Mark Samways

Director of Wellbeing, The Free Spirit Collective

Mark is the Director of Wellbeing at the Free Spirit Collective and a CDA licensed Psychologist in Dubai. He is passionate about helping schools incorporate a holistic approach to Wellbeing. In collaboration with Matthew Lee, director of empirical research at The Human Flourishing program at Harvard University, Amrita Chaturvedi, assistant professor in the school of education at St Louis University and Kristine Larson, assistant professor of special education at Notre Dame University, Mark is enabling schools incorporate the education for flourishing standards into their everyday teaching and curriculum.

GESS Talks Arena

15 November 2021 | 12:00 - 12:20 | English | The future of Wellbeing

We now have over two decades worth of research into Positive Psychology but how has this been transmitted into the real world and education? What does the future hold for education with regard to wellbeing and what steps can schools take?

Wellbeing Space

16 November 2021 | 10:00 - 10:20 | English | Education for Flourishing - Addressing 21st Century needs

Increasing numbers of students are showing signs of mental health problems such as depression and anxiety (Twenge, 2017). Unfortunately, our society tends to address mental health of students when it is already in an “ill state” or more specifically, after mental health problems like depression and anxiety have already manifested. The aim of this talk is to introduce a new paradigm of how schools can address the wellbeing needs by incorporating the six domains of flourishing as proposed by the human flourishing programme at Harvard into everyday teaching. Specifically, we will address how to integrate education for flourishing standards (based on the six domains of flourishing) and help them embed it into their existing school curriculum.

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Mark Samways

Director of Wellbeing, The Free Spirit Collective

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