The subject of basic life skills is a prominent topic of discussion in numerous scientific studies. The capabilities referred to as essential life skills are commonly described as adaptive behavior that allows individuals to successfully manage the challenges of their everyday activities. The development of such abilities becomes exceptionally important at younger ages, ask the bases for their subsequent improvement are commonly established during childhood. Learning institutions and school environments play a crucial role in children’s upbringing and future enhancement of multiple life skills, creating perfect conditions for these proficiencies’ advancement (Cullinane & Montacute, 2017). Although some researchers might define the learning area of life skills as common knowledge, successfully instilling these notions in young individuals requires special training from teachers. Efficiently delivering the necessary information to schoolchildren necessitates the development of additional pedagogic content knowledge (PCK).
Devising a productive lesson for young students can become a significant challenge for the pedagogue. Given the importance of establishing a particular objective for the learning activities and employing specific teaching aids, any class education endeavor should be carefully planned and prepared. Considering the approaches to conveying common knowledge is especially vital, is this information is of incredible significance for the schoolchildren. For example, designing a lesson on interpersonal skills requires the inclusion of additional training elements and practical activities that demonstrate the importance of communication and teach young individuals to successfully participate in social interactions (Cullinane & Montacute, 2017). Although it might be argued that the learning area of individual relationships is highly effortless to explain, given its everyday implications, such a statement diminishes the importance of children’s understanding. Recognizing the most practical approaches that allow the adolescents to capture the details of everyday interaction and the complications that can arise due to a lack of empathy and emotional interest is the subject of special PCK training (Akerson et al., 2017). Altogether, delivering the knowledge regarding interpersonal skills necessitates the inclusion of teaching aids and demands mastery of the pedagogical competencies.
The implementation of PCK within a life skills lesson can significantly improve the effectiveness of the activities used. First of all, it is necessary to devise the content for the class, ensuring a complete understanding of the subject matter. For an educational session on bullying, it is imperative to present a full comprehension of the content knowledge on bullying acts, as well as evaluate students’ conceptions about these endeavors (Phillips & Harris, 2018). In order to secure such information, it is possible to include discussions of the relevant literature concerning the topic of harmful behavior, asking the children to share their beliefs and attitudes. After that, specific teaching strategies can be utilized to instill negative perceptions of intimidation. For instance, endeavors aimed at reconstructing a situation that involves bullying can be highly beneficial when the teacher proposes a viable resolution and examines the environment together with the students (Phillips & Harris, 2018). Finally, to complete the lesson, it is essential to address the concepts learned, ensuring the understanding of the basic elements introduced (Phillips & Harris, 2018). Overall, to efficiently convey the harmfulness of bullying behavior, it is vital to properly disclose the nature of the lesson, evaluate students’ perceptions, involve the children in learning activities, and summarize the knowledge gained.
To conclude, the primary aspects of the life skills learning area and the notions of PCK were described thoroughly in this paper. It is evident that the leading requirements of devising and delivering a lesson require the teacher to receive special PCK training to present the students with understandable and sufficient knowledge on the topics. Given the significance of life skills development at a young age, appropriate techniques and approaches should be used in connection with the PCK elements.
References
Akerson, V. L., Pongsanon, K., Park Rogers, M. A., Carter, I., & Galindo, E. (2017). Exploring the use of lesson study to develop elementary preservice teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge for teaching nature of science. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 15(2), 293–312. Web.
Cullinane, C., & Montacute, R. (2017). Life lessons: Improving essential life skills for young people. Sutton Trust.
Phillips, M., & Harris, J. B. (2018). PCK and TPCK/TPACK: More than etiology. In Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference, pp. 2036-2043. Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International.