Educators throughout the U.S. are more stressed and less appreciated than ever. Unfortunately, educators have limited strategies for directly addressing their sources of stress (e.g., obtrusive and unfair criticism from parents, low pay, student distress, negative media coverage, etc.). This course, “Happiness for Educators” will provide a platform through which educators can learn evidence-based happiness interventions they can use with themselves and with their students. We will describe, discuss, and experience specific evidence-based happiness strategies. Although evidence-based happiness strategies are not magical techniques that will immediately transform your life, they’ve been shown to make small and meaningful differences in hope, physical health, and emotional wellbeing. During the course, we will define happiness, read happiness articles, listen to podcasts, examine scientific research studies, conduct research experiments in class, complete happiness lab assignments, and use published instruments to measure personal happiness and well-being.
This course meets online, asynchronously, and can be taken for 3 graduate credits with Traditional Letter Grading.
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This summer, we’re offering students in our “Happiness for Educators” course the opportunity to participate in a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the course on different well-being outcomes. If you choose to participate in the research protocol, you will get an additional $50 off the price of the course, but you will be giving us permission to randomly assign you to take the course either from June 8 to July 12 or from July 6 to August 9. As a part of this research project, you will complete a set of questionnaires during the weeks of June 8, July 6, and August 3. The research protocol will preserve anonymity and confidentiality.
If you prefer not to take this course as part of our randomized controlled trial, you can sign up to take the course from June 22 to July 26.
*Grant support subsidizes a majority of the course costs for Montana educators only. This portal is intended for educators, educational professionals, and interested parties residing outside of Montana. If you are a Montana educator interested in taking this course, please register here to access the subsidized MT portals.
