Marwa Werghemmi

Teachers have always struggled to find the best pedagogical materials and the perfect lesson plan for their students. Thus, the educational field has been known for its changesets and innovation. Teachers find themselves in a challenge to cope with in order to succeed in their job tasks. One of these integrated innovative topics in education is the 21 key shift life skills. Besides, I noticed three main reasons that gave me a clear idea about the shareholders and the work environment in the educational field which are as follows:

* Lack of pedagogical resources and tools: The Tunisian Ministry of Education adopted life skills as a recent topic, but there are still no practical guides, concrete tools, and resources for primary school teachers to facilitate their tasks. So, there is an absence of a flexible approach and an accurate guide for teachers to apply life skills to daily lessons and only touch the topic theoretically.

* The high rate of verbal violence in Tunisian schools: According to the Tunisian Ministry of Education about 13 and 22 thousand cases each year per 2.3 M pupils. Having recently concluded the cogito project. I discovered additional issues which support the need for the 15 Five projects, focusing more on productive thinking in terms of media literacy and language learning (Arabic, French, and English), in addition to conflict resolution, and negotiation skills through a communicative approach, outdoor education, task-based pedagogies integrated into a personalized manual, board, and card games.

* Lack of gender-based values: According to the USAID Gender Analysis study in Tunisia for 2022, recommendations were suggested to focus on conducting gender-focused reviews for new civic curricula to ensure countering gender stereotypes and address the Gender-based values in the school context, which can be implemented indirectly through life skills (conflict resolution, productive thinking, and negotiation) for young learners.

The 15 Five project means developing task-based teaching aids that will facilitate teachers' mission in integrating critical thinking, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills for primary school pupils aged between 8 and 12 years old. The idea of the project is to allow 15 minutes of skill development per session and five minutes of exchanging and co-evaluating through :

a.     A manual on 21st key shift skills: focus on critical thinking, conflict resolution, and negotiation in relation to TEYL (Teach English for Young learners) and the Arabic language.

b.    Pedagogical games: Two board games: one for critical thinking after reading activity and another for conflict resolution& negotiation.

c.     Two card games: one about critical thinking (while and post-reading game and another about conflict resolution and negotiation.)