Lifelong Learning Programme

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Training

Homepage > Training > Capitalise on pupils interests and skills

This module focuses on how to unveil the interests and aptitudes of students, in order to plan and implement personalized educational paths and guidance services to valorise these talents through curricular and extracurricular activities and motivate the students to stay at school.

Capitalise on pupils interests and skills

Table of Content

Chapter 1: Introduction
Interests and skills at the beginning of a training path + Online Resources
Research has demonstrated that displaying a personal interest is necessary for real learning. There is also a strong link between emotion and cognition; in the absence of deep engagement, motivation and interest, little real learning occurs. In today's education climate, school success is defined as ensuring achievement for every student. To improve students’ current performance level on skills that they will be learning that school year, the best and easiest way for teachers is to start from students’ interests and aptitudes. It is important for teachers and students themselves to identify and appreciate interests, skills, abilities and personal qualities.

There are several definitions of interests; all of them rely on a feeling of wanting to learn more about something or to be involved in something. A skill is something that you are good at doing, it could come naturally to you or be something you have learnt through experience or training. Having the right skills can lead to the desired job.

Another concept worth mentioning is the concept of 'key competences,' which has gained importance in recent years both at policy and school level. We should develop the Key competences to a level that equips us to lead a satisfying life. Key competences are considered essential skills and aptitudes for young Europeans to succeed not only in today's economy and modern society but also in their personal lives. European countries have made significant progress in incorporating these key competences into national curricula and other steering documents, a fact that demonstrates commitment to make the skills taught to young people at school more relevant for their lives and societies.
Online Resources
  • Essential Skills and AptitudesThis web page proposes a questionnaire to identify students’ essential skills: problem solving, communication, social skills and attitudes.
  • Carol S Dweck, The power of yet, Carol Dweck researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain's capacity to learn and to solve problems.
  • Carol Dweck, How to Help Every Child Fulfil Their Potential One of the world's leading psychologists, Professor Carol Dweck discusses how students' mindsets shape their motivation and learning.
  • Jane Collingwood, Capitalize on Your Core Strengths Jane Collingwood offers some insight into maximizing your core strengths in her article.
  • Developing Key Competences at School in Europe The site focuses on transversal skills and competences, which are the building blocks for the development of the 'hard' skills and competences required to succeed in today's economy and modern society but also in personal life.
  • Get information on Youthpass!The site defines the specific professional and sectoral skills and competences that companies and the job market consider when recruiting their staff. These competences are often referred to as core skills, basic skills or soft skills, the cornerstone for the personal development of a person.

Table of Content

Comments on this section

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Date: 2016.09.02

Posted by Christine CLOES - Belgique

The strength of this module is to gather (and remind) important theoretical principles (as learning styles, multiple intelligences…) and practical advice to cultivate the students’ talents and interests,for example planning extracurricular activities, developing entrepreneurial experiences at school, etc.

Date: 2016.08.03

Posted by M.J. Romero - Spain

Interesting collection of online sources. Very complete and with different approaches.

Date: 2016.07.10

Posted by Liliana Cannone - Italy

The most interesting and functional section for the type of students F.Datini IPS is the "SKILL & JOBS", to deepen the profile of the professionals and the levels of skills within the school.
Furthermore, the analysis of the job profiles of the different countries involved in the project highlights the actual demand in the labor market. It would be useful to have in the Italian language test to use them in school with our students. The clearly structured site, has a dress simple and straightforward graphics, and is quite simple to find the inserted content

Date: 2016.07.07

Posted by Rouquette-Salerno Laetitia - France

The modules are really interesting and relevant

Date: 2016.07.06

Posted by Cristina Farzi - Romania

The module focuses on how to unveil the interests and aptitudes of students in order to plan and implement personalized educational paths and guidance services which successfully valorise students’ talents. As balancing theory and practice is one of the principles of this tool the second module starts from theoretical considerations on interests, aptitudes and key competences as well as school autonomy and learning styles, which are practically supported by useful hands-on curricular and extracurricular activities, teaching methods used to capitalize on students’ interests and skills and an impressive collection of best practices, experiences, success stories as well as tips on how to use them in class. The chapter also highlights the important of parent involvement in children’s development and success at school and in life.

Date: 2016.07.06

Posted by Elza Gheorghiu - Romania

The modules provide teachers and counsellors with invaluable online materials which can help them with:
- a conceptual and theoretical framework
- tools/ techniques to use
- activities to carry out
- examples of best practice
- case studies

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.