Our very first values module workshop took me by surprise. Following our lecture on Bias that morning it never clicked with me that our workshop would be set up the way it was.
Upon entering the classroom our lecturer split us into groups which immediately brought us all out of our comfort zone, but this was important. We were given an envelope with different materials inside and were told that in our groups we were to brainstorm and come up with a resource that a new student at the university would find handy. Opening up the envelope we saw that we had been given loads of sheets of paper, paper clips, pens, a rubber, post-its and blu tac. Straight away, we were all a bit thrown – what could we make that a student would actually find useful out of this? Nevertheless we all began to give different thoughts and we soon came up with a “Student Handbook”. This idea came about as when we all first moved in, our rooms had loads of different sheets of paper: a welcome letter, dominoes vouchers, nightclub flyers etc. So we decided as a group that we would try to improve on what we were given. This included coming up with different things that we could add, a map of Dundee – which would point out key places such as Post Boxes – a bus timetable, a calendar of events, a daily checklist, a personalised timetable, and even information on how to get the best out of your Student Discount – very important, I know. We were all very enthusiastic about this task and our lecturer seemed pleased with our ideas.
I was thoroughly enjoying myself throughout this activity, so much so that I was completely oblivious to groups 3 and 4 and the dirty looks they were receiving from the lecturer. It all came to the light when we were to present the things we had made to the rest of the class. Group 1 went first and I noticed that they had slightly more materials than we had, although I never thought much of this. They had done really well and the lecturer was very impressed, scoring them 9/10. Our group came next and again he seemed happy with the effort we had made, scoring us 7/10. Then came group 3 – they had received very little materials but had still came up with a good idea. The lecturer seemed uninterested and asked “is that it?” and scored them 4/10. HARSH! Finally, it came to group 4. This is when everyone seemed to click about what was going on – an act. Group 4 had only been given a pencil, a post-it note and some paper clips.
Once we had all been scored our lecturer explained to us that this had all been an act and it really made us all think. Both groups 1 and 2 were favoured over 3 and 4. We had been given more materials which meant we could make something a lot better than the others could. It now seemed obvious that this was something to think about and an important lesson for us teachers in training.
Since this workshop I have read up on ‘The Standard for Provisional Registration’ – “Respecting the rights of all learners as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and their entitlement to be included in decisions regarding their learning experiences and have all aspects of their well-being developed and supported.” (MA Programme Handbook. It is important to ensure that every individual in the classes we teach in the future are all given the same equal opportunities. No matter what background they come from or how able they are, we have to ensure that we treat every child with the same warming and kind attitude.
