Teaching and learning for life skills development: Insights from Rwanda’s 12+ programme for adolescent girls

The development of life skills has been increasingly recognised in formal and non-formal education programmes as critical to enabling young people to flourish. Recent competency-based curricular reform reflects a growing consensus on the importance of developing a combination of socio-emotional, cognitive and practical skills to overcome contemporary social, environmental, and economic global challenges.This paper examines the pedagogical practices that develop such skills by drawing on lessons from Rwanda’s 12+ programme, a non-formal life skills programme for adolescent girls.Five insights are highlighted: structured teaching and learning materials; the use of dialogic teaching; experiential learning opportunities; the importance of safe spaces; and the engagement of mentors as role models. These ingredients of effective life skills led to the development of adolescent girls’ skills, knowledge, and attitudes.

Suggested citation:

D’Angelo, S., Marcus, R., Ngabo, E. (2022) Teaching and learning for life skills development: Insights from Rwanda’s 12+ programme for adolescent girls' Development Policy Review e12622 (https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12622)