Lea Waters AM, PhD is a psychologist, researcher, speaker and author. She’s one of the world’s leading experts on Positive Education, Positive Organizations, and Strength-Based Parenting. As a University researcher, Lea turns her science into strength-based strategies to help organizations, educators and parents around the world build resilience in their employees, students and children, helping them to thrive. Lea is the founding director of the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne. She is a Board Member of the International Positive Psychology Association and served as the President of the Board from 2017-2019. She is the author of The Strength Switch. Lea’s work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and more.

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>Presentation Topic: Searching for student wellbeing: A data-derived, meta-framework to guide the practice of positive education

The rapid growth of positive education has produced a strong evidence-base for the promotion for student wellbeing. However, the vastness of the field can leave educators not knowing which of the hundreds of different programs are the best fit. Many schools report that their efforts to embed positive education, while well meaning, are fragmented and disjointed. A meta-framework for positive education allows schools to ‘join the dots’ of the various positive education initiatives and, thus, create a coherent approach to build student wellbeing over time. In this presentation Professor Lea Waters will outline the development of a new data-driven, meta-framework for positive education called the SEARCH framework. The SEARCH framework has been adopted by schools in Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, New Zealand, the United Arabs Emirates and the Netherlands. Professor Waters will provide examples of how SEARCH has been used by school during Covid-19 and remote learning.