The Quality of Life of Students and Teachers at School, College, High School and University

Abstract

The quality of life at school, whether it concerns pupils from a very early age, students at university or teachers, is recognised as a major issue. It is a school issue, insofar as it determines both the quality of learning and the effectiveness of teaching. A public health issue, insofar as it also partly determines the level of psychological resources of the protagonists and their lasting mental health. Finally, it is a social issue, insofar as the quality of life of adults depends in part on the quality of life when they were at school, and the psychosocial skills they were able to develop there to cope with everyday adversities.

The purpose of this Research Topic is to explore the quality of life in the school and university environments in all its dimensions, through the characterization of the sources and potential levers for the development of psycho-affective ecosystems involving pupils, students and all the adults in the educational community. The bringing into play of psychological resources and their development, the interactions between the individual and the environment, the teaching contents and the evaluation of their effectiveness in the perspective of the theme that interests us here are all associated research objects. The methodologies can be quantitative, qualitative or mixed.

Quality of life at school can be approached through different theoretical prisms such as motivation, flow, health, satisfaction, physical activity, etc. Educational psychology is of course the scientific field that may seem privileged but psychology as a whole is equally so, health or work psychology for example.

School performance can be approached through the quality of pupils' learning but also through either their persistence in school or, on the contrary, through the mechanisms involved in dropping out.

The quality of life of teachers is likely to provide pupils with a supportive environment for their education. For this reason, approaches that take into account the quality of life at school for pupils, teachers and the educational community as a whole are potential options, although it is considered complex to have such a comprehensive approach.