D@dalos - Teaching Politics / Political Education

Teaching Politics

The fourth and last step in the process of creating a teaching unit is to plan the course of lessons. It is usual practice to make a distinction between the following teaching phases:
- Introduction
- Information
- Application
- Problematisation

The following illustration highlights the most important component parts of these phases:

Summary: Putting together a teaching unit

To finish this basic course, we would like to provide a summary of the most important aspects involved in putting together a teaching unit in political education. This series of basic courses has been designed to suggest a four-part approach to the problem which begins with becoming acquainted with the subject. An analysis scheme that formulates the key questions based on the three dimensions of politics can be very helpful in this regard (see the checklist in basic course 2). Carefully working one's way into the subject forms the conditio sine qua non of successful political education.

The second step involves choosing a teaching perspective. This can only be done in a meaningful way when the essence of the subject has been penetrated. Only then are teachers in a position to distil from the amount of subject matter available a perspective that is capable of opening the door to the subject for pupils. The teaching perspective forms a link between the content and the objective - it provides an answer to the following two questions: What do I want to achieve with the pupils? Where should I place the emphasis? It is also important to bear the following points in mind when choosing the teaching perspective:

	It has to relate to a politically central aspect of the issue or problem.
	It has to be acceptable in political science terms: If it's a controversial issue for political science, it has to be controversial in the classroom.
	While the special aims of the teaching unit are important, it's also essential to take overriding political education objectives into account (such as getting students interested in politics, empowering them with the ability to make their own analysis etc.).
	The teaching perspective has to be open and provide for a wide range of opinions.
	The categories known to political science as "concernment" and "significance" can be used to make choosing a teaching perspective easier; they help in reducing the distance between the pupils and the issue and, indeed, politics in general.

The third step addresses the subject of formulating a theme - as a way of sharpening and reformulating the teaching perspective that has been chosen in a way that is suitable for schools, while making sure that the two correspond. The theme should be problem orientated and open; it is often formulated as a question or comparison between thesis and antithesis. Within the scope of these objectives, the theme should also motivate, create interest or provoke.

The fourth and last step in the approach suggested here is planning the course of lessons. We have put together an illustration that summarizes the planning questions and it is important to take these into account (go to "planning questions" illustration"). The following illustration highlights the four steps in our approach using a teaching unit on the subject of globalization as an example:

[Author: Ragnar Müller]

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Subjects: Human Rights  I Examples I Democracy I Parties I Europe I  Globalisation I United Nations I Sustainability

Methods:    Teaching Politics    II    Peace Education    II    Methods

This online service on the subject of political education was developed by agora-wissen, the Stuttgart-based Gesellschaft für Wissensvermittlung über neue Medien und politische Bildung (GbR) (Partnership for the Exchange of Information Using New Media and Political Education). Please contact us with your questions or comments. Translation from German into English by twigg's Übersetzung deutsch-englisch.