New platform content: ‘Getting Along With Teachers’ Island learning module

Persona Life Skills e-learning now includes a new Island learning module, 'Getting Along With Teachers', in which students learn social-emotional life skills to help them foster better relationships with their teachers.

8-May-21

By Dr Leila Khouja Walker, Chief Product Officer

In the Persona Life Skills social-emotional e-learning platform, 'Getting Along With Teachers' is a new Island learning module where students learn how to optimise their learning by fostering better relationships with their teachers. 

Students are taken on a journey through different scenarios involving a range of teachers with different Personas. Through observing that teachers' personalities influence the way they teach, students learn how their decisions about the way they communicate with teachers can lead to better learning.

In this Island, students explore the concept of Adaptability. Adaptability is how well we consider the needs and preferences of the people we are interacting with, before we make decisions about how we communicate and behave in that situation. In the 'Getting Along With Teachers' Island, students discover their current level of Adaptability, in learning situations.

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

• Staying positive – Maintaining a positive attitude and believing things will work out well
• Being adaptable – Being able to adapt my thinking and communication, to achieve positive outcomes
• Active listening – Listening to others without interruption, showing I am taking in the information

In the 'Get Your Bearings' warm-up, students are asked to consider different teacher personalities, and to reflect upon which personality styles they find easiest or most difficult to learn with. Students are also asked to consider which types of learning activity they prefer, and why?

In the 'Explore' knowledge acquisition section, students practise their active listening skills, and use their knowledge of personality styles to consider how best to communicate with different teachers. They are then asked a series of questions to determine their current level of Adaptability, in a learning setting.

As students reach the 'Viewpoint' plenary at the end of the Island, they are asked to reflect upon their Adaptability level and consider how they could address the suggested growth areas. Finally, they consider how they could adapt the way they speak with teachers, to stay positive in class and improve how they get along with them.

Getting Along With Teachers 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