Developed by CSAP's Northeast Center for the
Application of Prevention Technologies © 2002 Education Development Center,
Inc. All rights reserved.
Narrator:
As communities around the country are learning, the key to effective
prevention is to use multiple strategies in multiple settings, toward
achieving a common goal. One particularly potent strategy is Education.
This video focuses on Education strategies by examining Life Skills,
one proven approach to school-based drug prevention. Life Skills education
provides students with a variety of learning experiences that not only
develop knowledge and attitudes but also skills that help young people
make healthy decisions. While Life Skills education is a key element
of effective school-based prevention programs, it is important to remember,
that it works best when combined with other prevention strategies such
as services for students and their parents and community-based efforts.
Evander French, Principal, McCall Middle School:
At the Middle School level so much is going on. These are years of transition.
It's not just intellectual growth, it's physical, and moral and social
and ethical and psychological. It's all of those growth issues and if
you are just dealing with academics you are missing the boat. We need
to attend to their intellectual development but we need to attend to
all of those other areas of growth.
Narrator:
Pretest results in this community indicated that sixth graders had strong
anti-drug use norms with one exception. Twelve-year-old sixth graders
did not demonstrate such strong anti-drug use norms for alcohol and
marijuana. With this information, the school then considered the key
factors which determined successful implementation of Life Skills Education
programs.
Sixth Grade Pretest Results
Age 11
… had very strong anti-drug norms.
Age 12
… had very strong anti-tobacco norms.
… alcohol & marijuana were not as strong. |
Key factors for Successful Life Skills Programs
Financing
Involving Parents
Setting Clear Goals |
Jan Keefe, Director of Health & Physical Education Winchester
Public Schools:
First of course is money. Make sure you have your ducks in a row when
it comes to finance. There are books to be bought, there are binders,
and there is training to be done.
Dr. Mark Kerbel, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Winchester
Public Schools:
I think this is exciting. And I think that you need to have a cheerleader,
who is able to spell out a clear vision of where you want to go and
what you want to accomplish. You need to bring people together to talk
about what all the obstacles are, but more importantly to talk about
what your goals are, what your vision is, what you want to accomplish,
how you can implement this kind of program into the current program
that you have in school.
Elizabeth Silva, Director, Winchester Substance Abuse Coalition,
Life Skills Training Instructor
I think in trying to implement this kind of strategy, it is important
to include parents, teachers and students from the beginning. I think
the buy-in has to be in, in all realms because it is such a commitment.
If that doesn't happen at the beginning it can really sidetrack the
implementation.
Narrator:
There are indeed many key elements to consider when implementing a school-based
prevention curriculum.
Key factors for Successful Life Skills Programs
Financing
Involving Parents
Setting Clear Goals |
Narrator:
One of the most important factors that determines a programs' success
is the extent to which teachers are provided with both training and
ongoing support in the content and methods of Life Skills education.
Key Factors for Successful Life Skills Programs
Teacher Training & Support
Content
Methodology |
Narrator:
One program that uses this approach is the Life Skills Training program.
Life Skills
A school-based program implemented at McCall Middle School, Winchester,
Massachusetts |
Elizabeth Silva:
Here have actually trained a total of 40 faculty members that include
not only teachers who are teaching the program but counselors, teachers
in other core subjects, special ed, ESL, in a way to incorporate some
of the concepts in other areas in having the whole environment change.
Saying listen here is the philosophy that we are going to be using for
the foreseeable future. Where do you stand with it and having teachers
who never ever actually get to teach this particular topic use it in
their classroom and use the concepts and also understand and hopefully
integrate some of the important key points like the modeling, and then
everyone is familiar. And on an educational standpoint it is very important
for students, especially at this age, in developmental stage, to see
consistency. Then finally, I think paying attention to the teaching
methods that are being used in the classroom. Be sure that the young
people aren't just filling out worksheets. Because it is about life
skills for health concepts. That means it has to be integrated into
their reality. You do that by using interactive teaching by facilitating
instead of presenting and getting the students involved.
Key Factors for Successful Life Skills Programs
Teacher Training & Support
Content
Methodology |
Elizabeth Silva teaching a class:
Today we are going to focus on smoking biofeedback.
Elizabeth Silva:
One of the things that was very exciting for me in the classroom was
to see the kids using some high level thinking skills. Doing more analyzing,
doing more reflection and really taking challenges in responding to
questions or situations and really putting their opinion out there whether
they felt they were going to be right or wrong and that shows a comfort
level.
