New platform content: ‘Group Work’ Island learning module

Persona Life Skills e-learning now includes a new Island learning module, 'Group Work', in which students learn social-emotional life skills to help them play an active role when working in groups.

17-Apr-21

By Dr Leila Khouja Walker, Chief Product Officer

In the Persona Life Skills social-emotional e-learning platform, 'Group Work' is a new Island learning module where students learn how to play an active role when working in groups. 

Students are taken on a journey through a range of group scenarios. They observe and reflect upon the different behaviours and communication styles they might choose to adopt when working in a group, and the social and learning outcomes these decisions may lead to.

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

• Effective teamwork – playing an effective role within a group, in order to achieve a common goal
• Active listening – listening to others, without interruption, showing I am taking in the information
• Processing information – taking the time to consider what someone is trying to tell me

In the 'Get Your Bearings' warm-up, students are asked to consider what role they usually play when they are set group work. Do they have any preferences? Any roles they would rather not play? And importantly, what is influencing these preferences?

In the 'Explore' knowledge acquisition section, students start to identify communication and behaviour patterns associated with different personality styles, that relate to group work roles, eg. researcher or presenter. Students conduct a short group activity so they can observe and reflect on their own and others’ behaviour and communication styles.

As students reach the 'Viewpoint' plenary at the end of the Island, they are asked to reflect on their learning from the group work activity. They then consider growth areas for working collaboratively with peers in future, so they can make more informed choices about playing an active role in group work, improving social and learning outcomes.

Group Work 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