Life Skills for Transformative Education
In the context of the K to 12 Basic
Education Program, the nature and
needs of the learner are underscored.
Life skills are highlighted as one of the
basic needs of the learner if a reform has
to transform.
What are Life Skills?
Below are definitions of Life Skills
 They are combination of cognitive
skills – learning to know,
emotional coping skills – learning
to be; social or interpersonal skills
– learning to live together should
be taught together with “manual”
skills – learning to do. (Life Skills-
Based education in South Asia,
2005)
 Abilities for positive and adaptive
behavior that enable individuals to
deal effectively with the demands,
challenges, experiences and
situations of everyday life (WHO,
1993)
 Competencies that are related to
action and behavior and therefore
are best learned through practice-
within the different complex
situations life presents every day.
(Deped, 2007)
 Competencies aimed at helping
people clarify feelings and values,
make decisions and choices,
resolve conflicts, gain self-
understanding, explore
environmental opportunities and
constraints, communicate
effectively with others and take
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personal responsibility of their
actions. (Adkins, 1984).
 Life Skills (are) not a domain, or a
subject. But cross-cutting
applications of knowledge, values,
attitudes and skills, which are
important in the process of
individual development and
lifelong learning. They are not just
a set of skills, nor are they equal
to survival skills, livelihood skills,
or vocational skills are part of
these skills. (UNESCO, 2004)
The Department of Education
(Life Skills Approach, DepEd,
2007) lists core/basic life skills as
follows:
 Self-Awareness includes our
recognition and appreciation of
our basic worth and dignity as
persons, our character, our
strengths and weaknesses,
desires and dislikes, and our
uniqueness.
 Empathy is the ability to imagine
what life is like for another person,
even in a situation that we may not
be familiar with.
 Effective Communication
means that we are able to express
ourselves, both verbally, and non-
verbally, in ways that are
appropriate to our cultures and
situations. This means being able
to express opinions, desires,
needs and fears. And it may mean
being able to ask for advice and
help in a time of need.
 Interpersonal relationship skills
help us to relate in positive ways
with the people we interact with.
THE PROFESSIONAL TEACHER
  Decision making helps us to deal being able to respond to emotions
constructively with decisions appropriately.
about our lives. This can have  Coping with stress is both
consequences for health if young recognizing the sources of stress
people actively make decisions in our lives, recognizing how this
about their actions in relation to affects us, and acting in ways that
health by assessing the different help control our levels of stress.
options, about their actions in This may mean that we take
relation to health by assessing the action to reduce the sources of
different options, and what effects stress, for example, by making
different decisions may have. changes in our physical
 Problem solving enables us to environment or lifestyle.
deal constructively with problems
in our lives. Significant problems The DepEd hopes to
that are left unresolved can cause institutionalize life skills based
mental stress and give rise to education which “leads to
accompanying physical strain. transformation of teacher
 Creative thinking contributes to educators and classroom
both decision-making and teachers to teach in ways that are
problem-solving by enabling us to transformative”. When teachers
explore the available alternatives reflect and begin to question
and various consequences of our assumptions and have new
actions or non-action. It helps us perspectives they undergo
to look beyond our direct transformational reflection that
experience, and even if no may lead to changes in action.
problem is identified, or no
decision is to be made, creative Transformative comes about
thinking can help us to respond when someone changes “not just the way
adaptively and with flexibility to the he behaves, not just the way he feels, but
situation in our daily lives. the way he knows- not just what he
knows but the way he knows.” (Kegan,
 Critical thinking is an ability to
1994).
analyze information and
experiences in an objective What is Transformative
manner. Critical thinking can Education?
contribute to health by helping us
to recognize and assess the Transformative education requires a
“shift away” from current educational
factors that influence attitudes and
practices such as:
behavior, such as values, peer
pressure and the media.  Predominantly focus on the ability
 Coping with emotions involves and need for students to gain skills
recognizing emotions in ourselves and knowledge;
and others, being aware of how
emotions influence behavior and

Vol. II Number 1 THE PROFESSIONAL TEACHER

  Content is discipline focused and  Group discussions – dyads, panel
a top-down transmission of facts discussion
and messages  Educational games – crossword
 Focus on rigid, pre-defined puzzles
learning outcomes  Field trips, interactive exhibits
 Transmissive learning or transfer  Debate-gather data/logical
of information to learner arguments
Below are the basic differences of  Role playing
Transmissive and transformative  Brainstorming – carousel exercise
education.  Demonstrations – construct
meaning based on observation
and firsthand experience
Transmissive Transformative  Concept mapping – link together
instructive constructive important ideas
instrumental intrinsic  Simulation – structured to feel like
training education real experience
teaching learning
communication of message construction of meaning
information focus appropriate knowledge Transformation encompasses the
central control local ownership guiding principle that underpins
product oriented process oriented educational endeavor. The
problem solving problem reframing transformative process requires that
facts and skills concepts and capacity educational programs explicitly
building address analytical skills and
integrates an active search for
meaning. Meaning is essential to
The key characteristics of transformative
transforming perspectives.
education are:
Institutions need to show willingness
 Creative, solution-focused to embrace the challenges
learning throughout the process of change. It
 Self-directed team work; is important that teacher educators,
 Learning by doing (commonly institutions, policy decision makers
“live” projects); and the learners themselves should
 Iterative refinement and reflection; have the courage to take risks and to
 Drawing from a range of change; the readiness to unlearn and
disciplines: e.g. mechanics; have self-motivation and self-
electronics; manufacturing; confidence to make decisions and
marketing; sociology; ergonomics; take responsibility.
and history, to inform the outputs Transformative education espouses
that emerge as a result of design- transformative learning- which
based activity. revises old assumptions and ways of
Transformative education focuses on interpreting experience through
active learning strategies, critical reflection and self-reflection
(Cranton 1996). Positive
consequences were recorded which

Vol. II Number 1 THE PROFESSIONAL TEACHER

 included an increase in self-
confidence, feeling of personal power
and spiritual growth, increased
compassion for others, increased
creativity and new connections with
others.
“Transformative education
contextualizes education in the
broader community and allows us to
come to understand that education
does not exist in a vacuum. We
realize that teaching and learning
does not just exist in the classroom.
Educators aren’t just teachers.
Everyone who works with young
people is engaged in an educational
process. (CDU student, 2005,
pers.com)

Transformative education entails a

safe, supportive and sustainable
environment and allows an organic
and nurturing process.
For education to be
transformative, there needs a safe
and supportive environment in which
a learning space can be created to
enable learners are free from
judgement, bullying, negative
conflicts and intimidation, so that they
can be courageous enough to be
pushed to the boundaries of their
realities. Hence, learners are more
likely to discover all aspects of
themselves and develop as whole
persons.
The institutionalization of the life
skills approach for transformative
education is envisioned by DepEd as
integral to “reform that transform.”#

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