فصلنامه تعلیم و تربیت
سال بیست و هشتم شماره 3 (پیاپی 111، پاییز 1391)

Schooling should reflect life in its curricula and methods. In the light of contemporary psychology, school must be conceived as a laboratory wherein with the use of clinical method, preparations are made for life. There seems to be a duality of curriculum and method in the educational process wherein, with the assistance from Psychology, efficiency and productivity can be increased. Considering the two notions of open and closed systems, it can be said that the latter is rooted in behavioristic dispositions, whereas the former is more constructivist in nature, as it emphasizes creativity and the use of clinical method of teaching in unison. Furthermore, open systems create operational programs in close relation to life. The developmental path that the concept of education has gone through, from Herbertian notions of humans being passive to Piagetian understanding of humans being active and creative, represents an outlook on life school.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has turned into an amazing phenomenon impacting all aspects of social life, including education. However, ICT's impact on education has mainly been of an instrumental nature, wherein new ICT produced software and hardware are used to pursue the same old educational objectives. ICT's impact on education can be of a non-instrumental, yet civilizational nature, which would require a re-examination of the very mission of the educational system and identification of new basic life skills in accordance to the demands of the new era. From this perspective, and utilizing an analytical approach, in this article a list of competencies or skills is drawn along twelve major lines which can be of use to educational policy makers and curriculum planners.

Obviously, learning life skills would lead to life satisfaction, provided that there is a well-planned course teaching such skills. To assess the effectiveness of one such course, a sample of 120 female high school students was divided into two subgroups, one of which went through a 12-week course teaching skills such as decision making and problem solving, creative and critical thinking, interpersonal communication, and stress management. Prior to the course, and following it, both group's satisfaction with school, friends, self, family, and living environment were assessed using a forty item scale.Data analysis revealed a significant increase in all areas of satisfaction in the experimental group. The follow up assessment was also indicative of the increase being sustained.

Learning life skills can impact learner's identity and hence, assertiveness, if an effective course on such skills is developed and conducted. To assess the effectiveness of one such course, a random sample of 44 female high school sophomores was selected and divided into two subgroups, one of which went through the designed course on life skills. Both group's identity and assertiveness types were assessed before and after the intervention using adequately reliable instruments. Data analysis revealed a significant improvement in the experimental group's scores on both identity and assertiveness measures.

Although the relationship between different types of intelligence, creativity, and achievement can be assumed, the extent to which the high school curriculum attends to these abilities in preparing them for the real life is unclear. To clarify this, a cluster sample of 147 high school students in Tehran was selected and its socio-cognitive intelligence, as well as creativity, assessed, using well-known instruments. Data analysis revealed that only cognitive intelligence explains the variability in school achievement and the other two factors have no significant role therein. That is to say that creativity and social intelligence are basically absent from the high school curriculum.

Quarreling is a frequent occurrence among children and adolescents leading to difficulties in schooling and interpersonal relations. Quarrelsome children are low in social skills and school achievement; as a result, end up being abandoned by their peers and eventually engaging in antisocial behaviors. Obviously, the occurrence of such behaviors can be limited through courses in anger management and pro-social behaviors, given the course is well-designed and conducted. To examine the effectiveness of one such course, a group of 48 volunteer students was randomly divided into two, one of which took the 8-week course in anger-management. Both group's tendencies toward angry behaviors were initially, and after the course, assessed. Data analyses revealed that the taking of the course has been beneficial for the participants taking the course, as their pro-social behaviors increased while their anger subsided significantly.

The social functions of today's schools need to be evaluated and the relationship between living and learning, based on the current trends in schools, redefined. In doing so, the concepts of life school and school life need to be examined and their similarities and differences identified. A passing look at the current state of schools and both the parent's and teacher's expectations of students would be indicative of a pathological feature in our educational system as defined by the absence of emphasis on students being active in their school life, while encouraging them to engage in grade competition. School life needs to be reflective of the regular life as seen at home, in the community, or on the play-ground, where it is full of activity and creativity. Only in such an environment the child can actualize all its natural potentials. On the other hand, if learning does not take place within the life realities, life forms not worth living would be substituted and as a result "learning to live" replaces "living to learn". Thus, it is necessary to attend to the student's need for a creative and joyful school life.

Life schools have a twin set of major goals of academic success and socio-moral development. Teaching life skills would help to obtain both, provided that an adequate curriculum is at hand. To determine what such a curriculum needs to include, a sample of 1296 sixth to eighth graders, 432 parents, 217 teachers, and 50 educational experts was asked using questionnaires. Results show that psycho-social abilities are considered the most needed life skills, while the suggested curricular model is an integrative onewith three dimensions of subject, theme, and processes.