how to establish a supportive relationship, they not only benefit themselves, but also directly create a safe environment in which students can develop self-confidence and intrinsic motivation. A teacher's well-being is not just a personal matter; it is a professional competence that determines the quality of the learning process and the classroom climate.
Positive psychology interventions are based on the insight that individuals develop more successfully when they have the opportunity to strengthen their character strengths, when someone encourages them to seek positive experiences, and when they learn to pause, breathe, and recognize their own feelings. When teachers first try these approaches on themselves, they gain authentic experience, experience that small, simple techniques can really reduce tension, lift mood, and help maintain focus. Only then can they meaningfully transfer them to the classroom, where these same techniques often have a surprisingly powerful effect: they reduce restlessness, encourage cooperation, strengthen the sense of belonging, and increase overall psychological safety and well-being among students.
How can teachers take care of their own well-being while also promoting the well-being of their students? This question was at the heart of the Erasmus+ Be-Well project, in which we developed and tested a training program for secondary school teachers from Slovenia, Croatia, and Spain. More than 60 teachers took part in the program, learning about the theory and practice of positive psychology through structured modules and developing skills for working with young people. The program was designed so that teachers first learned techniques for strengthening their own well-being—mindfulness, gratitude, stress management, setting realistic goals—and only then learned how to transfer these approaches to the classroom. The fundamental idea behind the program was that only teachers who know how to take care of themselves can effectively support their students in the long term.
The training was divided into four modules: building positive thinking (character strengths, optimism, self-esteem); emotional well-being and regulation (recognizing emotions, mindfulness, coping with stress and anger, regulating emotions); social and interpersonal skills (empathy, problem solving); and personal growth and future orientation (goals, meaning, resilience, and commitment). Each module combined practical exercises, self-reflection, group work, and planning for the use of interventions in the classroom. The teacher training was conducted in a blended format: partly live and partly asynchronously via MS Teams.
After completing the training, teachers reported greater self-confidence, more effective coping with stress, and new approaches to working with students. Some noticed that classrooms had become more supportive and inclusive environments where students had space to explore their own character strengths and develop resilience. Relationships improved, connectedness increased, and tension in classrooms decreased. One teacher from Slovenia wrote: 'I first started using mindfulness techniques for myself, but soon transferred them to the classroom. The students accepted the exercises surprisingly quickly and suggested that we do them before tests or more demanding tasks.'
Investing in training teachers to use positive psychological interventions is an investment in the well-being of the entire school community. When teachers develop their own resilience, empathy, and positive attitude, they become better mentors and role models for their students. With such approaches, school becomes not only a place of learning, but also a safe environment for the growth, well-being, and mental health of young people. We are confident that with the BE WELL project, we have taken an important step towards creating schools that are not only places of learning, but also safe environments for young people to grow, thrive, and strengthen their mental health.
Handbooks for teachers and students are available at this link.
