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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Positive Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1516572
This article is part of the Research Topic Positive Higher Education: Empowering Students through Learning and Wellbeing View all 9 articles

PERMA.teach: A study on the effectiveness of a standardized Positive Education training program in Austria

Provisionally accepted
Martin Wammerl Martin Wammerl 1,2Ulrike Lichtinger Ulrike Lichtinger 3*
  • 1 Institute for Positive Psychology and Mental Coaching, Graz, Styria, Austria
  • 2 Sigmund Freud University Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 3 IU International University of Applied Sciences, Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    PERMA.teach is the largest Positive Education initiative in German-speaking countries, offering a standardized program that trains teachers to integrate positive interventions based on the PERMA model of well-being in the classroom. The program aims to promote the well-being and mental health of both teachers and students and is part of the third phase of Austrian teacher training.To assess the program's effectiveness, a representative sample was collected from Austrian schools in five federal states, covering primary and middle school sectors. Schools were assigned to either an intervention group or a control group (education as usual). Well-being was measured using standardized questionnaires (PERMA-Profiler, Satisfaction With Life) at three points. The final sample included 155 teachers (65 in the control group) and 1,402 students (657 in the control group). Additionally, ten randomly selected teachers were interviewed to explore the mechanisms of the training, and a survey was conducted with 120 participants to understand the practical implementation of the program.The results show a clear intervention effect. Teachers in the intervention group demonstrated significantly increased life satisfaction compared to the control group. In terms of the PERMA wellbeing components, teachers in the intervention group reported significantly more positive emotions. Teachers in the intervention group showed higher levels of engagement, experiencing more flow and utilizing their character strengths in the school setting. No significant changes in life satisfaction or PERMA factors were observed in the control group.The interviews confirmed previous research findings, showing that Positive Education thrives on the autonomy of its users. A broad range of intervention options is necessary to allow for individual selection. Emotional contagion was also highlighted as a key factor, particularly among teachers, influencing both the training they received and its implementation in classrooms. In conclusion, PERMA.teach effectively promotes the well-being of teachers, contributing to flourishing in the school environment. ** sig. p < .01, * sig. p < .05, two-tailed testing. Note: O= overall well-being score (i.e. average of the PERMA 15 items),

    Keywords: positive education, PERMA model, teacher well-being, Student well-being, Education intervention. (Min

    Received: 24 Oct 2024; Accepted: 15 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wammerl and Lichtinger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ulrike Lichtinger, IU International University of Applied Sciences, Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.