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Life Skills Integration: Relevance, Feasibility and Opportunities

Life Skills Integration: Relevance, Feasibility and Opportunities. What are Life Skills. Abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life (WHO). What are Life Skills. Psycho-social abilities that:

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Life Skills Integration: Relevance, Feasibility and Opportunities

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  1. Life Skills Integration: Relevance, Feasibility and Opportunities

  2. What are Life Skills • Abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life (WHO)

  3. What are Life Skills • Psycho-social abilities that: • Empower individuals to connect with self as well as others and develop healthy life style and positive behaviors • Enable people to deal with stresses and pressures in life and equip them with competencies to manage challenging situations and optimize opportunities • Enhance coping resources, personal and social competencies of individuals • Enable individuals to respond to situations in logical, sensitive and positive ways without harming either self or the society

  4. What are Life Skills • WHO categorizes them as

  5. What are Life Skills • Categorization may suggest distinctions among many skills but they are inter-related and work in conjunction • Equipped with accurate information and positive attitudes, “life skills provide individuals the tools to actualize behavior change” Prof. J.L. Pandey • Life skills are abilities that each of us possesses, and yet conscious efforts need to be made to enhance these abilities within oneself and others

  6. Why do life skills merit integration in the school curriculum • Educational processes should engage learners in creating knowledge that is relevant to their experiences and enable them to respond to real-life situations in positive and responsible ways • The purpose of life skills development is in alignment with the larger goals of education • School education could play a vital role in life skills development amongst learners as it exposes them to varied experiences and has abundant potential to create simulated situations to learn and practice

  7. Why do life skills merit integration in the school curriculum • As life skills are generic by nature, educational interventions have the potential to develop abilities to apply these skills across a range of different contexts, including scholastic areas

  8. Why do life skills merit integration in school curriculum • Evidence of effectiveness • A meta analysis of 207 school-based drug prevention programs found that the most effective programs teach comprehensive life skills (Tobler, 2000) • High risk sexual activity (Kirby, 1997 and 1994; WHO/GPA, 1994; Postrado & Nicholson, 1992; Scripture Union, Zabin et al., 1986; Schinke, Blythe and Gilchrest, 1981); • Prevent peer rejection (Mize and Ladd, 1990) and bullying (Oleweus, 1990) • Social adjustment (Elias, Gara, Schulyer, Brandon-Muller, and Sayette, 1991) and reduce emotional disorders (McConaughy, Kay and Fitzgerald, 1998) • Health-related behaviours and self-esteem (Young, Kelley, and Denny, 1997) • Academic performance (Elias, Gara, Schulyer, Brandon-Muller, and Sayette, 1991)

  9. Placement of life skills in school education • Stand-alone • Utilization of existing spaces in the school, for example, school assembly, PTA, SUPW, annual function and others • Core subject within the broader curriculum • Within an existing scholastic subject like science, social sciences, languages and others

  10. Opportunities for Integration of Life Skills in Scholastic Subjects • Examples Drawn From NIOS Secondary Curriculum

  11. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING Examples of Integration 1) Suppose you are the Prime Minister of India. State three key areas in which your government will invest for improving the pace of development in the country so that the vast human potential can be realized? 2) India is struggling with issues related to a large population. On the other hand, countries like Japan and Sweden are worried that their population is not growing and are giving incentives to young people in their country to contribute towards population growth. Please fill the table below to identify the major advantages and problems that countries with large and small populations face. Science Lesson: Reproduction and Heredity, (Pg 21, Activity 3.5.1)

  12. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING English Lesson: Kondiba, A Hero In-text Exercise: Use the information given in the chart below. Make as many sentences as you can by combining any two of the sentences at a time. Use the appropriate forms of the verbs (i.e. the simple past tense and the past perfect tense) and linking words when you combine the sentences . Examples of Integration Better use of existing learning opportunities in a lesson

  13. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING Examples of Integration Challenge gender stereotypes

  14. Integration of Life Skills in Evaluation Items in NIOS Secondary Curriculum • Evaluation tools to demonstrate that assessment of life skills is possible but the objectives different from traditional assessment methods: • Learners’ responsiveness to what is taught rather than their capacity to retain • Aimed at providing qualitative learning opportunities to the learner rather than validating inputs • Focus on evaluation of teaching-learning process rather than mere knowledge-based outputs • Evaluation items woven into lesson writing with focus on assessing the process of experiential and applied learning

  15. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING Evaluation Tools

  16. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING Example of An Evaluation Item English Lesson: The Little Girl

  17. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING

  18. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING

  19. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING Example of An Evaluation Item –Science, Control and Co-ordination

  20. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING

  21. Factors that Contribute Towards Effective Life Skills Programs • Pre- Conditions • Most effective in influencing behaviors when applied as part of a comprehensive, multi-strategy approach that delivers consistent messages over time • Intensive and should begin before the onset of risk behaviors • Commitment not only from the top leadership, administrative and implementation authorities but across all levels, including communities where possible

  22. Factors that Contribute Towards Effective Life Skills Programs • During the Development of Curriculum and Learning Materials • Based on theoretical approaches that have been proven to be effective in similar settings • Context-specific: Program goals, content and teaching methods should be relevant to the age, experience, and culture of young people and their communities • Address a balance of knowledge, attitudes, and skills- rather than heavy emphasis on knowledge • Institutionalize mechanisms for active participation of diverse stakeholders : students, teachers, civil society, content experts, parents, and the wider community at all stages of the program

  23. Factors that Contribute Towards Effective School-based Life Skills Programs • During the Development of Curriculum and Learning Materials • Participatory teaching methods • Adequate emphasis on development of tools for assessment of life skills

  24. Factors that Contribute Towards Effective Life Skills Programs • During Implementation • Process driven approaches with continuous engagement with the relevant stakeholders that demonstrates that integration of life skills adds value to an existing content area rather than dilute it • Critical mass of key functionaries: Teachers should receive adequate training and regular opportunities for professional development for transacting and assessing skills-based curricula • Should bring about a change in the learning environment rather than a stand-alone initiative • Pilot tested before being implemented on scale

  25. Factors that Contribute Towards Effective Life Skills Programs • During Implementation • Clearly defined monitoring protocols and opportunities for ongoing and objective feedback • Concurrent assessments to improve understanding of pathways of life skills development rather than measuring only knowledge • Co-ordination within and among development partners and national programs important

  26. Barriers to Effective Life Skills Programs • Infusion across a range of subjects without providing a solid foundation of linking and developing knowledge, attitudes and skills in a sequential, reinforcing manner • Inadequate orientation and training of administrators, teachers and other support staff • Lack of focus in learning materials and teaching methods • Weak leadership and lack of commitment

  27. Barriers to Effective Life Skills Programs • Existing perceptions among the existing teaching-learning community: increased work load, dilution of content • Inadequate focus on teachers training • Lack of quality teaching materials and participatory methods • Competition with other topics • Inadequate funding • Inadequate mechanisms for supervising, monitoring and evaluating programs including a lack of documentation

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