Transcript Engaging Learners

Delving into debt justice:
engaging with controversial issues
in the classroom
Debt and Development Coalition Ireland
Sian Crowley
NUIG School of Education
17th February 2015
Objectives
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To explore methodologies that enable students
to become confident in exploring complex or
controversial issues, such as global debt.
To consider the characteristics of successful
democratic and cooperative learning.
To introduce difficult issues; our primary focus is
debt, but we will touch on other development or
global issues to show how you can adapt these
activities to different issues.
Two key focuses of this workshop:
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Engaging with challenging issues.
Encouraging the participation of your
students.
And also…
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Building your own confidence to use
different types of methodologies in the
classroom.
Setting the context:
development education
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Shift from teacher-led to student-centred
learning.
Shift from teachers doing all the talking (and
most of the work!) to students taking more
responsibility for learning and being
challenged to think for themselves.
Shift from teaching content towards more
emphasis on the development of students’
skills.
National Council for Curriculum
and Assessment: Key Skills
Whirlwind of activities...
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Using a combination of NCCA key skills
guidelines, innovative participatory
methodologies, a variety of texts, images,
and media which examine controversial or
politically charged issues.
We are going to compress them so that you
get a flavour of them and have the
confidence to do them yourself.
Obviously this is not a real classroom
situation, and you would spend a lot more
time on each of these activities with your
students.
NCCA Key skill:
Being personally effective
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Giving and receiving feedback.
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Becoming more flexible in thinking, and more
likely to persevere when difficulties arise.
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Becoming more confident and assertive in
themselves in the context of their learning
and generally.
NCCA Key skill:
Working with others
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Identifying responsibilities in a group
and establishing practices associated
with different roles in a group.
Developing good relationships with
others and a sense of well-being in the
group.
Acknowledging individual differences,
negotiating and resolving conflicts.
Teaching controversial issues
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Creating a Conducive Climate - Class
Agreement or Ground Rules; either spend
time at the start of the year agreeing values
which underpin relationships and behaviour in
the classroom. Review during the year.
If not possible, make an effort to incorporate
a group agreement before dealing with
difficult issues; race, gender, war, debt.
Our group agreement…
From Palestine and Israel: How will there be a just peace? A citizenship
education resource for Transition Year. www.developmenteducation.ie
Creating a Group Agreement
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Agree principles together, for example…
Respect others’ opinions
Challenge yourself
What’s said in the classroom stays in the classroom
Be aware of other people’s feelings
Don’t speak over others
‘Thinking classroom’ – it’s ok to express opinions,
think them through together, and to allow our
opinions to change
“No easy answers”
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When difficult issues arise or there is strong
disagreement in the class, recording these on
a No Easy Answers Board allows you to come
back to them at a later date.
Flipchart
Recording challenging outcomes or
unresolved questions
Very simple activity, with multiple uses.
Understanding causes and
consequences
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The Problem Tree
Draw a tree on the board. As you are having
a discussion about the issue, ask questions
like…
What are the root causes of this issue?
What are the consequences?
Are there any ‘grey’ areas?
Ie. Is poverty a root cause or a consequence
of inequality?
Problem Tree
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As the students respond, you can write in the
‘root causes’ into the roots of the tree.
Write the ‘consequences’ into where the
leaves and branches of the tree are.
Write the ‘grey’ areas into the trunk of the
tree.
Invite students to be active and to fill it in
themselves.
Diamond ranking
Diamond ranking is a thinking tool that gets
students to prioritise and make judgments. It
helps them to analyse and evaluate the criteria
that they have used for making their judgments.
It’s important that there is no single right answer
but a range of possible responses.
Encourages debate, challenges students to articulate
how they feel and think, doesn’t evoke one single
‘true’ response.
In groups of 3 work together to rank
the cards
Organise into groups of 3 or 4
(Maybe have ‘role’ cards in your
classroom).
 Don’t let students self organise.
 Divide responsibilites:
Appoint a facilitator, timekeeper and
reader.
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In groups of 3 work together to rank
the cards
Moving debate
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You could also turn this into a ‘moving debate’.
Choose two or three statements from the pack.
Clear a space in the middle of the room, push tables to the side.
Stick a sign saying “I completely agree” to one wall, and a sign
saying “I completely disagree” to the opposing wall.
Read out a statement, ask students to move around the room
and to stand in the place that most correctly represents what
they feel.
Invite students to explain why they chose where to stand.
Invite students to move around and change their position if the
discussion alters their opinion.
