Ideas

IDEA #7: Talking Perspectives: Speaking in Tongues

“Bringing in a simple spatial difference helps [students] realize that different perspectives can be taken on the same material.”¹

Learning Intention

A major component of developing critical thinking skills is to recognize that diverse perspectives or lenses exist for explaining or examining the same information. The strategy uses physical movement from one space to another to illustrate the difference between perspectives and to show how the same concept can be explored or explained in different ways using different lenses.

Overview

Using various corners or locations around the classroom, post signs representing the diverse ideologies or viewpoints you would like students to understand. Begin in one station and explain the topic from the perspective of that position or stakeholder lens. As you intellectually move to another viewpoint, physically move to the new location. For example, you might label each wall of the classroom with a particular stakeholder or theoretical approach; explain the same concept from each position, highlighting the unique frameworks or perspectives that distinguish each position from the others.¹

Options

1. Switch hats or jackets as you move from one position to another to further illustrate the shift or distinction between perspectives.

2. Respond to student questions by going to two or three different stations to show how the different voices might answer the same inquiry.

3. Involve students in the shift between perspectives by breaking them into groups to gather at a designated station. Pose a question or raise an issue about the course content and ask the groups to consider, and then share, how they would respond within the framework of their station.

4. Consider questions or vocabulary from the various perspectives. Either model, or ask students to consider, how the various positions might use vocabulary differently or even ask different kinds of questions for different purposes.

References