Democracy; what it is, how it works and why it matters
Teaching & Learning Package 1
A teaching resource from the Jean Monnet Teacher Education Project – University College Dublin, Ireland
ANNE O’BRIEN, UCD CONOR GALVIN, UCD
UNIT PLAN & ACTIVITIES
Start-Up
The key aim of this activity is to activate student’s thinking about Democracy and how they might define it.
Activity 1. What’s Democracy?
Students will try and reach a consensus on a one sentence definition of Democracy
Preparation for Activities: Teacher should have reflected on his/her definitions of Democracy in order to facilitate group conversation
A Note for a Teacher: Write the word “Democracy” on the whiteboard. If using technology put the word on a Padlet
Estimated Time: 10 mins
Citizenship Reference: 1.3; 2.3; 3.2; 3.3; 3.7; 4.2 and 4.3
Description
- Have students write what words they would associate with Democracy and try to write a one sentence definition of Democracy in under 5 minutes.
- Gather feedback from students and open-up discussion of what is Democracy and how could we define it. Students should be prepared to justify their opinion.
- Agree, as a class, the strongest words associated with Democracy and the sentence they best think describes it. That agreed sentence will be used in a later activity.
- Quick Shout -Out where do you see Democracy in action today?
Development
The key aim of this activity is to teach the Core Values of the EU and to establish a Democratic Classroom in order to simulate those values in the classroom. In groups, the students will be practicing the skills of consensus building that is found in the EU.
Activity 2.
EU Core Values: Understanding the importance of the founding principles of the EU
Preparation for Activities: Have the video link set up to watch.
A Note for a Teacher: [this field is filled with any extra instruction, if required. Can be erased]
Estimated Time: 15 mins
Citizenship Reference: 1.3; 2.3; 2.4; 3.2; 3.3; and 4.3
Description
- Quick list of 6 EU core Values on board: Human Dignity, Freedom, Democracy, Equality, Rule of Law and Human Rights show quick video on core EU values.
- In groups, have the students rank the values in the order of importance to them. They must be able, as a group, to have come to a consensus, be able to justify their opinion and the value of the ranking they have given it.
- Take the feedback from each group. They must be able, as a group, to have come to a consensus, be able to justify their opinion and the value of the ranking they have given it.
Activity 3.
Understanding Key terms related to Democracy and initiatives to promote greater Democracy
Preparation for Activities: Have copies of the Key Terms for students.
A Note for a Teacher: Key Term document should be distributed to the students.
Estimated Time: 15 mins
Citizenship Reference: 1.3; 2.3; 2.4; 3.2; 3.3; and 4.3
Description
- Teach the terms: Representative Democracy, Participatory Democracy, Deliberative Democracy, the Irish Citizen’s Assembly and the European Citizen’s Initiative. Give student the Key Term handout in advance.
- Does Ireland have a Representative or Participatory Democracy? Does the EU? Thumbs Up or Down Activity: Checking for understanding. Can the students successfully apply the terms taught to Ireland and to the EU?
Or is Ireland and the EU trying to attain both through Citizen’s Assembly and the European Citizen’s Initiative? Thumbs Up or Down Activity.
Consolidation
The key aim of this activity it to consolidate the student’s understanding of the core values of the EU, participatory and representative democracy by establishing their classroom along participatory democracy guidelines and integrating as many of the core values of the EU under the constraints of the wider educational structure found outside the classroom.
Activity 4. Establishing a Democratic Classroom: Putting what we’ve learned into practice
Preparation for Activities: Teacher will have watched the video and read the hand-out on Democratic classrooms Have a Y chart ready and also a sheet or Word Document on the screen
A Note for a Teacher: [this field is filled with any extra instruction, if required. Can be erased]
Estimated Time: 20 mins
Citizenship Reference: 4.1; 4.2;4.3;1.3;1.1;2.1;2.3;2.4;3.3;3.7 and 3.8
Description
- Using the Y chart ask students to describe what they think a Democratic classroom should Look like, Sound Like and Feel like.
- Are any of the word chosen similar or related to the 6 core values of the EU? Is our classroom participatory or representative democracy?
- Whole class discussion and reaching consensus
- Establishing the rules and behaviours of our own Democratic classroom.
- Question prompts: What would “teacher’s” role be? How is the class seating arranged? How do we decide when a consensus is reached? Majority rule? Is there the possibility to re-visit the agreement to modify it if we discover flaws on our system? How do we ensure that all voices are heard and opinions shared respectfully? How do we resolve differing opinions? What type of Democracy will we have?
- Do the rules for “our” Democracy reflect the sentence we agreed earlier was the best definition of Democracy?
Follow-Up
The key aim of the activity is to reflect on the learning and to decide what elements of all terminology and the core values of the EU has been included in our democratic classroom. This can be done independently as homework with further feedback and discussion in a later class. It can be done as a Google Doc so that teachers can see the feedback.
Preparation for Follow-up Activities: Instruct students how to access the Google Doc. This can be done at home on their phone or for students who do not have access to internet hard copies should be made available.
A Note for a Teacher: [this field is filled with any extra instruction, if required. Can be erased]
Activity 5. Reflection
This is directed at students to reflect on their learning and the democratic classroom they created. It will allow the teacher to check on knowledge, skills and attitudes
Description
- Show students the Google Doc and go through it with them to check for understanding of all questions.
- Assign the Google Doc making sure the students understand it is to reflect on the understanding of the terms learned in class and the democratic classroom they have established as a group.
- This also allows the teacher to check whether the majority has succeeded or whether minority voices have been “drowned out” or ignored by “bigger players”. If the latter is the case this offers the teacher to re-visit the classroom charter and explore how this can simulate how in the EU some smaller countries can sometimes feel their concerns are subordinate to the larger (louder) EU countries. The challenge for the teacher is to try and find a whole class resolution to the problem in a subsequent lesson. This would mimic what happens in the EU.
Disclaimer
This website reflects only the views of the authoring team. It does not represent the view of the European Commission, or its agencies, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
Call: ERASMUS-JMO-2021-OFET-TT
Project: 101048011