Positive Intelligence Training to Develop Self-Awareness for Enhancing Student Learning Potential During Higher Education

Positive intelligence (PI) training can produce a transformative impact on college students. PI, a branch of human psychology, provides a tool to identify significant compulsive habits that can inhibit students’ learning potential and ability to understand others. This paper discusses the two training methods adopted for teaching graduate and undergraduate students. It is considered that including such training is fundamentally crucial for developing 21st century STEM workforce with a well-rounded personality. However, PI training may consume a significant class time allocated for covering course contents under the degree-specific curriculums. Starting a new course may increase the credit overload beyond the approved BS and graduate credits. This paper discusses introducing different modules in the existing classes to foster PI training. The PI training method for undergraduate students focuses on self-education via online videos and freely available content and self-assessment tests. Undergraduate students were given a set of questions to guide them about the important PI topics and to pay attention while self-learning the PI elements. The PI assignment starts with the familiarization of the Maslow hierarchy of needs governing the motivation behind human actions. This assignment mainly focuses on understanding the “sage” mode in which a human tends to utilize his/her latent and earned skills towards the attainment of goals and living life purposefully. The PI assignment had several questions on self-sabotaging “saboteurs” and judging traits that almost everyone develops as a survival mechanism while facing emotional and physical survival challenges for an extended period. During class discussion, students were exposed to their hidden/invisible saboteurs which could be easily triggered by unrealistic mental threats and thus compromise their learning function and performance. Students were asked to take free online self-assessment saboteur test to find the numerical values of their traits and do self-evaluation and plan to counteract the effect of self-sabotaging habits. PI training fulfills ABET student learning outcomes focusing on developing their life-long learning skills. This paper mainly discusses the PI training for graduate students under the mechanical engineering department. PI training is one of the first and essential modules in the mandatory MECH 500 Research Methods and Technical Communication course. Graduate students enrolled in this course are first introduced to the importance of PI and its potential impact in developing self-efficacy. After the initial introduction, graduate students are asked to do the following (a) Complete the abovementioned assignment given to the undergraduate student, (b) prepare a presentation on PI by including their insights for class discussion. After the PI training, students were asked to reflect on their competence in PI and the ability to apply it. In the survey and direct feedback, students expressed the value and appreciation for the PI training. Students also expressed the need to provide this training to large masses for developing an emotionally mature society of parents, teachers, and students, producing creative, innovative, and emphatic civilization.