Life Skills Curriculum Research Articles

Teacher Empowerment Strategies for Conflict Transformation and Peace Building in Kenya

The effects of violent conflict on education are enormous, and provision of quality education cannot be realised if teachers are not adequately trained to teach in conflict-prone areas. This reality prompted the study to investigate strategies to empower teachers in conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Guided by the Conflict Transformation Theory which proposes to identify the root causes of a conflict, and the use of creativity to transform the causes based on relationships and sub-systems that surround the conflict over time, a cross-sectional mixed methods study was conducted in Mt. Elgon region, Kenya. The study found that: for teachers to participate in conflict transformation there was a need for training in peace education and implementation of Life Skills Curriculum through various methods including distance education. Since then the government has developed education sector policy on peace education which provides for policy and curriculum initiatives, collaboration and partnerships to address challenges in peacebuilding and violent extremism. Initiatives to train teachers and education officers in peace education and implementation of the Life Skills Curriculum have been instituted. However, despite the efforts, peace education is not effectively taught in many schools due to inadequate teacher training. Equally, life skills education, one of the main subjects to promote peace education, is not effectively implemented. To mitigate this, the government has made several efforts to identify best practices to promote peace education and implement life skills, among them, teacher training on how to enhance peace education through mainstreaming and implementation of Life Skills Curriculum. There is need for further investigation on the current gaps in peace education in the wake of the curriculum review to Competency Based Curriculum in Kenya.

The State of Availability of Resources for Life Skills Curriculum Implementation in Public Primary Schools in Eldoret Municipality, Kenya

The State of Availability of Resources for Life Skills Curriculum Implementation in Public Primary Schools in Eldoret Municipality, Kenya

Service Learning Programs with Juvenile Offenders

While prior research on service-learning has established the benefits for participating college and university students, more recent research has attempted to explore the value of service-learning projects for the recipients of the service-learning projects, typically public-school students. This study endeavors to extend this research to a special subset of this population by examining the outcome of a 6-week service-learning project in an alternative educational setting for juvenile offenders.
 This service-learning project involved teams of four to five university business school students presenting a life skills curriculum to two classrooms of students who have been adjudicated through the juvenile courts. We administered an optional questionnaire to all participating students as a pretest and posttest, asking about their knowledge and skills in career readiness. We found statistically significant increases in ratings from pretest to posttest. Analyzed individually, all 28 items showed statistically significant improvements from pretest to posttest. Scales created from the items were also statistically significant, with the greatest change in items measuring Goals. We interpret these findings as an indication that adjudicated youth have a substantial need and interest in career information and training.

Girl Empower - A gender transformative mentoring and cash transfer intervention to promote adolescent wellbeing: Impact findings from a cluster-randomized controlled trial in Liberia.

BackgroundWe evaluated Girl Empower – an intervention that aimed to equip adolescent girls with the skills to make healthy, strategic life choices and to stay safe from sexual abuse using a cluster-randomized controlled trial with three arms: control, Girl Empower (GE), and GE+.MethodsGE delivered a life skills curriculum to girls aged 13–14 in Liberia, facilitated by local female mentors. In the GE + variation, a cash incentive payment was offered to caregivers for girls’ participation in the program. We evaluated the impact of the program on seven pre-specified domains using standardized indices: sexual violence, schooling, sexual and reproductive health (SRH), psychosocial wellbeing, gender attitudes, life skills, and protective factors.FindingsParticipation rates in the program were high in both GE and GE+, with the average participant attending 28 out of 32 sessions. At 24 months, the standardized effects of both GE and GE+, compared to control, on sexual violence, schooling, psychosocial wellbeing, and protective factors were small (β, ≤ 0.11 standard deviations [SD]) and not statistically significant at the 95% level of confidence. However, we found positive standardized effects on Gender Attitudes (GE: β, 0.206 SD, p<0.05; GE+: β, 0.228 SD, p<0.05), Life Skills (GE: β, 0.224 SD, p<0.05; GE+: β, 0.289 SD, p<0.01), and SRH (GE: β, 0.244 SD, p<0.01; GE+: β, 0.372 SD, p<0.01; F-test for GE = GE+: p = 0.075).InterpretationGirl Empower led to sustained improvements in several important domains, including SRH, but did not reduce sexual violence among the target population.

