Supporting teachers to deliver better learning outcomes
A learning platform to support schools and educators
Passion Arena’s content is designed to support the learning outcomes desired by both schools and educators through the introduction and application of non-cognitive skills. Non-cognitive skills (the attitudes, behaviours and strategies thought to underpin success) are increasingly considered to be as important to positive outcomes for young people as cognitive ability in areas such as literacy and numeracy. (For more information on the impact of non-cognitive skills, take a look at this report from the Institute of Education at the University of London).
Further enhancing the non-cognitive focus on success, our content is designed to encourage greater engagement with teachers, peers, parents and the wider community through a sustained focus on empathy, and the development of quality relationships. We aim to engage and inspire students to see the opportunities that education presents, while seeking to create within students a positive attitude and internal belief that, with applied effort and sustained practice, positive outcomes can be achieved.
Our Introduction Series introduces the core fundamentals of our program based on our core habits, and introduce most of the skills that are fundamental to a life of success, meaning and happiness.
Who is Passion Arena for?
The content we’ve developed has been designed to be introduced to students from Year 7 (approx. 11 years of age) onwards. There are two reasons for this. We believe that Years 7 & 8 are transformative years for students within their schooling careers and represent a key transition point from child to young adult. This provides an opportunity for students to develop positive habits at this age which can serve them well as they progress through their later years in education.
Secondly, research into adolescent brain development suggests that introducing a new line of non-cognitive thinking at this young age, will help to make the content feel more familiar and accessible as children begin to move into the adolescent phase of their brain’s development. This sense of familiarity helps students to take on board new ideas while giving them more confidence to try out new positive behaviours which may support better learning outcomes in both the short and long-term.
Students should continue to benefit from Passion Arena content throughout high-school and well into post-graduate studies – especially as we continue to expand the content available.
Do you have additional resources for teachers?
Yes. Check them out here.
For each episode offered on our platform, we have an additional page to support teachers. Information provided on these teacher pages goes into more detail on the content of the specific episode, outlines a range of discussion opportunities for use in class, and in most cases also includes links to further information on the topic covered. These may include videos, book titles, articles and research papers. We also include the opportunity for teachers to give us feedback on any element of the episode and it’s supporting exercises (or any other area) within each of these pages so we can continue to improve our content to support better learning outcomes for your students.
Does your content include faith-based or religious teachings?
No.
Our content is based on the latest research in a wide range of specialist fields, including human performance, positive psychology and neuroscience. We don’t provide any episodes that would focus on, or favour, any religion or its teachings over another; we’ve sought to remain as independent from religious themes as possible. That said, we do have one episode that relates to ‘The Golden Rule’, but this is a concept common to all the world’s major religions (which we point out in the episode) and we do not present it from the perspective of any particular religion.
Most importantly, our content is designed in such a way that it will not contradict or discourage the teachings of any particular faith or religion and we wholeheartedly support the right of every individual to study and practice their chosen beliefs.
What does it cost?
Nothing. It’s free.
Best of all, you don’t even have to register. No signing up, handing over email addresses, nothing. Just get started.
Can you actually help students achieve?
The content provided in our episodes is based on many scientific studies which have each been shown in numerous cases to deliver positive outcomes to both young and old. Our content combines the learnings from multiple studies into one simple format expressed in simple language to make it more accessible to students. Each of the concepts we present has been shown to deliver positive outcomes, so we’re very confident that combining many of these ideas into one educational series will deliver students (and teachers) significant positive outcomes.
Do you have links to non-cognitive skills research?
Absolutely.
Listed below you'll find links to three reports collating the data from multiple, peer-reviewed studies into the impacts of non-cognitive skills in education, work and life.
'What do we know about developing students’ non-cognitive skills?' Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, by Alanna Bjorklund-Young, 3 June 2016.
'The Need to Address Noncognitive Skills in the Education Policy Agenda' Economic Policy Institute London, by Emma García, 2 December 2014.
'The impact of non-cognitive skills on outcomes for young people – Literature review' Institute of Education, by Leslie Morrison Gutman and Ingrid Schoon, 21 November 2013.