Movement transforms energy in the room if it’s stale, energises
students, and gets students more ‘into’ the bodies.
How did that go?
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How do you feel about this method?
Would you use it yourself?
If you feel there are issues with it, is
there a way you could make it work?
Research
Suggests that students learn best when they
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‘construct’ their own meaning
are actively engaged in learning
engage in reasoning not just reproduction
check their own and each others
learning/understanding
learn from each other, e.g. use peer explaining, peer
teaching, think-pair-share, group work.
Pathways to citizenship:
Building democracies requires
democratic learning
To what extent
 are students active in their learning?
 making decisions?
 are their voices heard?
 encouraged to find solutions to real
world problems?
 given opportunities to engage with
power or effect change?
Why is active engagement in learning
so important?
We remember
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what is discussed with others
80% of what we experience personally
95% of what we teach to someone else
According to William Glasser
‘Children may work in groups in classrooms
but they very seldom work as groups.’
Ken Richardson
Elements of Cooperative Learning
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Positive interdependence
Individual accountability
Face to face interaction
Interpersonal and group work skills
Reflection and group processing
According to David and Roger Johnson www.co-operation.org
NCCA Key skill:
Communicating in the
classroom
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Analysing and interpreting texts and
other forms of communication
Expressing opinions, speculating,
discussing, and engaging in debate and
argument
Engaging in dialogue, listening
attentively and eliciting opinions, views
and emotions
Example of using video and song:
Money Money Money
‘There’s a Hole in the Bucket’ Video
How the World Works 2 p 36 & 37
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daOA
eB-zIIA
Watch video, read lyrics, and answer 3
questions afterwards.
Three questions:
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3.
What are your reactions (feelings and thoughts) to
the video and song?
Read the lyrics slowly and then discuss what the
key message is.
The songwriter uses the image of a hole in a bucket
to describe the problem. Do you think this is a good
image? Could you come up with any other images
that would also describe the situation?
NCCA Key skill:
Critical and creative thinking
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Examining patterns and relationships, classifying and ordering
information
Analysing and making good arguments, challenging
assumptions
Hypothesising and making predictions, examining evidence
and reaching conclusions
Identifying and analysing problems and decisions, exploring
options and alternatives, solving problems and evaluating
outcomes
Thinking imaginatively, actively seeking out new points of
view, problems and/or solutions, being innovative and taking
risks
Examples of using images :
Analysing Images
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To employ creative and critical thinking
From How The World Works 2, p 14
Organise students into groups of 3 or 4
Assign roles: time-keeper, facilitator,
recorder, person who feeds back.
Some great extension activities in the
book.
Analysing Images
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Groups have fifteen minutes to discuss four
images (just under four minutes per image)
In a classroom, you would distribute hard
copies and allow plenty of time.
Discuss the images:
 Record what you can see and what you
can tell from the images provided
 Record what you don’t know and can’t tell
from the images
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Harvest Feedback
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Teacher harvests the conversation…
Don’t forget you can use The Problem
Tree, or the No Easy Answers sheet
to structure the outcomes of the
discussion.
Image 1
A beach at near Ashqelon in Southern Israel. Ashqelon is believed to be the
birthplace of Herod the Great.
Image 2
A woman works in a garments factory in Bangladesh.
Image 3
Pupils from Langat Road primary school run past riot police as they try to reclaim
their playground in Nairobi, Kenya. (The Guardian)
Image 4
Palestinians ride on a donkey cart after receiving food supplies from the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) headquarters at the Shati refugee camp in Gaza May 5, 2008.
Progression of activity:
Compass Rose
Compass Rose; using images
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is used to raise questions about development issues
and their interrelationship with environmental, social,
economic and political issues, as well as the
relationship between these dimensions
is particularly useful for helping us to focus on the
commonality between what can appear to be quite
different situations
can be used to help enquiry about places, issues, or
photographs representing a place or situation
Compass Rose; using images
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You can place an image or an ‘issue’ in the centre of
the ‘compass’.
Questions can be generated for each of the four
‘compass points’.
These could then be compared with questions
generated about an apparently different situation,
and the commonalities between them then explored.
Helpful in analysing power.
Compass Rose using images
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Who decides? These are questions about power, who makes
choices and decides what is to happen, who benefits and loses
as a result of these decisions and at what cost.
Natural These are questions about the environment - energy,
air, water, soil, living things and their relationships to each
other. These questions are also about the built as well as the
‘natural’ environment.