Service-Learning as a Catalyst for Community Change: An Empirical Examination Measuring the Benefits of a Life Skills Curriculum in Local At-Risk High Schools

This research attempts to measure the impact of service-learning on community recipients – at-risk high school students in urban Southern California. The service-learning project, an integrative, six-week assignment, involves upper-division business majors delivering the Options: Business Education and Life Skills curriculum to at-risk students in two local alternative education high schools. In addition to delivering business education and life skills, a critical design component of the curriculum is the opportunity for college students to be role models and provide mentoring guidance to at-risk high school students. This study used surveys to gather data on student perceptions of four constructs: (1) strengths and values, (2) school and work-related skills, (3) business etiquette and resume building, and (4) future life and career planning. Pre-tests and post-tests were administered to gauge differences in perception during the six-week service-learning project. Results indicated positive effects of the service-learning curriculum overall. Further, the data revealed statistically significant results with particularly noteworthy outcomes in the planning for the future and preparing for the world of work responses.

Transition to Practice: A Novel Life Skills Curriculum for Emergency Medicine Residents.

Transition to Practice: A Novel Life Skills Curriculum for Emergency Medicine Residents.

Knowledge and risk perception of sexually transmitted infections and relevant health care services among high school students in the Platfontein San community, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

BackgroundThe historically marginalized Platfontein San youths have a high rate of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge and perception of male and female school-going youths in Platfontein of STIs and HIV/AIDS, and the health care services that are available to them.Participants and methodsA descriptive cross-sectional survey with a sample of 201 learners in grades 6–12 at the !Xunkwesa Combined School in Platfontein was conducted in July 2007. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection.ResultsThe study found that STI knowledge was 70.1% and HIV and AIDS was 11.9%. Perceptions of risk among the learners were uniformly low; 24% for contracting a STI and 26% for HIV. About 59% (n=119) of the respondents were either unaware or not sure of the primary health care (PHC) services within the community. Overall, 65% of the students reported using PHC services while 35% exclusively used traditional healers. Slightly less than half (43%) of the learners acquired information about sexual and reproductive health through the Life Skills curriculum at school.ConclusionThe study highlights the importance of increasing HIV awareness and inculcating sexual and reproductive health into the school curriculum. The study further shows the imperative need to recognize the role of traditional medicine in the health care choices of this community. Traditional value systems need to be incorporated into the way that education and health care is proposed to the community leaders, to increase acceptance and utilization of health services.

Skilling for Life/Living for Skill: The Social Construction of Life Skills in Ontario Schools

Over the course of conducting interviews with teachers, administrators and community workers about life skills programs in the school system and in the community, we came to take a stance opposite to that of the educators with whom we spoke. We found the life skills curriculum in both the separate and public education systems to be an ideological process embedded in administrative concerns about student "attitudes" and student "discipline." The concept of life skills assembles a set of understandings which organizes individuals' lives in the conceptual relevance’s of the labor process. Life skills courses place students' lives and concerns in the curriculum while at the same time providing the basis on which those concerns can be rationalized and fitted to the cultural understandings generated in the capitalist mode of production which characterizes Canadian society. It is a conceptual frame through which the complexity of life processes becomes reduced to a set of skills.

A critical analysis of CAPS for Life Skills in the Foundation Phase (Grades R-3)

The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement Foundation Phase Life Skills curriculum (DBE, 2011) is composed of four focus areas: Beginning Knowledge; Personal and Social Well-being; Creative Arts; and Physical Education. These areas draw on a number of disciplines and this makes the curriculum dense. This density is, in turn, a challenge for teachers and teacher education. We perform an historical analysis of Life Skills curriculum documents from 1977 to the present and a content analysis of the CAPS document. Using Bernstein (1971, 1996) we show that this curriculum is weakly classified and that epistemological orientations are blurred, if not rendered invisible. The specificity of different disciplinary lenses that have different objects of enquiry, methods of analysis, and criteria for truth claims is lost in an overemphasis on everyday knowledge. If teachers are not themselves schooled in the languages of the disciplines that underpin Life Skills they may not be able to give children access to them, nor are they likely to be able to help them understand how different parts of the system relate to one another.

