Knowledge - Explore & Become yourself

• Citizenship
• Higher Education (degree)

Explore & Be(come) Yourself

knowledge

The goal is to identify the knowledge and draw participants' attention to new knowledge. Together with the participants, the teacher makes an inventory of what knowledge is already available concerning the topic. Then the teacher examines which knowledge is extra necessary for the level and development of the participants at that time. The teacher can insert assignments from existing methods. In this way there is always an opportunity to connect to an existing module that is being used. 

If this does not play, you can choose material that provides the wanted knowledge for the participants but you can also give research assignments or come up with other activities for the participants to explore and acquire the missing knowledge. During this part of the learning process, you share as much responsibility with the participants as possible. Whenever you have the opportunity to transfer more responsibility to a participant you do so. Step by step the participants develop and can take more and more control of their own learning process.

What choices do you have to make?

• How to collect and map previous knowledge and awaken interest
   
• The kind of questions to use for the research on the subject

• Which materials to offer for research 
  

• The form intermittent presentations will have

Knowledge

Leftside of the trilogy

The exercises to enhance knowledge will take at least 60 minutes

The design of each assignment is limited by the time you have available.

The bare minimum:

To collect and map - minimum 5 min

Creating questions - minimum 5 min

Research - minimum 25 min

Presentations - 10 groups of 2 participants takes a minimum of 25 minutes 

Also possible is to schedule each assignment with more time and work really proces oriented, allowing the participants to take more time to create a more profound understanding.

You decide how to collect and map previous knowledge and awaken interest

Ask your participants what they know about a certain topic

Collect and map previous knowledge - about 5< minutes

Often overlooked in the teaching setting is giving space to knowledge that is already present in participants of the group. 

As a facilitator it is good to notice all the differences and put those differences to use for group learning. This means that you take into account which group can handle which level of assignment. Or you deliberately match participants in such a way that they can complement each other. It is important to create varied teams each time and train your participants to work with all members of the group over time. 

Choose any kind of mind-mapping form.

First have participants write down on a small piece of paper two to three ideas or words that are connected to the main theme in their own opinion. Then collect the pieces of paper and have the read out loud. This will ensure that all participants will participate and not only the ones that are more easy to join these kinds of assignments.

In the beginning if your participants have no experience with classroom participation you can also create teams and have them come up with suggestions as a team.

Or when participants are all familiar with classroom dynamics and participate the facilitator can create the mindmap allowing the participants to call out different words that they connect to the subject that will be studied. 

According to the level, the concentration and participation of the participants the facilitator can modify the way the mind map is created. 

If participants need more structure mind-maps can be made individually first. 

The kind of questions to use for the research on the subject

Collect the questions the participants have

The kind of questions to use for the research on the subject - 5< minutes

The most proces oriented way is to create teams and have each team come up with one or two question(s). The questions should be about what they would like to know about the subject or theme of the class.

As a facilitator you always can influence the proces by adding a few questions of your own. 

Or at times include questions available from text books or teaching modules on the theme. 

Once you have collected all the questions you and the participants group them and present them. Each team will work on a question or sometimes a few grouped questions related to the theme. That will ensure that all the aspects of a subject that are important for the class and the level of the participants will be reviewed.

It is a conscious decision to allow participants to practice asking questions as much as possible. Asking questions is part of inquiry. You can do research by asking yourself or others questions and looking for answers. Knowledge and experience provide insight into the topics the questions are about. Participants develop by wanting to know more and grow by increasing their knowledge.

Which materials to offer for research 

Text

• Decide which materials participants are going to consult

 

• Make a choice about the presentation instrument

Which materials to offer for research

25< minutes 

As a facilitator you decide what the resources can be available for the participants to use for finding the information on the subject or theme at hand. 

It can be as open as you want or it could be even restricted to one textbook, documentary or small instruction video. 

Participants could be looking up this information by themselves or the facilitator can provide the links, the books, magazines or titles and so on to use.

The choices the facilitator makes on the amount of resources, the way of conducting research and the way how to present the findings will affect the time that is necessary for this part of the proces.

Preparing the form to present the research; the found information on the posed questions. This might lead to new questions or areas of intrest for further research. The facilitator keeps a record of this and will use this information when deciding on a new subject or theme for a future class.

The presentations are often times digital using apps or facilities of Lesson Up. 

Present your findings

Intermittent presentation 

25< minutes

Each group will present a slide with their findings.

Presentations are organized and materials shared with all participants. This can be done in LessonUp via the photo question or a link in the open ended question

The facilitator can decide to quiz the participants to conclude this part.

Quiz

Quiz

Create the quiz based on the questions that were discussed in class.

Optional you can include questions that are part of the module that you already use regularly in class about the theme, Citzenship.

Explore & Be(come) Yourself

go to the next exercise