Supporting students’ well-being and equipping them with the skills necessary to succeed in life was set as one of the 21st-century educational goals (Coleman, 2011). Positive education, an emerging field at the intersection of positive psychology and education, focuses on enhancing students’ well-being and flourishing within the educational context (Norrish, 2015). It acknowledges both teaching traditional skills and happiness. It recognizes students’ strengths, builds resilience, nurtures positive emotions, and fosters good relationships (Seligman et al., 2009). Positive education also promotes social-emotional skills and resilience, which empower children to better manage life’s difficulties (Leyden & Shale, 2012) and feel more confident (Erricker, 2009). The positive education goal aligns with the UNESCO (2022) strategic goal 2030 on education for health and well-being: “education sector’s role must extend beyond just the prevention of ill-health, towards the active promotion of learners’ well-being” (p. 12). In addition, improving well-being was mentioned multiple times in the agenda for sustainable development. One of the visions ensures “universal access to quality education at all levels…where physical, mental, and social well-being are assured” (UN, 2015, p. 7). Following that, educational systems worldwide started reconsidering the purpose of education toward children’s well-being and happiness (UNESCO MGIEP, 2018). Positive education is a catalyst of this goal and has received attention from academia and schools across different countries: Australia (Norrish et al., 2013; Trask-Kerr et al., 2019), China (Zhang, 2016), Finland (Vuorinen, 2018), Israel (Shoshani & Slone, 2017), Malaysia (Jie et al., 2022), UK (Boniwell et al., 2015), and Asian-Pacific countries (UNESCO, 2016).

Bearing this idea in mind, the purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to analyze the effects of a positive education intervention on secondary school students’ well-being and academic performance reflected in English grammar competence. By achieving this purpose, practical implications for promoting well-being in Kazakhstani educational settings were identified. In addition, by inspecting the relationship between well-being and English grammar competence as an indicator of academic performance, the study aimed to examine how these concepts are interconnected, such as how students’ well-being impacts their learning progress and if well-being can be a valid indicator of quality education and student success. Overall, the research sought to provide a clear and better understanding of positive education interventions and their impact on well-being.

To address the research purpose, the following research questions were formulated:

• RQ1: How does a positive education intervention affect students’ well-being? This question evaluates differences in overall well-being scores before and after the intervention.
• RQ2: How does such an intervention contribute to students’ English grammar competence? This question examines the effect of the positive education program on students’ academic outcomes, particularly in English grammar, before and after the intervention.
• RQ3: What is the relationship between well-being and English grammar competence? This question explores how well-being influences students’ comprehension and retention of grammatical concepts, seeking to establish a causal relationship between the variables.

This study was primarily guided by the two grounded theories:

1. Seligman’s (2011) PERMA model of well-being provided an in-depth understanding of the concept as a combination of five elements (positive emotions, engagement, relationship, meaning, and accomplishment), bringing subjective and psychological well-being into one. This theory further served as a foundation of the intervention program and data analysis.

1. Fredrickson’s (2001) broaden-and-build theory, which states that an increase in positive emotions facilitates better learning, was used to interpret the relationship between subjective well-being and academic performance.

To sum up, the study’s findings attempted to contribute to the existing body of research dedicated to student well-being, which holds important implications for further investigations in Kazakhstan and beyond.

A quantitative quasi-experimental pretest-posttest research design was used to investigate the effects of positive education interventions on students’ well-being and academic performance in the Kazakhstani context. A quantitative research approach was chosen due to three reasons. Firstly, this research method is appropriate to test a hypothesis (Johnson & Christensen, 2020). In this research, I sought to find whether positive education intervention may affect students’ well-being. Secondly, it is used to “research the relationships or effects of specific variables” (Edmonds & Kennedy, 2017, p. 30). In addition, I wanted to examine the relationship between students’ well-being and academic performance (See Section 1.3). Thirdly, it allows gathering numerical data using precise measurement tools (Leavy, 2017). Questionnaires were used to measure each variable and collect numerical data. Within the quantitative methodology, an experimental research design was employed. This approach can “explain whether the intervention influences the outcome of one group as opposed to another” (Creswell, 2014, p. 20). In addition, this method is applicable when control conditions are made to test the hypothesis (Mujis, 2004). In this research, positive education intervention was a control condition prescribed to one group, and then, the results were compared between the intervention and control groups. Within the experimental designs, a quasi-experimental research design was selected. It was given priority instead of a true experiment since the random assignment of participants to groups is impossible in the framework of the present study, especially in school settings with existing classes of students (Edmonds & Kennedy, 2017; Johnson & Christensen, 2020; Leavy, 2017). Although it might weaken the causality of variables, a quasi-experimental study allows to “study the relationship in natural educational settings,” and a researcher can “be confident these work in real schools and classrooms with all their complexity rather than just in the laboratory setting” (Mujis, 2004, p. 29). A pretest-posttest type of experimental research design was used. This design enables researchers to “empirically compare the groups on the attribute that the treatment is designed to affect before implementation” and after the implementation (O’Dwyer & Bernauer, 2013, p. 178). In this case, it was crucial to identify how prior measures were influenced by the intervention to achieve the research purpose.

This research was guided by Seligman’s (2011) theory of well-being PERMA and Fredrickson’s (2001) broaden-and-build theory. According to Seligman (2011), well-being is a construct of five elements (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) which can be increased through positive psychology interventions. This, on the other side, can enhance students’ motivation and encourage creative thinking, which contributes to their academic success (Fredrickson, 2001). It was hoped that the designed intervention would boost students’ well-being, which would further lead to an increase in academic performance. However, the analysis revealed no changes in either subjective or psychological well-being after a one-week intervention. One unexpected outcome was an increase in one of the psychological well-being elements (i.e., connectedness) and its positive correlation with grammar competence in the post-test. This finding partially contributes to the broaden-and-build theory, but further research is needed to examine other well-being domains and their contribution to academic achievement.

Coleman, J. (2011). The nature of adolescence. In Routledge eBooks. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203805633 Creswell, J. W. (2014). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Pearson College Division. Edmonds, W. A., & Kennedy, T. D. (2017). An Applied Guide to Research Designs: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/978107180277 Erricker, J. (2009). The importance of happiness to children’s education and wellbeing. In De Souza, M., Francis, L. J., O’ Higgins-Norman, J., & Scott, D (Eds.), International Handbook of Education for Spirituality (pp. 739–752). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9018-9_39 Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218–226. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218 Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 359(1449), 1367–1378. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1512 Johnson, R. B., & Christensen, L. (2020). Educational research: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches (7th ed.). SAGE Publications. Leavy, P. (2017). Research design: Quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, arts-based, and community-based participatory research approaches. The Guilford Press. Leyden, R., & Shale, E. (2012). What teachers need to know about social and emotional development. Acer Press. Norrish, J. M. (2015). Positive education: The Geelong grammar school journey. Oxford Positive Psychology Series. Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. Simon and Schuster. Seligman, M. E. P., Ernst, R. M., Gillham, J. E., Reivich, K., & Linkins, M. (2009). Positive education: positive psychology and classroom interventions. Oxford Review of Education, 35(3), 293–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054980902934563 UNESCO MGIEP (2018). The Blue Dot: Exploring new ideas for a shared future. UNESCO MGIEP, 7. https://mgiep.unesco.org/the-blue-dot-issue-7 UNESCO. (2022). UNESCO Strategy on education for health and well-being. UNESCO Publishing.