Life Skills at a Tribal College: A Culturally Relevant Educational Intervention

American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians (AI/AN/NH) experience the lowest rates of college retention and significant barriers to graduation. In addition, AI/AN/NH individuals face health challenges that include higher rates of obesity, overweight, and type 2 diabetes. We designed a culturally relevant life skills curriculum based on family and consumer science standards to promote educational achievement, self-efficacy, and healthful food choices among tribal college students. The Life Skills at a Tribal College course was delivered by tribal college Extension professionals in a family meal–style environment and involved culturally appropriate, traditional ways of learning to promote positive educational and health outcomes.

A Family Thing: Positive Youth Development Outcomes of a Sport-Based Life Skills Program

According to the National Council on Youth Sports, millions of youth in the United States participate in sport each year. Research and evaluation have further elucidated the role of sport in positive youth development (PYD) by specifying that intentional programming is key to facilitating PYD outcomes (Gould & Carson, 2008; Petitpas et al., 2005). Scholars have also asserted that the processes or outcomes associated with youth sport participation must be considered within family contexts (Kirk et al., 1997). The family context, however, has remained largely unexplored in research on sport and PYD outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the role and influence of families in a sport-based life skills program targeting positive youth development outcomes among an underserved youth population. Thirty-six youth aged 7 to 15 participated in a Hockey is For Everyone (HIFE) program, the official youth development program of the National Hockey League (NHL) in the Southeastern United States. HIFE, which aims to provide youth of all backgrounds the opportunity to learn and play ice hockey, was paired with a specific life skills curriculum: the Sports United to Promote Education and Recreation (SUPER) curriculum (Papacharisis et al., 2005). The combined HIFE-SUPER program was delivered over 11 weeks. Parents were recruited via their children’s enrollment. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews of youth and parents. Themes emerging from the data suggested the sport-based life skills program and participants’ families were reciprocally influential, and that this may have shaped opportunities for PYD outcomes. Findings indicated that family members and family contexts were an active part of the acquisition and application of life skills. Parents and youth perceived changes in behaviors (specifically, increased competencies) related to the life skills taught in the program, and these changes persisted after the program ended. Family presence and family involvement supported the acquisition and application of life skills, and youth participation in the program created opportunities for bonding and reinforcement and recognition of positive changes within families. Subscribe to JPRA

NATIVE-It's Your Game: Adapting a Technology-Based Sexual Health Curriculum for American Indian and Alaska Native youth.

Sexually transmitted infection (STI) and birth rates among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth indicate a need for effective middle school HIV/STI and pregnancy prevention curricula to delay, or mitigate, the consequences of early sexual activity. While effective curricula exist, there is a dearth of curricula with content salient to AI/AN youth. Further, there is a lack of sexual health curricula that take advantage of the motivational appeal, reach, and fidelity of communication technology for this population, who are sophisticated technology users. We describe the adaptation process used to develop Native It's Your Game, a stand-alone 13-lesson Internet-based sexual health life-skills curriculum adapted from an existing promising sexual health curriculum, It's Your Game-Tech (IYG-Tech). The adaptation included three phases: (1) pre-adaptation needs assessment and IYG-Tech usability testing; (2) adaptation, including design document development, prototype programming, and alpha testing; and (3) post-adaption usability testing. Laboratory- and school-based tests with AI/AN middle school youth demonstrated high ratings on usability parameters. Youth rated the Native IYG lessons favorably in meeting the needs of AI/AN youth (54-86% agreement across lessons) and in comparison to other learning channels (57-100%) and rated the lessons as helpful in making better health choices (73-100%). Tribal stakeholders rated Native IYG favorably, and suggested it was culturally appropriate for AI/AN youth and suitable for implementation in tribal settings. Further efficacy testing is indicated for Native IYG, as a potential strategy to deliver HIV/STI and pregnancy prevention to traditionally underserved AI/AN middle school youth.

