The Tuesday Program

I recommend this program for inclusion in a variety of courses.  It consists of 7 sessions of about 10-minutes each focusing on interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, and with accompanying downloadable worksheets.  The program has been developed by psychologists from New Zealand, Australia and North America who recognize the power of the affective domain in learning.  Interpersonal and intrapersonal skills form two of the seven multiple intelligences proposed by Gardner, (1983, 1991; cited in How people learn, 2000).  The program developers believe that if an individual is happy, they will achieve more effectively academically and in general.  I show the program every Tuesday in an EAP course and have discussed with the students the purposes of the course, which in our case are subject content and linguistic skills.  The students take home a worksheet with the following day’s topic and vocabulary to preview as many Chinese students (and in my experience other international students) value being prepared for the following day’s lesson, and feel more secure answering questions when they already understand the material (Brick, 1991).  The lecture is used for traditional notetaking practice, with notetaking organizers already in place.  A nominated student is responsible for recording the vocabulary:  pronunciation, meaning, word class, collocates, and usage (Nation, 2005) and will present this vocabulary in Friday’s revision class.  Each day a student has responsibility for that day’s vocabulary because teaching others results in 90% retention and distributed learning facilitates transfer to long-term memory (Da Sousa, 2001).   The content lends itself to discussion of perspectives and values as the program has been developed by western psychologists from low-context cultures but I am using the content with students from high-context cultures.   The end of the 7 programs may be the ideal time to set a discussion essay and gain more insight into the students’ view of the program.  The 7 topics include:

  

   1. Discovering and using your Strengths
   2. Developing a Growth Mindset 
   3. Clarifying your Purpose and Values by thinking about what's meaningful for you 
   4. Thinking about and being Grateful more often
   5. Communicating more effectively in your relationships
   6. Utilising Relaxation Techniques
   7. Being more Mindful

References

Brick, J. (1991). China, A handbook in intercultural communication. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Macquarie University

Da Sousa, D. (2001). How the brain learns (Second Edition). Thousand Oaks, California:  

Corwin Press, Inc.

Nation, P. (2005).  Teaching Vocabulary.  Asian EFL Journal. Retrieved from http://asian_eft_journal.com/sept_05_pdf

The Tuesday Program (n.d.) Retrieved from www.thetuesdayprogram.com