Open Classroom Communication and the Learning of Citizenship

ValuesThe information contained at this presentation was taken from English Teaching Forum 4, 2007. It was written by

Abderrahim El Karfa , Morocco. Created by Tatiana Sorto only with Educational Purposes. Images taken from Google.com

According to the article Open Classroom Communication and the Learning of Citizenship Values, written by Abderrahim El Karfa.

There are two objectives related with the responsibility of the citizens who are able to decide for themselves about personal and public issues, which are non-formal and formal education.

This link between learning and citizenship involves language education and English as Foreign Language.

Professionals in this field are responsible to find out the best way to develop responsible and conscious citizens.

Principles of a Civic Education:

The educational content must be selected. The civic education values in the

language classroom are an excellent way to promote the use of them outside

of the classroom. Topics must be related with citizenship and human rights,gender, social aspects and cultural differences.

Teacher and the Student role:

Teachers have to create an environment that is handling by the participation of the students in the learning process. So, the learners should contribute to create a cooperative relationship. Besides that this environment must encourage students to use participatory and intellectual skills.

Classroom activitiesThe activities in the classroom must allow the exchange of

ideas with one another. Also, to encourage students to express their opinions, and

develop learning strategies so they can have an agreement in order to negotiate.

The implementations of the group activities help create a stress free and motivated atmosphere.

There are some activities like role plays, opinion gap activities or information gap activities.

Teacher as a Motivator

The teacher needs to motivate students in order to create a positive environment, where learners will be engaged in civic educational experiences. The students will feel comfortable, so the chances to have more opportunities for the students to participate are going to increase.

The knowledge of how, why and what of civic education requires professional preparation from the teacher.

To concentrate on the student’s personal development requires experience and knowledge from different areas such as: education and psychology.

It is important for every teacher to take the responsibility of researching how he is going to introduce the changes that will give the students the opportunity to grow and be better citizens.

This knowledge will help the teacher filling the student’s needs and also their expectations

Teacher Education

Conclusion

We as teachers have a very important role, which is related with our students learning, but also the whole society will be impact through our desire of being different from others , we have the ability to change a life, it does not matter where the student come from. It is essential for us to search for new ways of teaching or how to implement the use of civic values inside of our classrooms. It is a must to make a difference nowadays, showing to the world that there are people around the globe trying to be unique.