Lesson 2: What goals do we want to promote?
Living Democracy » Textbooks » Lesson 2: What goals do we want to promote?The students establish political parties
| This matrix sums up the information a teacher needs to plan and deliver the lesson. Competence training refers directly to EDC/HRE. The learning objective indicates what students know and understand. The student task(s), together with the method, form the core element of the learning process. The materials checklist supports lesson preparation. The time budget gives a rough guideline for the teacher’s time management. |
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| Competence training | Participation: Negotiating – balancing insistence on one’s own goals, and the acknowledgement of the others’ goals. |
| Learning objective | Political parties generate the power necessary to promote political goals. They do so by aggregating the individual members’ views and interests, and who are therefore required to compromise. |
| Student tasks | The students negotiate a shared agenda of political priorities. They present their party profiles in a publicity event. |
| Materials and Resources | Student handouts 3.1-3.4. Materials for teachers 3B. |
| Method | Group work, plenary presentations, lecture. |
| Time budget | Stage 1: The students define the profiles of their parties. (15 min) |
| Stage 2: Publicity event: the parties present their profiles. (10 min) | |
| Stage 3: The teacher introduces the constructivist concept of the common good. (5 min) | |
| Stage 4: The students discuss their negotiation strategies. (10 min) | |
Information boxThe students are given most of the lesson for their activities and should complete them within in a tight time schedule (see student handout 3.1). The teacher gives a brief lecture that offers the students a new perspective on their current experience. The teacher addresses a lot that students already know, and introduces the key concepts of this unit – diversity, pluralism, the common good. Through this interplay of constructivist learning, instruction, and a new phase of constructivist learning, the concepts are meaningful for the students, as they help the students to understand the situation they are in. |
Lesson description
The teacher refers to the agenda of the lesson (student handout 3.1). The parties adopt their position in the “political landscape” – literally taking their seats there – and work out their profiles. The publicity event will help everyone to define their position – in co-operation or in confrontation with other parties.
Stage 1: The students define their parties’ profiles and agendas
Step 1.1: The students identify their position in the “political landscape”
The students who had clustered their policy statements in the previous lesson should now decide where their position is in the “political landscape”. They mark their position with their desks and chairs. Their position could be in one corner, or anywhere in between. In this way the space between the parties indicates, in a very literal sense, which parties are closer to or in opposition with each other. The closer two parties are, the better their chances will be to form a coalition with common goals.
The students who have chosen not to join a party gather in a free area, preferably in the middle of the room. They share their views. If they wish, the teacher joins them as facilitator. He/she should not persuade them to join a parry, but listens to their questions and objections. The students decide whether and how to participate, not the teacher.
The parties should admit new members at any time, as in reality. Students also have the right to leave a party.
Step 2.2: The parties define their profiles
Guided by student handouts 3.2 and 3.3, the students work out their parties’ profiles. The teacher watches and listens, but does not intervene unless asked for support or in the case of serious problems.
Stage 2: Publicity event – the parties present their profiles
This is a publicity event for parties, not for individual students. This can be justified by the limited amount of time available. The parties aggregate individual viewpoints, which serves to reduce the diversity of individual opinions.
Each party has the same amount of time – 2 or 3 minutes, depending on the total number of parties. The teacher makes this clear to the students while they are preparing their presentation, and enforces this rule strictly – for obvious reasons of fairness.
As suggested in student handout 3.2, the speakers may be expected to appeal to those students who have not yet made their choice. Second, they may attempt to compete with the other parties. Flyers or posters can support the parties.
All students, whether party members or not, can decide to join or leave a party after the event.
Stage 3: The teacher gives an input for reflection: the common good
This input – a brief lecture supported by student handout 3.4 – serves to link the students’ experience with the key concepts of diversity and pluralism. By inserting the lecture into the context of experience and interaction that the students have created, interplay between constructivist learning and systematic Instruction takes place.
Materials for teachers 3B offers a draft outline for the lecture.
The students can ask for further clarification if necessary. Otherwise no discussion is necessary, as the students can think about this input in their further work.
Stage 4: The parties prepare their negotiation strategies
The teacher refers to the schedule (student handout 3.1). In the following lesson, the parties have the opportunity to negotiate with each other. Can they form an alliance, a coalition? There will be a round table session to give all parties and individual students the opportunity to negotiate their idea of the common good. In the last phase of this lesson, the students can prepare their strategies for the negotiations.
- What goals will they give priority?
- What party or parties do they want to approach in the first round of bilateral talks?
- How many delegations will the party set up?
The students resume their internal discussions in their parties. Unless they call the teacher for support, they work on their own.
