Introduction to Personal Development
The CP IS Personal Development
Having this mindset from the start will ensure that the student's actual personal development remains at the heart of the entire course. Many schools start the PPS course with a unit on Personal Development which sets the tone of developing self-awareness. Just be sure to have formative self-assessment check-ins so students can actually see how they are developing over the two years. See below for a great collaborative way to launch this!
The aim here is to introduce one of the five key themes of Personal Development to students anticipating the start of their CP studies so identifying strengths and areas for growth (LO1) is possibly quite straightforward to indentify as a learning outcome.
However, there are also ample opportunities to explore thinking processes (LO 2) to support understanding and establishing personal dvelopment in communication and working collaboratively (LO4). Discussions may well call to attention matters of cultural sensitivity and even ethical situations so LO3 and LO5 are not to be dismissed even if not intentionally a matter of focus.
LO3: Recognize and be able to articulate the value of cultural understanding and appreciation for diversity
LO4: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of communicating effectively and working collaboratively
LO5: Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Starting Personal Development and vision board
... you need a system that threads through the entirety of your course and not just limited to an introductory topic. For example, the following exercises are inspired by and adapted from The A Level Mindset by Steve Oakes and Martin Griffin. The authors make use of their bespoke VESPA system to develop16-18 year old growth Mindset. Through targeting Vision, Effort, Systems, Preferences and Attitude, you are able to weather successfully the stresses and strains of a challenging sixth form course.
Vision Board
Accompanying powerpoint
At the start of the course, create a 'vision board' of your likes and dislikes as a good way not only of finding centre and identity but also bypasses questions such as 'what do you want to be?' or 'what is your goal?' You need time to develop your goals - maybe to find some aspirations but also time to have the confidence to acknowledge ambitions you might have. These exercises can be completed as a visual journal, a large piece of wall art, a prezi or powerpoint presentation ... as long as it is visual, and easily accessed and seen, you can experiment with different modes. Step 1. Vision board: 'All about Me'
Below is the early stages of a vision board created by a student.
Consider the image and the accompanying questions.
Development
Where does your focus lie? Ask students to find images that engage or inspire them from their interests and home life: music, languages, art, film, media, sciences, politics, environment, theatre, technology, sport ... to name a few.
Extension: This exercise can be extended both now and at any stage, as you get to know a class, by asking them to include images that capture their past, present and future.
Further notes on exercise
At the start of the course, asking students to create a 'vision board' of their likes and dislikes is a good way not only of them finding centre and identity but also bypasses the ineffectual questions such as 'what do you want to be?' or 'what is your goal?' Often and understandably, students need time to develop their goals - maybe to find some tangible aspirations but also they need time to have the confidence to acknowledge ambitions they might have. These exercises can be completed as a visual journal, a large piece of wall art, a prezi or powerpoint presentation ... as long as it is visual, and easily accessed and seen by students, they can experiment with different modes.
Educators like to create their own vision board sometimes or you can use the vision board provided below to get discussion going on what you can tell about this person's interests from their vision board. You may choose to do this part way through the exercise as a way for students to reflect on work they have completed so far rather than suggesting that their work must look a certain way.
Step 2. Giving feedback ...
You might want to introduce students to presenting slowly so their confidence builds gradually; also making presenting as diverse and authentic as possible, makes it become an even more natural process for students.You can organise students giving feedback in a number of ways or you can use the following as a 5 step process leading towards further reflection.
1. Display all vision boards around the classroom like a gallery so students can look at each others' work before presenting.
2. Analyse: rather than asking an individual student to explain their choices, you may ask the rest of the students to ascertain what they can deduce about this person from their vision board.
3. Interview: Continuing along a similar theme, asking the class to interview the owner of each piece of work can put a hesitant speaker at more ease as well as work on students' inquiry skills.
4. Synthesise and evaluate: What commonalities can students find across their vision boards and what could the significance of this be?
5. Reflect: Any number of questions that can be used for private reflection from the learner profile through to more specific inquiry into culture. A few suggestions at this early stage: What is missing from your boards? What did you forget to include? What does your board have that no one else has? Is there anything you did not want to include or share? Is there anything that surprised you about this exercise?
Remember that these boards can be revisited, reviewed and reflected upon with completely different questions.
Step 3. Questions to delve deeper
These questions focus on a your attitude to work and life as they are inextricably linked when it comes to a understanding yourself and what makes you tick.You may want to develop your vision board from Step 1 further after considering these questions[1].
- Name five things that make you smile.
- If you could only take one subject, what would it be?
- What do you find it easy to do? Think both work and in home life
- What jobs do you avoid doing? Think both work and in home life
- What are you doing when time flies?
- What job would you do for free?
- You suddenly have a free afternoon on your hands: what do you choose to do with it?
- If you were given an afternoon off to work at home, what subject would you choose to do?
- Do you leave some work until the last minute? Think of the last piece that you did this way and finish the sentence 'I left it until the last minute because ...'
- Name five things that make you sigh.
- What would you try to do if you were guaranteed to succeed? Why?
- List the first words that come into your head when you hear the word 'happiness'.
- List the first words that come into your head when you hear the word 'stress'.
- If you could start a company, what would it be for?
- What do you talk about with friends? Is there anything you would like to talk about with friends but you don't?
- When was the last time you dismissed doing or trying something new? Explain that choice. What if you had done it?
- When does time fly and time drag?
- Name five things that make you cry.
- Who would play you in the film of your life and why?
- What is guaranteed to distract you?
Further notes on exerciseThese questions focus on a your attitude to work and life as they are inextricably linked when it comes to a student's understanding of themselves and what makes them tick. Students may want to develop their vision board from Step 1 further after considering these questions. Depending on the dynamic of the class, you can organise it as a class activity where students pick a number at random to answer or as an interview conducted in pairs.
The apparent randomness of these questions is somewhat intentional. Students will find some questions far easier than others to answer but the mixing up of topics will not allow them to get too fixated on 'getting it right' and perhaps allow them to pick up on common threads coming out of their answers. It goes without saying that if conducting this exercise as a whole class discussion, students have the right to keep responses to themselves and do not have to share anything they do not want to with the class.
Footnotes
- ^ Steve Oakes and Martin Griffin, The A Level Mindset