Duration: 40 minutes
SPIRIT Skills:
- Critical thinking
Brief Description:
The teacher shows pictures of the street in which the school is located (or surrounding streets) but does not say so. Students figure out for themselves that it is the school’s street. Then pictures of a park near the school are shown.
- Students will react enthusiastically because they recognise these places.
- Students may already tell what they do in these places and what they recognise.
We are going to look at these 2 places (landscapes) in more detail so that you learn the name of everything you see here.
- students are given several photos and cards with certain names on them (e.g. A row house)
- students must divide the photos into 2 groups (the street and the park) and put the corresponding name in the right place on the photo.
Based on what the pupils have classified, a short teaching-learning discussion follows. A blackboard diagram is drawn up making clear the difference between the two landscapes (and landscape elements).
We classify to 2 categories
- the street
- the park
The teacher introduces the concepts of landscape, landscape elements, etc.
This is followed by a final control phase:
students are shown 4 landscape pictures and must think “critically” whether they are correct or not. E.g. In a busy street, there is a swing in the middle: So, this is not possible? (Note: the “wrong” landscapes were created with ChatGPT)
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills
Critical thinking becomes very dominantly addressed at this stage. By moving from open-ended questions to criteria and classification, we come to the necessary conclusions. This stage develops critical thinking, problem-solving, and curiosity and openness by requiring students to separate what appears to be real from what is impossible, and to gather even basic information in order to make these decisions. Facts are established which in turn form a basis for new “proper” critical thinking. In order to ensure that this development is truly effective, teachers need to ask guiding questions and prepare lessons that revolve around “Why?” and “How?” and connect visual illusions with reality.
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
- students can use simple landscape elements to describe a specific landscape.
Materials and tools needed for implementation
- pictures of 2 types of landscapes near the school, PowerPoint, blackboard diagram
Preparation notes
- group students into duo’s, make a critical selection of pictures to be discussed.
Guided Questions
At this stage, questions should focus on helping children justify their decisions. Here are some examples of more specific guiding questions:
- Imagine you’re standing here in this picture! What would you most like to do here: run around and play, or look around very carefully to make sure no car is coming?
- I can see you’re all thinking about whether that object fits into the picture. Now let’s play a game of detective! Find the thing in the picture that wasn’t grown by nature but was made by humans, maybe so they’d have a place to live or play!
- When you look at the pictures, what things (elements of the landscape) do you see on every street that aren’t there in the park?
- Can a building to live in stand in a park? Do you think we could build a real house right in the middle of the park? Why or why not?
- Does a swing stand in the middle of the street? Do you ever see a swing in the middle of the street in real life? Do you think we could put a playground where cars drive? What do you think why not?
- Do you see footpaths in a park? why yes/why not?
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
To strengthen reasoning-based problem-solving and critical thinking:
- When you sorted the pictures into “street” and “park” groups, was there an object that made you think it would fit in both places (like a bench or a tree)? How is a bench on the street different from a bench in the park?
- We saw a picture with a “mistake” where there was a swing in the middle of a busy road.
- If you were the urban planner, how would you explain why this scene isn’t just “strange,” but dangerous and “impossible”?
- What criteria would you use to decide whether a completely new object belongs on the street or in a park? What do you think, what is the most important factor to consider when designing parks?
Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- the terminology should be adapted to the student’s language level. E.g. the choice of the term ‘plants’ over ‘vegetation’.
- give enough preference to open-ended questioning, students come to the necessary criteria, but ask through instead of giving the answer themselves
- give students enough opportunity and time to come up with answers
- let them observe in a focused way and name what else can be seen beyond what we observe first.