Life Skills Education Toolkit

4•PART TWO: FACILITATOR’S GUIDE

A Child-centered Active Learning,

Participatory Methodology

A variety of active learning methods are used in life

skills practice—games, role play, brainstorming,

debates, drama, story telling, group learning, case

studies, making posters and others. These methods

clearly separate Life Skills Education Programs

from information dissemination programs that

may only focus on teaching the facts of life. In this

way learning is not passive. Active methods lead to

active learning.

Young people are involved right from the beginning

in assessing their needs and participating in their

skill development. The life skills approach recognizes

the rights of young persons and respects them as

individuals. The Life Skills Education Program

works with children, not for children. In this way,

young people become responsible for their actions.

The child-to-child approach to learning is a useful

method for teaching life skills. It uses a practical

methodology that not only promotes children’s

participation but also helps to link learning to life

itself. The child-to-child approach is described in

detail in the next section.^3

A number of active learning methods and

child-to-child concepts help develop life skills.^4

(^3) See section on ‘How A Participatory Approach Helps Life Skills Learning: Lessons from the Child-to-Child Programs’
(^4) Adapted from Hawes, Hugh, Skills Based Health Education, UNESCO, 2005
Life skills are learned through:
Life Skill Expression of skill
Self awareness and Drawing and writing about oneself; taking responsibility for various
self esteem activities
Assertiveness Role play, mime and drama are very helpful. Group rules are useful
for group participation as well as to argue one’s point of view
Coping with stress and Drawing to express emotions, helping each other in distress, writing
emotion poems and stories of ‘I feel’
Interpersonal relationships Doing group work or in pairs such as on joint projects or pictures or
stories, helping each other, participating in committees
Empathy Role play, discussion, understanding different points of view, using
what if...’ situations
Communication Opportunities to express, speak – verbal and non-verbal; role play, art
Critical Thinking Review the work done, ask questions – what happened, why, who, how
Creative Thinking Write or finish stories, think of hypothetical situations and solutions,
role play
Decision making Games in groups, discussion based on real, hypothetical or role play
situations, providing opportunities to take decisions