Activity Three

This activity is to accompany Unit One of the Curriculum Guide.

Incorporating the C.E.L.s:

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

Concept Development Lesson for:

• Authoritarianism
• Equality
• Decision Making
• Leadership

This concept development activity provides students with an opportunity to investigate authoritarian and democratic leadership styles and to identify the critical attributes of each style. The activity also allows the students to use their personal backgrounds and experiences to develop the concepts.

Knowledge Objectives

The student will:

• know that different administrative styles are based in part on the perception of the people involved in the particular organization;
• know that the goals of an organization will influence the style of leadership, the decision-making process, and administrative structure of the organization;
• know that the authoritarian style of organization allows the traditional leaders to control the decision-making process; and,
• know that the democratic style of organization allows open debate and an attempt to reach consensus in the decision-making process.

Skills Development

The student will:

• review using information from their personal background as a source of data to develop concepts;
• learn to use analogies as a means of furthering their understanding of concepts;
• review using criteria as a basis for making evaluations; and,
• review classifying data using a grid so that relationships between data can be seen and interpreted.

Value Issues

The student will:

• discuss the basis on which one should attempt to make comparisons;
• discuss whether good leadership means empowering people to take charge of their lives so that they can create a better society; and,
• discuss how freedom and rights can be balanced against accountability and responsibility within a democratic society?

Outline of the Activity

Step One

Hold a discussion focusing on how the classroom should be administered. Suggest to the students that the classroom is a society in miniature.

• Have the students do a simple analogy in which they complete the statement - a school is most like a ....?
  • a prison
  • a job
  • a game
  • an army

List the student responses on the board and debate as to which comparison is the most accurate. Indicate that the comparisons could be tested in the following manner:

• Construct a simple grid on the board and list the critical attributes for each category:

  School Prison Job Game Army

• Identify critical attributes which are similar and those which differ.

In debating which of the comparisons above is the most accurate, students are being introduced to the skill of dialectical thinking. This skill will be further developed in this course.

Step Two

Ask the students to consider the qualities that make a prison so undesirable and whether there are similarities between those qualities and the qualities that sometimes make schools and jobs undesirable.

• Identify/list qualities that make life in these organizations (schools and jobs) desirable.
• Identify similarities with other institutions.

The class could use a grid to discuss why prisons are administered the way they are and to consider whether they are some similarities between the rationale for the way that prisons are administered and the way that other institutions are administered.

Discuss whether there are differences in the way organizations considered to be positive are administered and the way organizations considered to be negative are administered.

Step Three

Explain to students that there are two major categories of administrative philosophies:

Theory X which states:

• human beings, within organizations, are untrustworthy and lack motivation; therefore,
• therefore, management must control people by means of strong discipline, tough rules, dismissal/isolation, and/or fear.

Theory Y which states:

• human beings, within organizations, can be highly motivated, willing to learn and work, and can be trusted to contribute to the organization's objectives; therefore,
• management is willing to allow workers to participate in management by consulting them and giving them a role in problem solving and decision making.

Ask the students to construct a list of the qualities of a good manager (leader) and good workers/students (followers) which would lead to a satisfying and productive work life for everyone concerned.

Have student groups assume that they are the administrators of a school/classrooms and are responsible to students, parents and teachers to provide a school which delivers a quality education. Their group report should focus on the following issues:

• What would be their philosophy of administration be?
• What organization and rules would they establish?
• How would they motivate all the concerned parties (parents, students and teachers) to contribute to the purpose of the organization?

Step Four

Students could prepare, individually or in groups, reports focusing on the question:

• How can nations best be organized:
  • on an elitist, authoritarian basis? or,
  • on an egalitarian, democratic basis?

The students could use grids to aid in organization information.