, 1.1 LIFE SKILLS
The term life skills refer to the skills you need to make the most out of life. Life skills are behaviors used
appropriately and responsibly in managing of your personal affairs. They are a set of human skills
required through teaching or direct experience that are used to handle problems and question
commonly encountered in daily human life. Life skills is a form of education that focuses on cultivating
personal life skills such as self-reflection, critical thinking, problem solving and interpersonal skills.
In high school, grade 11 and 12 I lost allot of weight and did not recognize. A few months after starting
grade 12, I could then see how I differ from my pictures in grade 9 and 10. The reason why I lost weight
is that I had a low self-esteem, I was always worried about what others might think and always stressed
about schoolwork in which I always wanted to compete with myself. Also, I had stress from home where
my household environment was not normally an environment where once could focus or study.
The life skills educator helps students learn through their strengths and uses learning beyond the
classroom. By using what they learn repeatedly in different, personal meaningful ways, learners will find
it much easier to retain and retrieve what they learn in the classroom. It will help learners understand
the importance of certain skills in their everyday and future lives. Educators should try to provide
opportunities for learners to relate or transfer school learning to real-life skills. Educators should ask
students how they would approach a scenario that could happen to them, and the steps they would go
through to solve it. educators should make life skills a problem-solving lesson plan and therefore it will
inspire learners.
1.2 POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Positive psychology is a relatively new form of psychology. It embraces the positive influences in a
person’s life. These might include character strengths and optimistic emotions. This theory is based on
the belief that happiness is derived from both emotional and mental factors. Positive psychology focuses
on specific skills that assist learners to strengthen their relationships, build positive emotions, enhance
personal resilience and encourage a healthy lifestyle. As said in study guide page 28, this theory does
not imply healing distress in people, but it tries to prevent a problem or prevent it from getting worse by
focusing on strengths and a positive sense of control. Martin Seligman 1998 indicated that even children
could be seen as decision makers with choices on how to handle stressful situations.
When I was on school, I could never control my emotions, whether it was happy, sad or angry I would
express them and would not care. Usually when an educator scold at me or reprimand me I would
always cry and be miserable for the entire day and held a grudge towards the educator. Educators at my
high school never cared about what makes the learner happy and did not care how you feel about
certain things. They would always compare or blame one learner’s behavior and discipline all students.
Your feelings or emotions should be handled by means that you should control it. There was no
psychologist or any sort of therapist that could help you with your problem as a learner.
Educators should include and encourage personal practice of positive psychology. Teachers should
encourage and give space to practice the techniques of positive psychology at school and their personal
lives. By learning with students instead of teaching them, the educator is then adopting a great mindset
and creating an environment where it is okey to try something new, unfamiliar and difficult. Include or
incorporate reflection, while it is important to create a classroom culture that is open to new ideas and
The term life skills refer to the skills you need to make the most out of life. Life skills are behaviors used
appropriately and responsibly in managing of your personal affairs. They are a set of human skills
required through teaching or direct experience that are used to handle problems and question
commonly encountered in daily human life. Life skills is a form of education that focuses on cultivating
personal life skills such as self-reflection, critical thinking, problem solving and interpersonal skills.
In high school, grade 11 and 12 I lost allot of weight and did not recognize. A few months after starting
grade 12, I could then see how I differ from my pictures in grade 9 and 10. The reason why I lost weight
is that I had a low self-esteem, I was always worried about what others might think and always stressed
about schoolwork in which I always wanted to compete with myself. Also, I had stress from home where
my household environment was not normally an environment where once could focus or study.
The life skills educator helps students learn through their strengths and uses learning beyond the
classroom. By using what they learn repeatedly in different, personal meaningful ways, learners will find
it much easier to retain and retrieve what they learn in the classroom. It will help learners understand
the importance of certain skills in their everyday and future lives. Educators should try to provide
opportunities for learners to relate or transfer school learning to real-life skills. Educators should ask
students how they would approach a scenario that could happen to them, and the steps they would go
through to solve it. educators should make life skills a problem-solving lesson plan and therefore it will
inspire learners.
1.2 POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Positive psychology is a relatively new form of psychology. It embraces the positive influences in a
person’s life. These might include character strengths and optimistic emotions. This theory is based on
the belief that happiness is derived from both emotional and mental factors. Positive psychology focuses
on specific skills that assist learners to strengthen their relationships, build positive emotions, enhance
personal resilience and encourage a healthy lifestyle. As said in study guide page 28, this theory does
not imply healing distress in people, but it tries to prevent a problem or prevent it from getting worse by
focusing on strengths and a positive sense of control. Martin Seligman 1998 indicated that even children
could be seen as decision makers with choices on how to handle stressful situations.
When I was on school, I could never control my emotions, whether it was happy, sad or angry I would
express them and would not care. Usually when an educator scold at me or reprimand me I would
always cry and be miserable for the entire day and held a grudge towards the educator. Educators at my
high school never cared about what makes the learner happy and did not care how you feel about
certain things. They would always compare or blame one learner’s behavior and discipline all students.
Your feelings or emotions should be handled by means that you should control it. There was no
psychologist or any sort of therapist that could help you with your problem as a learner.
Educators should include and encourage personal practice of positive psychology. Teachers should
encourage and give space to practice the techniques of positive psychology at school and their personal
lives. By learning with students instead of teaching them, the educator is then adopting a great mindset
and creating an environment where it is okey to try something new, unfamiliar and difficult. Include or
incorporate reflection, while it is important to create a classroom culture that is open to new ideas and
