M3 – Globalisation and Citizenship – Torbjorn´s lessons

In week 12 and 13 (+week 8) we had mostly lessons of Module 3 - GLOBALISATION AND CITIZENSHIP.
On Tuesday 17th we discussed what democracy is. We also spoke lot about tolerance and freedom and where the boarder, the limit of freedom is. We come into the topic of the controversial cartoons (depicting Muslim prorogues etc. - see e.g. http://www.cynical-c.com/archives/bloggraphics/JP-011005-Muhammed-Westerga.jpg) and spoke about Durban II…Really interesting! And for sure those cartoons became a part of Danish culture and history and it was good to speak and learn more about it…

On Thursday 19th we dealt with how to LEARN DEMOCRACY. We worked in groups and we were made “theories” and “signs”. Then we introduced all of our ideas (we filled all the blackboards in the classroom - so many thought we had had :)).
And then we tried to use constructive critics to find and discuss weak points of these ideas and find a way how to deal with these weak sides or in which situations is better to use another approach. I found that making a really good and useful “constructive critics” without any pressure is very difficult.
Some good ideas from the lesson – how to teach and learn democracy:
- to make common decisions (e.g. eat and drink in the lesson?, using the mobile phone? – either no one or the teacher too)
- don’t compare students too much
- not too hard punishments
- integration
- evaluation by both teacher and students
- feedback
I found the lesson very interesting and practical.

On Wednesday 25th we watched some parts of films on YouTube connected with learning democracy which we prepared (e.g. Take the Lead, Dead Poets Society, Freedom Writers or Dangerous Minds…). I am sure I will watch some of them. Then Torbjorn introduced us to a non-violent communication theory by Marshall Rosenberg – the language of giraffe and jackal (NEEDS x judgements, analysis and diagnosing). That was very interesting and in my opinion really useful in everyone’s life. It made me thinking about many situations in my life and many mistakes of people’s communication. A lot more to learn!

What I really liked about Torbjorn´s lessons was that they “opened me another door”, they brought me some questions, they made me thinking…