Activity Eight

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

Incorporating the C.E.L.s:

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

Concept Application Lesson for:

• Issues
• Metacognition
• Dialectical Thinking
• Decision Making
• Policy Options

This concept application activity provides students with an opportunity to use the dialectical-thinking process in an historical situation. The activity also involves simulation activity and group work and the skills associated with these activities. The particular historical event coincides with the beginning of World War II.

Knowledge Objectives

The student will:

• know that nations, like individuals, are often faced with critical decisions and that the options for action are scrutinized in the decision-making process;
• know that both short-term and long-term consequences have to be considered in the decision-making process; and,
• know that protection of national self-interests are of critical importance to governments in arriving at policy decisions.

Skills Development

The student will:

• practise the skill of brainstorming;
• practise the skill and attitudes of cooperative group work;
• practise the abilities involved in dialectical reasoning;
• practise relating evidence and assumption to a line of argument and/or conclusions.

Values Issues

The student will:

• discuss how nations and their leaders should respond to situations which are unpredictable and may involve military actions:
  • by relying on emotion?
  • by relying on reason?
  • by relying on power?
  • by relying on morality and ethics?

Outline of the Activity:

Step One

Provide students with the dialectical thinking model (see the Student Information Sheet) and discuss the various steps.

• Perhaps working through a particular issue, as a class, would enhance the students' understanding of the process.

Step Two

Explain to students the political dispute between Germany and Poland over the city of Danzig and the Polish Corridor. Then have students do the following simulation activity.

• German forces have invaded Poland and Britain and France are presented with the question of honouring their commitment to defend Poland's territorial integrity and declare war on Germany.

• Note that each of the nations is faced with the immediate decision about whether to engage in a major war to preserve the territorial integrity of a rather distant nation, Poland.

Have student groups represent one of the following nations: Britain, France, or Canada.

• Within each group, there will be a group favouring the use of force to stop German aggression and a group that is not prepared to use military force.

The two sub-groups, within each larger group, will meet separately.

• Using the dialectical thinking model, each sub-group will write out the arguments for both the use of force and non-military options for dealing with the crisis.

The sub-groups, within each larger group, will meet together and compare notes to determine whether each side of the argument has been fairly and honestly recorded.

Indicate that each nation (larger group) now has to decide upon its course of action. It is unlikely that any new information will be advanced which could greatly change the situation.

Suggest to the students that, at this stage, they should concentrate on finding the "best" option rather than defending a "personal" option.

Have the groups meet together in a conference situation and present the positions of their respective nations. The purpose of the conference is to establish a common policy in regards to the German-Polish issue.

• Indicate that the time available to arrive at a decision is limited.