Activity Two

This activity is intended as an introduction to the key skills introduced in History 20.

Incorporating the C.E.L.s:

• Independent Learning
• Critical & Creative Thinking
• Personal & Social Values & Skills

Concept Development Lesson for:

• Problem Solving
• Dialectical Thinking
• Issues
• Metacognition
• Decision Making
• Consequences
• Conflict Resolution

This activity is intended to help students see that are a number of techniques that can be used to solve individual, group, and world problems or issues.

Knowledge Objectives

The student will:

• know that an issue is a situation, problem or question in which there is uncertainty and/or opposing viewpoints;
• know that controversy often surrounds an issue when there is uncertainty or opposing views about how and what to do to resolve the issue;
• know that metacognition is the ability to think about one's own thinking processes and decide which of the many different available strategies would be useful for solving a problem or dealing with an issue;
• know that different issues/problems will require different solution strategies;
• know that dialectical thinking involves the process of:
  • searching out in a case the conflicts, contrasts, contradictions, and the differences in the content; and,
  • finding the idea that unites them while keeping and using the tension between them.

Skills Development

The student will:

• practise the skill of brainstorming;
• practise using personal experience to gain an understanding of a concept;
• practise using the abilities of:
  • problem solving;
  • dialectical thinking;
  • decision making; and,
  • conflict resolution.

Values Issues

The student will:

• discuss how a person would/could go about handling situations that are frightening, frustrating, and unclear:
  • by relying on emotion?
  • by relying on reason?
  • by relying on power?
  • by relying on morality and ethics?

Outline of the Activity

Step One

In a class discussion, brainstorm a list of issues and problems that face people as individuals and as members of groups and societies.

• Indicate that in the previous activity they were investigating various techniques that could be used to deal with these problems and issues.
• A classification system is provided on the following Student Information Sheets to guide the brainstorming.

Once students have generated a list of problems and issues, develop with them a classification system. The attached Student Information Sheets could be used as a model classification system. Ask student groups of two or three to decide which approach or combination of approaches would be the best way to deal with some of the problems listed.

This information is intended to accompany Activity Two of the Unit One Curriculum Guide.

Problems and Issues Facing People as Individuals in Families and Marriage at Work in Society as Nations on a Global Basis

Examples that the Students Might Suggest: deciding on a career, making friends, finding a girl/boy friend, dealing with parents, employers, etc. sharing responsibilities and work, setting budgets, housekeeping, etc. sharing responsibilities, pay, working conditions, rewards, discipline, etc. rights (men's, women's, and children's), choices (environment, health care, education, etc.) prejudice, ethnic hatreds, disagreements about laws, etc. war, sharing resources, population growth, rich and poor nations, pollution, etc.

This information is intended to accompany Activity Two of the Unit One Curriculum Guide.

Problems/Issues Facing People	Ways of Dealing with Problems and Issues
	Problem Solving	Dialectical Thinking	Decision Making	Conflict Resolution
as Individuals career
parents
general attitudes
in Families and Marriages work
budgeting
talking to each other
at Work
in Society
as Nations
on a Global Basis

4. Have a class discussion on metacognition in which the students discuss among themselves how these techniques can be used to deal with some of the problems in their lives and in the society around them.

• The students might use a chart, similar to the following, to guide their thinking about their thinking:

Questioning Strategies For Metacognition

	Metacognitive Focus
Metacognitive Levels of Thinking	If You are Planning Your Thinking:	If You Are Checking Your Thinking:
Awareness	What kind of thinking does this call for?	What kind of thinking are you doing now?
Strategic	How will you do this kind of thinking?	How are you doing this kind of thinking?
Reflective	Is this the best way to handle this problem or issue?	Is the way I am thinking about this issue the best way to do it?

5. Another way of getting students to think about their thinking is to give them some situations to think about and to ask them to come to a conclusion about each of the situations. A possible situation appears below.

• On the news it said that someone at a hamburger outlet bought a box of money. What had happened was that the manager of the outlet was counting up the day's receipts. He put the money in a hamburger box while he went to do something else. Another employee, thinking it contained a hamburger, gave it to a customer. When she got into her car and opened the box, she discovered the money and no hamburger. Should she: complain about the poor quality of the hamburger and return the money or should she keep the money and buy some food somewhere else?
• Ask the students to select a thinking process and attempt to work their way through the dilemma above. Suggest to the students that they keep track of the way they think about the situation and be prepared to change from one model to another if it seems necessary.