Elizabeth Silva teaching a class:
Does smoking really make you feel relaxed or does it increase anxiety?
What's the truth? We're going to study that.
Elizabeth Silva:
One of the things that we are trying to do is to increase their cognitive
skills, along with the behavioral skills so that they can actually pull
off social resistance so that they can say 'No' to things and so that
they can do some of that reflective thinking.
Elizabeth Silva teaching a class:
We are going to look at the body being relaxed and the first thing we
are going to do is we are going to look at what happens the second people
smoke and take in what drug?
Elizabeth Silva:
As a teacher it really took a lot more work on my part in really thinking
through the prep.
Elizabeth Silva teaching a class:
Follow your thumb and go an inch and a half past your thumb and gently
press down. What you are looking for is a light bump. That bump is your
pulse.
Elizabeth Silva:
The lessons wouldn't be as exciting or fun if I wasn't prepared with
the pulse meters for example.
Elizabeth Silva teaching a class:
So that is the finger that you want to put on the button and you want
to put your pointer finger on the other side.
Elizabeth Silva:
Not every kid will be able to learn how to take their own pulse
manually. I need to teach them how to do that and then have a back-up
plan just in case so that we can still get to the core learning of the
lesson.
Elizabeth Silva teaching a class:
I am going to take these numbers and I am going to increase them by
doing something healthy. So that you can see what happens when nicotine
enters the body, the second it enters the body.
Elizabeth Silva:
And then also using some differential learning techniques, making sure
that you have enough visuals, enough auditory stuff, enough kinetic
activities, as well as tactile.
Elizabeth Silva teaching a class:
What you are going to do in 30 seconds is you are going to try to simulate
the heart by beating for 30 seconds, 66.5. times.
Elizabeth Silva:
The balls that I use actually have little prongs on them so that it
stimulates the young person so that they feel like they are manipulating
something. And all of that comes into play into how these lessons are
then translated by the young person, because there are a lot of different
learning styles in that classroom and each learning style, those kids
are affected by different risk factors. So I have to reach all of them
in many ways to hopefully address the risk factor and help them increase
their own protective factors at the same time.
Narrator:
Life Skills education is an approach that has been widely applied and
evaluated in over 30 countries throughout the world. But what is the
evidence of success at the local school level in the U.S.?
Jan Keefe:
We are seeing through our own assessment that decision-making is changing
which is very positive, problem solving is changing which is very positive
at the middle school level.
Elizabeth Silva:
One of the things that we are seeing from our Youth Risk Behavior Survey
is that the environment that the kids are reporting less risky behaviors
in the core areas that we are talking about in the programs, such as
substance use and aggressive behavior and bullying and so forth.
Dr. Mark Kerbel:
We already know that the Life Skills program has had a major impact
on the behaviors and the attitudes of students in the sixth and seventh
grade. Long term effects we have found that it has carried over into
kids when they have gone to the high school so we are really excited
about those outcomes.
Benefits of Life Skills
Student Perspectives |
Boy
I think its has helped our awareness about what is out there and how
to try to avoid it and try to help yourself.
Boy
I have learned how to stay away from things that I know I shouldn't
be taking or doing and how to deal with difficult situations.
Girl
It teaches you different ways to cope with your anger and anxiety and
it helps you realize why you shouldn't smoke, like there are reasons
why it is bad for you.
Boy
It teaches you what to do if you ever get into a situation when you
need help getting out of something, like big trouble with a friend or
if somebody did something wrong and you don't know how to tell anybody.
Jan Keefe:
I think when you have respect for yourself, you make good choices. You
are in the habit of making good choices. You are in the habit of choosing
carefully, who you are going to be with and what you are going to stand
for.
Evander French:
This program and others that we have do help kids make good decisions.
And if they are making good decisions about tobacco and particularly
alcohol and drugs, chances are they are going to be more motivated to
do well in school.
Elizabeth Silva:
I want kids to have good quality of life, not just appear successful
so I think we need to spend some time here and give it the same importance
that we give everything else that happens in an educational setting
because this will carry them through, always.
The transcript of the video Education is taken from interviews conducted
in 2002. The video series was developed as part of our training and
technical assistance to the Northeast Region.
Special thanks to Winchester Public Schools, Winchester, Massachusetts,
the Winchester Substance Abuse Coalition, and Life Skills.
The contents of this program are solely the responsibility of its authors
and do not necessarily represent the official views of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
Funding for this program was provided by the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Cooperative Agreement No. 5U1JSP08133-03-1
