New platform content: ‘Friends’ Island learning module

Persona Life Skills e-learning now includes a new Island learning module, 'Friends', in which students learn social-emotional life skills to help them make, and keep, great friendships.

23-Apr-21

By Dr Leila Khouja Walker, Chief Product Officer

In the Persona Life Skills social-emotional e-learning platform, 'Friends' is a new Island learning module where students learn what it takes to make a great friendship. 

In the Island, students are taken on a journey through different scenarios involving friends. They consider what a great friendship looks, sounds and feels like, and how they may make new and existing friendships even stronger.

Students are introduced to the concept of 'Adaptability'. Adaptability is how well we consider the needs and preferences of other people involved in an interaction, before we make decisions on how we communicate and behave. In the Friends Island, students discover how adaptable they are in social situations.

Questions and activities in this Island help students develop three social-emotional life skills, through a personality insights lens:

• Speaking informally – using the correct language and tone to get myself heard
• Managing feelings – being aware of a range of emotions, and managing how they impact me and others
• Conflict management – being able to reduce conflict when there is disagreement, for the benefit of all

In the 'Get Your Bearings' warm-up, students are asked to think about what makes a good friend. They are given a range of scenarios to help them consider which kinds of situations involving friends, can cause them stress. This supports them in reflecting upon how they tend to deal with such events, and whether a different approach might be better.

In the 'Explore' knowledge acquisition section, students use their knowledge of personality styles to determine how best to deal with certain situations, in order to achieve a positive outcome, for all involved. They are then asked a series of questions to determine what level of Adaptability they show in social settings.

As students reach the 'Viewpoint' plenary at the end of the Island, they are asked to reflect on their Adaptability level and related growth areas suggested in their Persona Profile, and to consider how they could address these in future.

'Friends' is part of the Discovery Islands curriculum – the Persona Life Skills life challenge learning modules, available with a subscription. 

Persona Education offers free access to its Persona Life Skills e-learning platform for secondary schools and colleges interested in developing their students’ social-emotional life skills, to boost wellbeing and employability. To request a live demo of the platform please get in touch – we would love to talk to you!

About the author: Dr Leila Khouja Walker has been working in the education sector for 25 years. An ex-teacher and pastoral deputy head, she is now a respected edtech and pedagogy thought leader, leading development of the personality insights life skills e-learning app Persona Life Skills, at the Bristol based edtech company Persona Education Ltd. www.persona-life.com