the Learning Centre for education and values

Lesson plans database

A series of lesson plans which explore ways to introduce the themes of story, trust, power and success as a means of developing citizenship education. Although these have not specifically been designed to match the Citizenship SOW units at KS3, the links are identified. These lesson plans come with most of the information resources you need for each lesson.

Lesson plans - Citizenship. We offer 25 lesson plans for year groups 7-11 covering themes such as Fair Trade, How society works (co-operation and trust), Cultural difference, The impact of the media.

Lesson plans - RE. We offer eight lesson plans for year groups 7, 8 and 11 covering themes such as Christian Ethics, Prayer.

Lesson plans - PSHE. We offer three lesson plans for year group 9 dealing with the theme of stereotyping.

DFES Standards website

These links are to the QCA's citizenship Schemes of Work units found on the DFES Standards Site:

• Key Stages 1 and 2 SOW and Teacher's Guide
• Key Stage 3 SOW and Teacher's Guide
• Key Stage 4 SOW and Teacher's Guide

NB Some of the most useful documents such as the Teachers' Guides and Exemplar Units are available in both Microsoft Word format or PDF format.

Citizenship education is dynamic, interactive and engages with real life issues

Learning that focuses on core values in the curriculum requires a dynamic and dialogical approach to teaching, which honours the experiences and narratives that teachers and learners bring to the classroom. It will invite personal change and growth based on the development of reflective self awareness. Citizenship education is:

• dynamic and interactive
• encouraging personal enquiry and challenge
• utilising the teacher's and learners' own life experience and current knowledge
• reflective and building self-awareness.

Story is an essential tool for values education

Both individuals and communities construct stories as a primary means of understanding and negotiating their lives. Key characteristics of stories can be summarised as follows:

• the use of story in making sense of human experience
• the construction of meaning and purpose for our lives
• stories giving us reason for action
• stories are built on an underlying structure of beliefs and commitments
• the use and abuse of story in building community identity
• the importance of our own story in rendering self-identity
• hearing the stories of others is a means of negotiating truth and right
• hearing the stories of others is a means of negotiating the values that others hold

There are different ways of 'knowing' that are important for values education

Human communities develop knowledge in different ways. Scientific knowledge is perhaps the most valued form of knowledge in western society, but it is not the only 'way of knowing' that shapes social life. Narratives are a particularly important means through which we seek the truth about human behaviour. So narrative ways of knowing contribute significantly to what communities value and hold to be true, and to personal and social development over time.

These are ways of knowing that are fuelled by the desire to be fully human, to reach one's full potential, to have an impact on the world. Any contemporary issue to be addressed in values education - whether it is to do with genetically modified foods, drug abuse or race riots - can be viewed from these different perspectives.

Social systems are systems of trust

As social animals, human beings are committed to strategies of co-operation. On a purely pragmatic basis co-operation can be conceptualised simply as a means of obtaining goods that would not be accessible to the individual alone. The tension implicit in this understanding of ourselves as 'individuals in relationship' may be a fundamental driver of human cultural development.

Without trust, personal, social and political relationships will break down. Trust is built through our earliest relationships and can be a fragile commodity requiring careful nurture.

Power, motivation and emancipation are central themes for values education

All communities establish some form of power hierarchy which helps to resolve the tension between the individual and the communal. How those power structures are negotiated and held is a critical theme for values education.

Healthy social and political systems allow and value the voice of the marginalised. Political development and micro-political development occurs by means of a fundamental tension between upholding the social order and allowing challenge and change.

The search for success is a key driver of human activity

One fundamental driver of human behaviour is the search for success, but a special characteristic of the human condition is to be able to ask questions about what success really is.

How an individual or a community defines success will indicate what it is that is really valued. It will give some indication of their ultimate concerns and spirituality.

Problematising an issue for values education

Contemporary issues to be addressed within your schemes of work or programmes of study can be considered in the light of four themes:

• the core values which you think are relevant to an understanding of this issues
• what do you think are the 'power issues' at stake here?
• how might trust be necessary to reach a solution?
• what might be the hall mark of success for the lives of those involved?

and the three stories being told in the media about this issue:

• the scientific story
• the political stories being told, including the personal stories of people involved and the other interests being represented
• the business or economic stories being told.

Interactive Task 1

You could use this interactive template to record your thoughts on a contemporary issue addressed in one of the DfES Citizenship Schemes of Work units.

Useful questions for encouraging thinking about citizenship can be found on page 46 of Planning an enquiry into a topical issue (appendix 8 of the Teacher's Guide to the QCA/DFES SOW for KS3). Information about the Teacher's Guide itself is available on the Government's Standards website.

Interactive Task 2

Narrative enquiry

This exercise is designed to help you imagine the multiple stories which are involved in any one particular issue for values education.

Take a recent high profile event reported in the news or an issue addressed in CE, PSHE or RE. It can be a positive event, like a sporting event, or an event of conflict.

Firstly brainstorm a list of (imaginary) people involved in that event, including insiders and outsiders, commentators, victims and supporters.

Then imagine you are each of these people. Imagine what it might feel like to experience the event from their perspective - imagine the feelings and the beliefs that person may experience.

Then see if you can tell the story from the perspective of that person. Write a short paragraph which tells the story of the event from that persons perspective.

How different are those stories? Where there is conflict resulting from different stories, what do you think might be a way to resolve that conflict? Does this link up to any of your school community's core values? Where does forgiveness and reconciliation come in?

Interactive Task 3

Listening to the voice of the other

It is often difficult to listen to the experiences of another person and to simply accept their thoughts and feelings, rather than to try to re-define what they say, or to tell them what they ought to think and feel. This is especially true when those experiences are painful ones, which challenge us personally or challenge our social systems in some way.

This exercise requires you to find a friend or a colleague you trust. Ask them to tell you about something good that has happened to them recently. When they have finished, see if you can reflect back to them what they said. Include the feelings, the thoughts and the actions they described. Ask them how accurately you were able to listen!

Try this again with your colleague telling you about something painful, if there is sufficient trust between you to do this.

Next time you have to listen to the voice of a student in a situation of conflict, see if you can accurately reflect back to them their thoughts and feelings before you get on to examining consequences and outcomes.