Positive education in the classroom is the subject of a thoughtful book by Soline Bourdeverre-Veyssiere, an agrégée history and geography teacher in a middle school who offers keys for applying it with benefit to both pupils and teachers.
Drawing on her own teaching experience, she leans on pedagogical and neuroscientific research to build an approach rooted in positive education at school. The book provides practical tools for replacing punishments with encouragement and for breaking the dynamics of power struggles.
Rather than handing down prescriptions, she offers a toolbox meant to be personalised, enriched and modified by each teacher.
Quick takeaways
- Positive education replaces punishment with encouragement and breaks power struggles.
- Five chapters cover understanding, changing our gaze, the 4Cs, communication and space.
- Violence is addressed contextually, with caring responses rather than blame.
- Trust works in every direction: pupil, teacher, institution and family.
- Encouragement targets progress and strengths; compliments judge results.
- Practical tools include relaxation, active listening and phrases for confidence.
Reflections and resources for positive education at school
The book offers reflections and resources for bringing kindness into the classroom. The author describes herself as advancing by experimental trial and error, and she never imposes things that must be done; instead she relies on solid sources to propose a toolbox that each reader can adapt.
The work is organised around five main chapters: understanding (questioning kindness and positive education at school), changing our gaze (moving the cursor), adopting a global approach (the 4Cs with the brain, heart, body and circle approach), communicating (bringing respect, empathy and trust to life), and arranging the space.
She makes many references to neuroscience researchers. The resources she presents concern both attitude (encouragement, building self-confidence, emotional intelligence, motivation) and learning strategies such as mental management, memorisation and concentration. Teachers who want to build a calm home routine alongside this can borrow ideas from these parenting commandments and adapt them to school life.
Addressing the question of violence
Violence is widely discussed: the violence of the institution towards teachers and pupils, the violence of teachers towards pupils, violence between pupils, and violence from parents towards teachers. This way of looking at violence is contextual, and the author invites readers to answer it with caring, well-treating responses.
Those responses include developing pupils' emotional intelligence through small activities on knowing emotions and resolving conflict non-violently, taking care of oneself as a teacher, developing cooperation within learning between pupils, and creating an educational alliance between school and parents.
Understanding how children develop is part of this caring stance. A teacher who knows the basics of conditions such as Down Syndrome or who follows early development through an pregnancy ultrasound is better placed to meet each child where they are.
| Feature | Encouragement | Compliment |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Progress and strengths | Result against an expectation |
| Reference point | The pupil's own effort | Parents, teachers, grading system |
| Example phrase | "I noticed you kept trying" | "You got a good mark" |
| Effect on confidence | Builds inner resources | Depends on outside approval |
| When to use | Daily, during learning | Occasionally, for a result |
Fostering trust
The author uses the word "trust" in a global sense: the pupil's self-confidence, the teacher's self-confidence, the trust the teacher places in pupils, the trust pupils place in their teacher, the trust the institution shows its staff and pupils, and the mutual trust between families and teachers.
She lists nine attitudes teachers can adopt to foster this trust: ensuring a climate of physical and emotional safety; seeing pupils in their potential by noticing and valuing strengths and supporting weaknesses through encouragement of effort and progress; meeting pupils' needs for usefulness and belonging; treating mistakes as a stage in learning; accepting that some pupils need more time; focusing attention on strategies and process rather than marks alone; setting achievable goals; explaining brain plasticity to pupils; and cultivating motivation while avoiding amotivation.
Encouragement focuses on progress and strengths, whereas a compliment underlines appreciation of a result according to someone's expectation or an external reference such as parents, teachers or the grading system.
Three types of encouragement
Descriptive encouragement sounds like "I notice that you have…" or "I observed that you…". Appreciative encouragement sounds like "thank you for your help with…" or "I appreciated it when you…". Capacity-building encouragement sounds like "I trust you to…", "I believe in you" or "this may be difficult and you have resources inside you to get there".
Positive education in the life of the class
The author takes the elements of positive education and transposes them to classroom life: rethinking the punishment and reward system in order to avoid it, reconsidering the place of error, and questioning vertical, authoritarian authority.
Readers will find elements of positive discipline, small relaxation exercises to offer pupils and themselves, suggested phrases for building self-confidence, resources for building a dynamic mindset, and explanations for practising active listening during conflict.
The layout makes reading very fluid thanks to numerous boxes, tables and diagrams that illustrate the points. Small practical touches help too: a teacher preparing a calm corner might think about how to store classroom materials, much as one decides whether LEGO boxes are worth keeping, or how to clean shared items safely, as with LEGO pieces in a dishwasher.
For families who want to extend the same spirit at home, small shared rituals matter, whether baking chocolate truffles together or choosing open-ended toys for imaginative play.
A complete tour of kindness at school
Overall, this book offers a complete tour of what kindness at school covers, successfully combining theory and practice to introduce positive education into the classroom. It is available in libraries, bookshops and online.
Teachers who want to go further can pair it with practical reading on child development and family life, from the stages a family must go through to the everyday realities of raising young children.
My hands-on take
I have used several of these ideas in my own daily routine with children, and the shift from compliments to encouragement was the one that changed the most for me. Saying "I noticed you kept going even when it was hard" lands very differently from "well done", and it seems to stick longer.
I also liked the reminder to take care of myself as the adult in the room. A short breathing pause before reacting to a difficult moment has saved more than one afternoon, and it costs nothing to try.
Frequently asked questions
What is positive education in the classroom?
It is an approach that favours encouragement over punishment and seeks to break power struggles. It draws on pedagogical and neuroscientific research to support both pupils and teachers.
Does the book impose rigid rules?
No. The author presents a toolbox meant to be personalised, enriched and modified. She relies on solid sources rather than prescribing things that must be done.
How does encouragement differ from a compliment?
Encouragement focuses on progress and strengths, while a compliment underlines appreciation of a result according to an external expectation. Encouragement builds lasting self-confidence.
Which practical tools does the book include?
It offers relaxation exercises, suggested phrases for building confidence, resources for a dynamic mindset and guidance on active listening during conflict.
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