Developing a school-based preventive life skills program for youth in a remote Indigenous community in North Australia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of development and the pilot implementation of a preventive life skills curriculum for Indigenous middle school students in a very remote community college in the West Arnhem region of North Australia. The curriculum integrates proven educational and psychological techniques with culturally informed notions of relatedness and was developed as a contribution to efforts to prevent alarming rates of suicide among remote Indigenous youth. In this paper, the term, Indigenous refers to Australians of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. Design/methodology/approach – Based on reviews of research literature on school-based suicide prevention and social and emotional learning in both general and Indigenous populations, and following detailed community consultations, a 12 week curriculum was drafted and implemented in two middle school classes (combined years 7-9). Lessons were videotaped and later analyzed and detailed commentary was sought from participating school staff. Findings – The pilot program has yielded important insights into requirements of a curriculum for young people with low English literacy levels and with variable school attendance patterns. It confirmed the need to adjust both pedagogical approach and curriculum content for the program to have resonance with students from this linguistic and cultural background and with varying levels of exposure to multiple stressors in disadvantaged community settings. Practical implications – The project has identified and resolved key questions for sustainable implementation of a preventive curriculum in challenging community circumstances. Originality/value – There are to date no examples of the systematic adaptation and design of a universal preventive intervention specifically for remote Australian Indigenous youth. The project is the first step toward the formal evaluation of the efficacy of a classroom-based approach to suicide prevention in remote community schools.

Integrating life skills into Golf Canada's youth programs: Insights into a successful research to practice partnership

ABSTRACTThis article offers insights into a successful research to practice partnership created between the University of Ottawa and Golf Canada, who worked together over the span of two years to integrate a life skills curriculum within two national programs for young golfers: (a) Golf in Schools and (b) Future Links Learn to Play. More specifically, the purpose of this article is to (a) describe how the partnership was created, (b) explain how the life skills curriculum was developed, and (c) share lessons learned from establishing a successful partnership with a national sport organization.

Body mass index and associated physical activity levels in 7 - 10-year-old children in primary schools in Port Elizabeth

Background. Declining levels of physical activity coupled with the rising incidence of childhood obesity in developing countries are of health concern. Current daily recommendations for preadolescent children are to accumulate 60 min of moderate physical activity per day. In South Africa, physical education forms part of the life skills curriculum, but children have limited school time to engage in physical activity. As many obesogenic behaviours are learnt in childhood and track into adulthood, physical activity should be promoted at a young age and should be a research priority. Objectives. To explore and determine the association between body mass index (BMI) and daily physical activity levels as expressed in metabolic equivalent of task (MET) in 7 - 10-year-old children in quintile-5 English-medium primary schools in Port Elizabeth. Methods. A quantitative, descriptive, one-way, cross-sectional design utilising random sampling was used. A once-off survey comprised anthropometric assessment of height and weight of 713 participants. Age- and gender-specific prevalence rates of overweight, obesity and underweight were calculated based on the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) cut-off points. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and χ2 tests were performed. A validated once-off interviewer-administered physical activity questionnaire was utilised to determine daily energy costs. Results. The BMI of the majority of children fell within the norm and was coupled with high levels of daily physical activity (average of 893 METs). No significant relationship was found for BMI and physical activity (p=0.8). Conclusion. Daily level of physical activity is not significantly related to BMI in urban children from an economically privileged setting

Learning to negotiate sexual relationships: a girls’ school in Tanzania as a restrictive and agentic site

Literature on schooling in Africa often frames sexual relationships as threatening girls’ educational participation, health, and general well-being. Schooling practices aimed at sheltering girls reflect the prevalence of discourses emphasising danger and abstinence. This article presents the case of one all-girls school in Tanzania which provides a protective environment while also teaching young women strategies to negotiate sexual and romantic relationships. Drawing on classroom observations and in-depth interviews, we examine how the school's policies, practices, and lifeskills curriculum offer students a supportive environment in which to learn about relationships. Our analysis reveals that young women find this space simultaneously restrictive and freeing, and that their learning has supported their ability to imagine equitable relationships for themselves. This case contributes to our understanding of how schools can serve as sites that foster young women's agency when curriculum and pedagogy create space for open discussion of sexual relationships.

