Why
Life Skills Education Should Be Promoted:
The
approaches used in life skills education are focused on what is learned about
how young people learn from their own interactions and from the people around
them, how others act and what are the consequences of that behavior. Life skills education promotes health because the training in life skills is focused
on teaching basic life skills, which involves skill practice in relation to
major health and social issues.
Life skills lessons should be paired with
health information and can also be combined with other strategies, such as
initiatives designed to bring improvements in environmental and social factors
that affect young people's health and development.
Life
skills education is distinguished from other approaches in two ways, firstly
because it focuses on behavior change in an individual and secondly because the
approach of life skills education consists of a balance of three components i.e.
(a) the knowledge or information which focuses mainly on the knowledge
component, (b) the attitudes and values and (c) the skills which acts as the
most effective method of changing or developing behaviors because it consists
of interpersonal and psycho-social skills like assertion, negotiation, building
empathy, values clarification, stress and coping skills. The theoretical
knowledge or the strategies taught to gather information only focus on the
knowledge component, whereas, the life skills approach balances all the three
components: knowledge, attitudes and skills.
How Life Skills Education Can be Taught in Schools:
A school is considered as the right place
for introducing the life skills education mainly because schools play a role in
the socialization of young people, schools have access to children and
adolescents on a large scale, no need to create a new infrastructure as schools
already have the infrastructure which can be used to deliver life skills
lessons, presence of experienced faculties and trainers, good relation and
connections with the children’s parents and families, easy evaluation. Training
children in life skills education actively involves children in a dynamic
teaching and learning process which includes working in small groups and pairs,
brainstorming, role plays, games and debates.
A teacher can start a life skills
session by working on realizing the potential of children and know their
thoughts or knowledge regarding a specific situation in which a life skill can
be used. By making a small group, children may be asked to debate on the issues
raised in more detail by dividing them into smaller groups, teams or with a
partner. Since the actual practice of any life skills is an important component
of life skills education, hence children can be involved in some kind of
role-playing scenarios (of short or long duration) or in activities which will
allow them to practice the skills according to different situations. Finally, a
homework can be assigned by the teacher to the children by asking them to
further discuss and practice the skills learned with their families and
friends.
