Individual development of participants, while working in groups

[Boyd Roberts]

Individual development of participants, while working in groups

The IGC Award is being implemented in different ways and with different ages in centres. With older students it is possible and appropriate for the majority of activities undertaken to be initiated by the individual participants, rather than by the mentors. But with younger participants, activities initiated by the mentor and undertaken in groups may play an important part of the programme. But the Award is intended for individual students to recognise their own personal participation and development.

How can we ensure that taking part in a group action leads to personal development?

Simply taking part in an organised group activity does not mean that the individual student is developing. We need ways to encourage this personal, individual development, and to assess whether and how this is happening.

Two things are essential to make the action more personal.

One is personal research or enquiry – for participants to find out more themselves about the background to issues being addressed in any actions or activities. So, for instance if students are engaged in collecting litter, they can find out about where waste comes from, and what happens to it when they have collected it.

The other is reflection.

We need to ensure:

• Reflection by individual participants is taking place ( although this can be very effectively undertaken in peer pairs, for instance)
• That reflection accompanies and forms part of all group activities
• That reflection is continuous, rather than being left to the end of the programme.

Reflection as part of an activity can be about:

• The issue being addressed – reinforcing and drawing on personal research and enquiry.
• What the participant has learned about working with other people (when activities are with other people. And, of course, Influence and Involvement with Others is one part of the Award programme))
• The activity they are taking part in – how effective it is; the ways in which it is effective and also how it could be improved.

 

Actions for a better world

                       

Small individual actions can make a difference.

Below are some websites that have suggestions for specific actions young people can take to address some of the challenging issues of today.

Again, we need to bear in mind that taking action does not necessarily involve development – which is the essential part of the IGC Award.  People can take certain types of action without learning very much. Actions are best when students are also finding out more about the reasons behind the actions – how the actions they can take can make a difference. Some of the reasons behind actions on some of these sites may be simplistic, without any real exploration of the underlying issues. But we can encourage critical personal enquiry and exploration.  In some cases it is good for students to be critical of actions proposed in lists of things to do to make a difference – as long as they are critical rather than cynical.

 

Commit2act

http://www.commit2act.org/

Commit2 Act encourages people to commit to taking small actions for a better world.  An App allows young people to engage with others around the world.

Some of the reasons behind actions on the site are simplistic, and do not explore the underlying issues, but with additional enquiry and research, they can form useful components of the IGC Award.

 

A Fairer World – Youth

http://youth.afairerworld.org/action.html

Website encouraging young people to become better informed, and to take action.

It has some useful links to other sites, for instance on significant global issues and topics like Fairtrade, climate change, saving species. Also short videos.

Go Wild

http://gowild.wwf.org.uk/take-action

Go Wild is WWF-UK’s site for children. It has some suggested actions. Some are specific to the UK context, but others are appropriate for any country.

 

Life-Link Friendship Schools

http://www.life-link.org/

Life-Link Friendship Schools is a Swedish-based NGO which aims to promote contact and cooperation between young people around the world and their schools, through active participation in shared projects, vital for our time.

There are 60 actions under the headings Care for Myself, Care for Others, Care for Nature, and Let’s Get Organised.

 

TakingITGlobal

http://www.tigweb.org/

TakingITGlobal’s mission is to empower youth to understand and act on the world's greatest challenges.

It makes use of IT (hence the title) to inform and connect young people. Has background information on global issues.