Other Key Skills
Each key skill has a number of elements which clarify the knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to that key skill. The elements and their learning outcomes are set out in detail in Key Skills of Junior Cycle. There are opportunities to support all key skills in this course but some are particularly significant. The examples below identify learning activities of Money Matters. Teachers can also build many of the other elements of particular key skills into their classroom planning.
| Key Skill | Key skill element | Student learning activity |
| Being Creative | Implementing ideas and taking action | Students test out their ideas as they engage in structured classroom activities and reflect on their learning throughout the course. They decide on, plan and engage in project activities, seeing the project through to completion. In their Reflection Journal and Project Record they evaluate different ideas and actions taken. |
| Communicating | Using numbers and data | Students use numerical data for a range of different purposes including recording their spending in a weekly diary, devising budgets and creating bank statements in pairs and small groups, discussing comparisons between costs of goods and services and quotes etc. During the course, students have opportunities to work together using charts to present, interpret and compare information and data. |
| Managing information and thinking | Reflecting on and evaluating my learning | A Reflection Journal is created by students to help them reflect on and review their learning throughout the course. The Reflection Journal is explicitly supported in a range of homework tasks and in the ideas for projects, embedded in the lesson plans across each of the four strands. It is also supported in the Teacher Guidelines accompanying this course. Lesson plan activities facilitate students to set realistic targets (e.g. in requiring that they make the link between their spending, money goals, budgets and budget health checks). These tools represent a range of supports to help students to manage their learning. |
| Managing myself | Use digital technology to manage myself and my learning | Money Matters is an online interactive course. Students can access and download worksheets through the Student Section and are encouraged to use different technologies to plan, manage, engage in and reflect on their learning. |
| Staying well | Being confident | The course encourages students to communicate their opinions with confidence in a variety of ways, for example there is an emphasis on discussion and debate, pair and small group feedback in whole class settings, role play and presentations. Each student contributes to discussion and decision-making within the class when determining what constitutes meaningful and relevant projects for them to undertake. |
| Working with others | Learning with others | The learning outcomes in this course are underpinned by collaborative and active learning approaches, which incorporate the possibility to differentiate for all learners in the classroom. Students work in pairs and larger groups to problem-solve and help each other when learning. |
