Lesson 3: Applying the policy cycle model

Research task

This lesson is devoted to group work. The students work independently, and they are responsible for their work. They are therefore expected to collect all the information they need.

The teacher may choose to support the groups by supplying some sources of information, e.g. statistics, school textbooks, copies of the constitution, or access to the Internet.

The teacher watches the students at work; their strengths and weaknesses in working without the teacher’s guidance – as they will have to after leaving school – indicate their needs in skills training.

The teacher calls the students to attend a short debriefing round in the plenary session. The teacher and students plan the presentations in the following lesson; if a group has not finished, it is the students’ responsibility to find a solution to the problem.

First, the group should explain why they feel they are not “finished”. Do they have additional infor­mation they have not read yet? Or are they dissatisfied with the scarce amount of information that was available?

The most preferable option is to leave the problem as the group’s responsibility. This sounds tough, but it resembles reality in adult life. The learning opportunities for the students outweigh the faults in their presentation. A feedback after the four lessons is necessary, and sufficient time must be allowed for this. An alternative solution would be to give the students an additional lesson. This option is more suitable if the majority of the students have not finished their work.