This open access volume critically reviews a diverse body of scholarship and practice that informs the conceptualization, curriculum, teaching and measurement of life skills in education settings around the world. It discusses life skills as they are implemented in schools and non-formal education, providing both qualitative and quantitative evidence of when, with whom, and how life skills do or do not impact young women’s and men’s lives in various contexts. Specifically, it examines the nature and importance of life skills, and how they are taught. It looks at the synergies and differences between life skills educational programmes and the way in which they promote social and emotional learning, vocational/employment education, and health and sexuality education. Finally, it explores how life skills may be better incorporated into education and how such education can address structures and relations of power to help youth achieve desired future outcomes, and goals set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Life skills education has gained considerable attention by education policymakers, researchers and educators as being the sine qua non for later achievements in life. It is nearly ubiquitous in global and national education policies, including the SDGs, because life skills are regarded as essential for a diverse set of purposes: reducing poverty, achieving gender equality, promoting economic growth, addressing climate change, fostering peace and global citizenship, and creating sustainable and healthy communities. Yet, to achieve these broad goals, questions persist as to which life skills are important, who needs to learn them, how they can be taught, and how they are best measured. This book addresses these questions.

Education for Life: A European Strategy critiques the educational system in European countries and offers suggestions for its improvement as well as solutions for its problems. The book is divided into six parts. Part I deals with topics such as the revitalization of education; the cooperation of industry and education; and the training of some companies. Part II is concerned with the present trends, major issues, the thrust of positive action, and industry involvement in the education of the youth. Part III talks about the higher education in Europe, its comparison with other educational syst ...

In this engaging book, Armand Doucet, a globally respected and recognized teacher, provides a clear roadmap for championing classroom-focused change in a technology-advanced society. Teaching Life brings the voices of teachers into the global conversation about educational reform to offer a how-to for implementing into classrooms design thinking, technology integration and a holistic education based on competencies, social-emotional learning and the literacies. With the innovative ideas in this book, educators can create a foundation for sustainable, honest, transparent leadership and work toward building a true community of local and global learning.

Arguing for life, moral and values education as a bedrock for the original goals of school education, this monograph explores how life and values education is conceptualised and imparted in Greater China. Under a globalized, transnational, and technological world, where there has been an increase in people’s mobility, in information and cultural exchanges, there is also a growing emphasis on personal and professional ethics. Against this context, life, moral and values education has gained attention for its impact on shaping students' characters as future citizens. However, the cultivation of these values is made deeply diversified and complex by varying interpretations of "life education" and "values education" across societies, given that different societies are influenced by different socio-cultural traditions, educational ideologies and religious beliefs. The means and approaches towards life education also vary vastly from formal school subjects, school-based programmes as well as teachers and peers’ role modelling, community services, extra-curricular activities, school discipline, charity work, pastoral care, and school ethos. Recognising this inherent diversity and complexity in the approach to and the dissemination of life education, the contributors to this volume survey the practice of life education in Greater China so far, suggesting that life education is most effective when it is "diversified, dynamic and developmental across contexts". This book will provide the opportunity for engaging in important and serious debates about the future and the values that will underpin it and will prove of special interest to scholars and practitioners working on education policies curriculum development and teacher education in Greater China.

Education is in a constant state of renewal internationally where it responds to a number of pressing social, political and cultural issues. Processes of globalization, a number of conflicts and acts of terror, economic and environmental crises have led to large waves of migration and asylum seekers arriving in countries with the hope of finding safer and more stable places to settle. This, in turn, has led to cultural and religious pluralism being a key characteristic of many societies with corresponding issues of belonging and identity. As well, for many people, there has been a shifting influence of and allegiance away from traditional religious frameworks with the emergence of new religious movements, both peaceful and violent, and a rise in popularity of spirituality and non-religious worldviews which provide alternate frameworks for living healthy and ethical lives. In order to prepare today’s student for tomorrow’s world, one which is confronted by a range of risks and crises and which is being shaped by rapidly changing technologies, educators and researchers are investigating new ways of equipping students to deal with these challenges and opportunities, including the nurturing of spiritual wellbeing. This book brings together the voices of many experienced educators to discuss ways to re-enchant education and re-enliven learning programs in response to these 21st century issues in an increasingly global and interconnected world. It examines a range of international contexts, including secular and religious educational settings, and provides an avenue for visionary voices that identify problems and offer solutions to help shape a more promising education system that will prepare children more constructively and beneficially to flourish in their future worlds.

Witnesses include: William Strauss, author and generational historian, McLean, VA; Denise C. Gottfredson, prof., dept. of criminology, Univ. of Maryland; James Alan Fox, dean, College of Criminal Justice, Northeastern Univ.; Paul F. Evans, Commissioner, Boston (MA) Police Dept.; Karen L. Bierman, dir., Fast Track Program, Penn State Univ.; Jan Kuhl, supervisor of School Counseling, Des Moines Independent School District, Des Moines, IA; Kenneth S. Trump, pres. and ceo, Nat. School Safety and Security Services, Cleveland, OH; and Robert Eagan, v.p. of Energy and Critical Infrastructure, Sandia National Labs.

Based in sociologist Zygmunt Bauman’s theory of liquid modernity, this volume describes and critiques key aspects and practices of liquid education--education as market-driven consumption, short life span of useful knowledge, overabundance of information--through a systematic comparison with ancient Greek paideia and medieval university education, producing a sweeping analysis of the history and philosophy ofeducation for the purpose of understanding current higher education, positing a more holisitic alternative model in which students are embedded in a learning commutity that is itself embedded in a larger society. If liquid modernity has left a vacuum where, according to Bauman, the pilot’s cabin is empty, this volume argues that no structure is better positioned to fill this vacuum than the university and outlines a renewed vision of social transformation through higher education.

In the era of COVID-19, many people have suffered high levels of stress and mental health problems. To cope with the widespread of suffering (physical, psychological, social, and economical) the positive psychology of personal happiness is no longer the sole approach to examine personal wellbeing. Other approaches such as Viktor Frankl’s theory of self-transcendence provide a promising framework for research and intervention on how to achieve resilience, wellbeing, and happiness through overcoming suffering and self-transcendence. The existential positive psychology of suffering complements the positive psychology of happiness, which is championed by Martin Seligman, as two equal halves of the circle of wellbeing and optimal mental health. This Research Topic aims to examine the different approaches to Positive Psychology and their influence on individual wellbeing during the COVID-19 era. One of the exciting development in the positive psychology of wellbeing is the mounting research on the adaptive benefits of negative emotions, such as shame, guilt, and anger, as well as the dialectical process of balancing negative and positive emotions. As an example, based on all the empirical research and Frankl’s self-transcendence model, Wong has developed the existential positive psychology of suffering (PP2.0) as the foundation for flourishing. Here are a few main tenets of PP2.0: (1) Life is suffering and a constant struggle throughout every stage of development, (2) The search for self-transcendence is a primary motive guided by the meaning mindset and mindful mindset. (3) Wellbeing cannot be sustainable without overcoming and transforming suffering. In this Research Topic we welcome diverse approaches discussing the following points: • The dialectic process of overcoming the challenges of every stage of development as necessary for personal growth and self-transcendence; • The role of self-transcendence in resilience, virtue, meaning, and happiness; • The upside of negative emotions; • The new science of resilience based on cultivating the resilient mindset and character; • How to make the best use of suffering to achieve out potentials & mental health.