Understanding the success of whole-school wellbeing education approaches: Building criteria for implementation and sustainability

• In Event: Realizing a new vision for wellbeing education: Driving impactful professional learning through research-practice partnerships

Abstract

Objectives: Evidence strongly suggests whole-school approaches should be utilized to embed wellbeing education, with such approaches promoted globally for over 30 years. However, there is limited evidence of what effective practice looks like (Sawyer et al., 2021). Recent research illustrates a dearth of evidence about quality implementation, despite policy reform supporting whole-school approaches (Lekamge et al., 2025). The objectives of the two studies drawn on in this presentation include addressing gaps in measurable criteria for capturing the effectiveness of wellbeing education practice.
Theoretical Framework: Implementation science frameworks, including the SISTER framework (implementation science strategies adapted for schools), offer useful models for understanding implementation determinants, processes, and effects. The SISTER framework, combined with the multidimensional hierarchical model of wellbeing literacy (Author & Author, in-press), guided both studies.
Methods: Sequential mixed methods designs were employed. The first study involves building criteria for day-to-day wellbeing education practices using an online survey capturing practices, school community connections, and impact perceptions through 6-point Likert scale questions, with opportunities for respondents to share evidence of practice impact. The survey was followed by workshops with teachers, school and student leaders. The second study involved documentary analysis and literature review, followed by workshops with staff from the Youth Impact Foundation. Workshops in both projects included adapted standard-setting activities in which participants rated wellbeing education vignettes on implementation and impact quality criteria to determine performance descriptors.
Data Sources: Findings were drawn from an online survey of school leaders and teachers with wellbeing education responsibilities across 118 independent schools in South Australia (currently being administered), alongside the completed second study. The second study synthesized 14 systematic reviews (n = 314 primary studies) plus 53 additional primary studies and a workshop with staff involved in wellbeing education programs. Eight implementation and impact success criteria resulted from workshops, including consensus that impact could be synthesized across different practices using WELLBY—wellbeing adjusted life years—to understand collective impact and return on investment from wellbeing programs reaching over 100,000 young people across New Zealand and Australia.
Results: Findings collectively demonstrate the applicability of implementation science frameworks in planning and evaluating whole-school wellbeing education approaches. They highlight the importance of using school-based evidence to identify specific health and wellbeing needs and contextual priorities at the school level to inform the implementation of health and wellbeing programs alongside day-to-day wellbeing education practices.
Scholarly Significance: Wellbeing education practices are increasingly considered essential to quality education. In Australia, reference to supporting student wellbeing appears in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, with wellbeing education frameworks being developed and promoted across public and independent sectors. Understanding effective implementation is fundamentally important, and where implementation science frameworks hold significant promise. The combined findings demonstrate how such frameworks and conceptual models can guide implementation planning and evaluation of school-based wellbeing education practices and programs.

Author

• Ruth Aston, University of Adelaide