Lesson 4: Human rights alive!
Living Democracy » Textbooks » Growing up in democracy » UNIT 8: Rights and freedom – My rights – your rights » Lesson 4: Human rights alive!Presenting and discussing the results of the survey
| Learning objectives | The students become aware of how differently people value individual human rights by presenting the results of their survey. They reflect on their own learning processes and thus enable the transfer of knowledge and competences. |
| Student tasks | The students present and discuss the results of their survey. They reflect on the entire learning process. |
| Resources | A4 notepaper. |
| Methods | Group discussion, plenary discussion. |
Information boxA discussion (an exchange of arguments, from the Latin, discussio, i.e. argument) is a specific form of verbal communication between two or more persons in which one or several issues are addressed – i.e. discussed – with each side presenting their arguments. A discussion should be held in a spirit of mutual respect. A good style of discussion requires the speakers to allow, and even encourage views and opinions other than their own to be expressed, considering them carefully instead of rashly rejecting them. Personal qualities such as serenity, composure, and politeness will work to the advantage of both sides. In the best of all cases, a discussion will lead to the solution of a problem or a compromise that everyone involved can accept. In modern societies, discussions are a civilised, that is, a non-violent means of handling controversy and dealing with conflicts of interests and objectives. Conflicts are not suppressed, but solved. By learning and practising their discussion skills, students learn a basic element of building and maintaining peace in society. |
Lesson description
The students should present the results of their survey about attitudes, knowledge and implementation of human rights. It will not be possible to present all the results in one lesson. Instead, the class should be divided into three groups, with each group presenting their joint results.
Only general impressions can be carried over into the plenary session, which will be the basis for the final discussion.
It is recommended that every student should make notes on a piece of paper about what they found most surprising, most satisfying and most annoying about the survey.
These notes should be written in such a way that they can be laid out or hung up in the classroom.
| In our country there are still a lot of violations of human rights |
| I was surprised that many people wanted to answer the questions. |
| Specifics about human rights are not usually known. |
It is important for the final discussion that the teacher does not conclude at this point that the students now know everything about human rights. This was only a first analysis of and an approach to human rights. The students should be motivated and eager to continue to think about human rights and to maintain a critical stance. The teacher might consider encouraging motivated students to learn more about human rights by studying the work of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, or human rights groups such as Amnesty International.
All key sentences from the results of the survey should be laid out or hung up in the classroom and the students should read them quietly. A discussion should then take place that can be divided into questions and comments regarding the following:
- learning processes;
- new knowledge;
- experiences during the interviews;
- ideas on how to continue working on the topic of human rights as a class or as an individual.
At this point, it would make sense if everybody involved (the teacher, students and the whole school) understands how work on this topic could be continued in the future. The topic of human rights should always be of interest for human beings – it is not just a topic that can be viewed as having been “ticked off” of a list of things to learn.