Body mass index and associated physical activity levels in 7 - 10-year-old children in primary schools in Port Elizabeth

Background. Declining levels of physical activity coupled with the rising incidence of childhood obesity in developing countries are of health concern. Current daily recommendations for preadolescent children are to accumulate 60 min of moderate physical activity per day. In South Africa, physical education forms part of the life skills curriculum, but children have limited school time to engage in physical activity. As many obesogenic behaviours are learnt in childhood and track into adulthood, physical activity should be promoted at a young age and should be a research priority. Objectives. To explore and determine the association between body mass index (BMI) and daily physical activity levels as expressed in metabolic equivalent of task (MET) in 7 - 10-year-old children in quintile-5 English-medium primary schools in Port Elizabeth. Methods. A quantitative, descriptive, one-way, cross-sectional design utilising random sampling was used. A once-off survey comprised anthropometric assessment of height and weight of 713 participants. Age- and gender-specific prevalence rates of overweight, obesity and underweight were calculated based on the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) cut-off points. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and χ2 tests were performed. A validated once-off interviewer-administered physical activity questionnaire was utilised to determine daily energy costs. Results. The BMI of the majority of children fell within the norm and was coupled with high levels of daily physical activity (average of 893 METs). No significant relationship was found for BMI and physical activity (p=0.8). Conclusion. Daily level of physical activity is not significantly related to BMI in urban children from an economically privileged setting

It's Your Game-Tech: Toward Sexual Health in the Digital Age.

Adolescent sexually transmitted infection (STI) and birth rates indicate a need for effective middle school HIV/STI, and pregnancy prevention curricula to delay, or mitigate consequences of, early sexual activity. Individual and organizational barriers to adoption, implementation, and maintenance, however, can hamper dissemination of evidence-based sexual health curricula, adversely impacting fidelity and reach. Internet-based approaches may help mitigate these barriers. This paper describes the development and feasibility testing of It’s Your Game (IYG)-Tech, a stand-alone 13-lesson Internet-based sexual health life-skills curriculum adapted from an existing effective sexual health curriculum—It’s Your Game… Keep it Real (IYG). IYG-Tech development adaptation steps were to: 1) Select a suitable effective program and gather the original program materials; 2) Develop “proof of concept” lessons and test usability and impact; 3) Develop the program design document describing the core content, scope, and methods and strategies; and 4) produce the new program. Lab- and school-based tests with middle school students demonstrated high ratings on usability parameters and immediate impact on selected psychosocial factors related to sexual behavior—perceptions of friends’ beliefs, reasons for not having sex, condom use self-efficacy, abstinence intentions, negotiating with others to protect personal rules, and improved knowledge about what constitutes healthy relationships (all p < .05). Youth rated IYG-Tech is favorably compared to other learning channels (>76.2% agreement) and rated the lessons as helpful in making healthy choices, selecting personal rules, detecting challenges to those rules, and protecting personal rules through negotiation and refusal skills (89.5% – 100%). Further efficacy testing is indicated for IYG-Tech as a potential strategy to deliver effective HIV/STI, and pregnancy prevention to middle school youth.

The Effects of Situated Learning Through a Community Partnership in a Teacher Preparation Program

This article examines the value of using an alternative approach to college course instruction in an off-campus location, an agency for individuals with developmental disabilities. The situated learning model is an alternative to the traditional college course instructional approach for preservice teachers. This model immerses students in the actual setting where they can practice the skills and apply the concepts emphasized in the curriculum. Through a partnership between the college, the community agency, and a public school, graduate students in the special education program developed and implemented a life-skills curriculum for individuals with developmental disabilities, at the same time learning essential principles of delivering instruction. The school-aged students who participated in the study were from a racially mixed urban school district, while the adult clients from the community agency attended the program at the end of their community-based workday. Based on the results of surveys and focus group discussions, participants in the study indicated that the situated learning model of instruction in a community setting better prepared them in the acquisition and application of their teaching skills, and built their competence in developing educational programs for individuals with disabilities.

Colonialism, Disability, and Possible Lives: The Residential Treatment of Children Whose Parents Survived Indian Residential Schools

This article performs an institutional autoethnography of working in a residential treatment center, proposing a moral economy in which the exaltation of white nondisabled professionals is tethered to the denigration of disabled Aboriginal children. It describes how resident and staff resistance, respectively, can be taken up so as to facilitate the smooth continuity of the status quo. And it raises questions about everyday institutional practices such as physical restraints, behavior modification, and life-skills curricula, suggesting they may not do what they are intended to do and may instead wither away knowledge and skills that residents had cultivated before their “intake.”