Teacher Well-being in Teacher Education: Evaluation of a Positive Psychology-based Intervention for EFL Instructors

This study examines the impact of a positive psychology–based intervention on the subjective and professional well-being of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors in the setting of higher education. Institutional restrictions and a structured experimental design with randomized group allocation divided 32 instructors from a university English Language Preparatory Program in Türkiye into experimental (n = 10) and control (n = 22) groups. The experimental condition was characterized by a seven-week intervention based on Seligman’s PERMA framework (2011). Data were collected using the PERMA Profiler and the Workplace PERMA Profiler as pre- and post-test measures. There were no significant between-group differences in subjective and professional well-being as determined by the statistical analyses. Even so, small effect sizes were identified for the selected PERMA dimensions, which may indicate that the trends did not progress to significance, as the intervention was brief and the sample size was small. These results provide important insight for teacher education, demonstrating the experimental evidence concerning the boundary conditions of short-term well-being interventions and calling for a longer-term, context-specific, and institutionally supported approach to teacher well-being. The current study deepens theoretical understanding of the conditions under which well-being interventions function in complex institutional environments. By providing rare experimental evidence and transparently reporting null results, this research advances a more ecologically grounded perspective on teacher well-being and helps shape the development of longer-term interventions in teacher education. The findings call into question the standalone effectiveness of short-term positive psychology interventions, suggesting that without structural support, their contribution to teachers’ well-being may remain partial and transient.