Social These are questions about people, their relationships,
their traditions, culture and the way they live. They include
questions about how, for example, gender, race, dis- ability,
class and age affect social relationships.
Economic These are questions about money, trading, aid,
ownership, buying and selling.
How did that go?
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How do you feel about this method?
Would you use it yourself?
If you feel there are issues with it, is
there a way you could make it work?
Tips for successful group work
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Agree ground rules / group agreement
Set clear tasks – provide ‘structure and guidance’
Avoid friendship groups and keep groups small
Ensure everyone has a role (no passengers)
Create positive interdependence – mutual goals,
shared resources, complementary roles, shared
product/grade
Allow time for group processing of both the task and
process
Create a classroom culture in which students feel that
everyone has something to contribute.
See handouts or more help in organising group work and
www.co-operation.org and www.action.ncca.ie (key skills toolkit)
Your role
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2.
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4.
Decisions – size of group, roles, arranging room,
planning materials
Setting task – explaining the task, explaining criteria
for success, reminding groups of desired
behaviours/ground rules
Monitoring and intervening
Evaluating and processing feedback on the students’
learning and giving them positive feedback
Some strategies
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To begin with – keep it simple
Use strategies such as
 Read and explain pairs
 Think-pair-share
 Think- pair-square
Examples of using text
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Read and explain in pairs
Placemat activity
Compass Rose using text
Split into groups of four
Assign roles
In twos, read and explain/discuss article
Placemat Activity; using text
In groups of 4 work on creating a
Placemat
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Set ‘higher order’ question to consider.
Based on reading provided:
What is unfair about the debt crisis?
Or, based on a general topic:
Why is there so much poverty in the world?
 Adapt the difficulty of the question according
to junior cycle / senior cycle.
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Placemat activity; using text
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Assign roles: Facilitator, time-keeper,
person who feeds back, what other
roles can you think of?
5 minutes; write / doodle your own
thoughts in the box
Return to group discussion, share ideas
Agree on top 3 findings / thoughts
All groups feed back their top 3 things
Compass Rose; using text
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Fintan O’Toole article
Who decides? (Power and control)
Natural (Environment and resources)
Social (People, relationships, history,
culture, community…)
Economic (Finance, debt, trade,
national budget, profits…)
How did that go?
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How do you feel about this method?
Would you use it yourself?
If you feel there are issues with it, is
there a way you could make it work?
More advanced:
Jigsaw learning
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Jigsaw groups is another good cooperative learning
methodology.
A different topic related to the same theme is given
to 4 or 5 groups. Each group must study their topic
and prepare to ‘teach’ it to the other groups.
When they are ready, the groups are re-organised
so that there is ‘an expert’ from each of the different
topics in each new group.
Within their new groups they each take turns
teaching their topic.
Also take feedback at the ned of an activity and
encourage discussion amonst the class.
Jigsaw Technique
Step 1: Students are arranged into
groups. Students must be
competent in the subject matter
before they move on to step 2.
Step 2: Rearrange groups.
Students ‘teach’ their area of
expertise to the rest of the
group.
Tips on dealing with controversial
issues
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Make the classroom a safe place to ask questions and
discuss ideas (e.g. agree values and ground rules)
Sometimes useful to find out what students already
think or feel about an issue before opening up a
discussion
Expose students to multiple perspectives
Promote critical thinking – questioning and probing
without fear
Teach the skills needed for dialogue and active
listening
Model respect and fairness; know when not to share
your own opinion on an emotive or controversial
issue
Full list of activities and tools we
discussed today
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Group Agreement
No Easy Answers
Problem Tree
Diamond Ranking / Moving Debate
Money Money Money (using a video)
Analysing Images
Compass Rose (using image and text)
Placemat Activity
Jigsaw Activity
Final thoughts
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What kind of classroom do you want to
have?
Are students active in their learning and
discussing real-world problems?
Evaluation
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Something that challenged my thinking
One practical idea I’ll try out with my
students
Suggestions for how the session could
be improved
Useful tools and links
DDCI :How the world works 2, and other resources
www.debtireland.org
NCCA: Key Skills Project; Teacher Reflection Sheets
www.ncca.ie
Palestine and Israel – How will there be a just peace?
Developmenteducation.ie
http://www.developmenteducation.ie/resources/conflict-and-peace/palestine-and-israel-howwill-there-be-a-just-peace-a-citizenship-education-resource-for-transition-year-and-keystage-4.html
www.juniorcycle.ie
[email protected]
Email me if you have any questions!
Thank you
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