Promoting teachers’ wellbeing through a serious game intervention: a qualitative exploration of teachers’ experiences

Introduction: Teachers’ wellbeing plays a critical role in their overall jobsatisfaction, motivation, and effectiveness in building supporting learningenvironments. In today’s dynamic educational settings, where teachers oftenface numerous challenges and stressors, their wellbeing becomes increasinglyvital. Consequently, there is an urgent need to innovate and develop targetedtraining interventions that can support specifically the wellbeing of educators.Methods: This study sought to provide an overview of the “Online WellbeingCourse - OWC,” a serious game developed to enhance teachers’ wellbeing, andto investigate the participants’ feedback after being engaged in theOWC, utilizinga qualitative approach through focus group discussions. A total of 189 in-serviceteachers took part in the study. To qualitatively explore their experiences with theOWC, participants were involved in focus groups and asked to provide feedbackabout how and to what extent the course was beneficial for their wellbeing.Results: Teachers reported enhancements in areas such as emotionalcompetence, self-care strategies, social awareness, relationship skills, decision-making, and school climate.Discussion: These outcomes suggested the potential of serious games as aninnovative training approach for supporting teachers’ wellbeing, offering valuableinsights for researchers, policymakers, and educators.