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Citizenship at key stage 3 (Year 7-9)
Unit 20: What's in the public interest?
Section 2: What points of view are there about the issue, and why?
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Objectives |
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- to identify appropriate questions and possible sources of information
- that understanding contemporary events requires some knowledge of their political, social and economic context
- to appreciate diversity and see events from other people's points of view
- about the different rights and responsibilities involved in the issues and the importance of resolving conflict fairly
- about the importance of the media in society
- to use appropriate reading strategies to gather and synthesise information (NSE)
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Activities |
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Outcomes |
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Children: |
- Ask the class collectively to list the parties affected by the issue, eg for foot and mouth disease: farmers, the food industry, the rural tourism industry, the government, expert veterinary advisers, consumers.
- In small groups, pupils explore a few websites, with tasks such as the following:
- Work out the viewpoint of each of the affected parties and write it down. For example, are people's lives or employment directly affected? How?
- Does the issue have political, social and/or economic dimensions?
- How has the issue been portrayed in the press and on TV? Has this influenced public opinion and political response, eg the images of pyres of burning carcasses for foot and mouth disease?
- Develop the ethical dimension: encourage pupils to consider both individual and community points of view, and what they consider as right and wrong actions in this case
- Ask pupils to identify rights and responsibilities, eg the right to individual choice as against the responsibility not to endanger the health of others
- Debrief using feedback from the tasks, reviewing the main points first. Then ask the class whether the differing viewpoints might be reconciled and, if so, how.
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- know and describe the key points of the issue they are investigating
- analyse key points and pose relevant questions
- understand the need to balance the competing rights and responsibilities of those affected to resolve conflict fairly
- recognise the role of the media and its effect on public opinion
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Points to note |
- Websites are likely to provide the most up-to-date information about a topical issue, but be careful that they do not draw pupils' attention away from citizenship issues.
- An alternative approach at this stage would be to organise a role-play. Several pupils could each be briefed about a viewpoint and its associated technical knowledge. There would still be a need for debriefing afterwards.
- Another alternative would be to invite a visitor, eg a local councillor, a representative from a voluntary agency or a local health education unit, to speak briefly about the issue and answer pupil questions. This will need careful preparation with the visitor.
- This section links with unit 9 'The significance of the media in society'. It may be sufficient to work from a selection of media headlines, or from information leaflets published by parties to the debate.
- Link with NSE: year 7 R2, year 8 R2, year 9 R2.
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This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of
activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by
moving through the sections or print/download the whole unit.
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