Resources
Explore a wide range of valuable resources on GCED to deepen your understanding and enhance your research, advocacy, teaching, and learning.
14 Results found
Why the World Needs Happy Schools: Global Report on Happiness In and For Learning Year of publication: 2024 Corporate author: UNESCO Seeing a teacher smile. Hearing students laugh. Feeling a hug from a friend. Smelling fresh air. Tasting a nutritious school meal. These five senses can stimulate happiness at school and improve the learning experiences, outcomes and well-being of students. Through the ‘Happy Schools’ initiative, UNESCO is placing happiness at the core of the transformation of education. It encourages education systems to recognize happiness as both a means to and a goal of quality learning. The initiative is informed by a growing evidence base linking happiness with better learning, teaching, well-being and overall system resilience. This report presents the UNESCO global Happy Schools framework consisting of 4 pillars – people, process, place and principles – and 12 high-level criteria to guide the transformation of learning. It offers a holistic model for embedding happiness into education policies and cultivating it in schools through systemic changes. The report illustrates how the ‘Happy Schools’ initiative aims to create top-down and bottom-up transformation, encouraging governments to recognize happiness as a core objective of education. It supports the scaling of promising practices of joyful learning from the school to the policy level.
Promoting Youth Well-Being Through Health and Education: Insights and Opportunities Year of publication: 2019 Author: Wing Yi Chan | Jennifer Sloan | Anita Chandra Corporate author: RAND Corporation Putting well-being at the heart of planning, policy making, and resource allocation is emerging as critical to the development of thriving communities and nations. We examined the academic and grey literature to identify theoretical frameworks that integrate health and education. We identified and described policies and programs supporting well-being around the world, and interviewed experts from each location to gain a deeper understanding of them.The report found that although wellbeing frameworks that integrate education and health exist, few of them have been examined rigorously to reveal how both educational and health outcomes can be achieved together.
Building Strong Foundations: What to Teach for Foundational Education for Health and Well-being (Building Strong Foundations Brief; 2) Year of publication: 2024 Corporate author: UNESCO | United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) In a rapidly changing world, establishing strong foundations for children is vital for their well-being and resilience. Quality education is central to this endeavour and is the key to lifelong health and success. Recognizing that children thrive in the classroom when they are in good health, it is crucial to learn about health and well-being early on in primary schools. The Building strong foundations briefs, developed jointly by UNESCO and UNICEF, provide evidence-based guidance to support primary school-aged children to thrive through foundational education for health and well-being. Drawing from extensive research and consultations with leading experts from various fields and across the world, these briefs serve as a roadmap for education stakeholders to equip learners with the requisite knowledge and skills to navigate their current and future health and well-being needs. The present document is the second of four briefs. It is a go-to resource to better understand what makes a primary school curriculum effective in supporting health, well-being and learning. The brief provides practical tips and insights on integrating core thematic concepts for health and well-being into the curriculum, including concrete examples of learning objectives for lower primary and upper primary curricula. Whether a seasoned curriculum designer, a passionate educator or an individual involved in primary school curriculum processes, this brief equips readers with the tools to design impactful curricula for transformative learning, health and well-being.
Building Strong Foundations: What is Foundational Education for Health and Well-being? (Brief 1) Year of publication: 2024 Corporate author: UNESCO | United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) In a rapidly changing world, establishing strong foundations for children is vital for their well-being and resilience. Quality education is central to this endeavour and is the key to lifelong health and success. Recognizing that children thrive in the classroom when they are in good health, it is crucial to learn about health and well-being early on in primary schools. The Building strong foundations briefs, developed jointly by UNESCO and UNICEF, provide evidence-based guidance to support primary school-aged children to thrive through foundational education for health and well-being. Drawing from extensive research and consultations with leading experts from various fields and across the world, these briefs serve as a roadmap for education stakeholders to equip learners with the requisite knowledge and skills to navigate their current and future health and well-being needs. This document is the first of four briefs. It provides an overview of the essential role that primary schools play in enhancing health and well-being. The document outlines what foundational refers to, why it is important for health and education, and how it contributes to paving the way for healthier, inclusive and thriving societies. The brief shares compelling evidence and case studies to distill six essential elements for an effective whole-school approach to health and well-being. 