Topic: Liberalism and conservatism

Author of the script: Monika Piotrowska‑Marchewa

Target group

7th grade student of elementary school.

Core curriculum

7th grade

XXIII. Europe and the world in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries: Student:

4) indicates new political ideas and cultural phenomena.

The general aim of education

Students learn about the new ideologies of the late 18th and the first half of the 19th century.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• indicates the differences between liberalism and conservatism;

• describes the views of the leading representatives of liberalism and conservatism; lists the first feminist slogans;

• tells about the most important ideologies of liberalism and conservatism.

Methods / techniques

• exposing methods: talk, traditional lecture, explanations and comments from the teacher;

• programmed methods: using e‑textbook; using multimedia;

• problematic methods: activating methods: discussion;

• practical methods: exercises concerned, working with text;

Forms of work

• activity in pairs or in groups;

• individual activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard or traditional blackboard;

• tablets/computers;

• sheet of paper, self‑adhesive cards.

Before classes

The teacher asks students to read an extract of J. Baszkiewicz's text Władza contained in the e‑textbook, on the birth of the theory of democracy and the differences between the mindset of democrats and liberals.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher explains the students the lesson objective and the criteria for success.

2. The teacher discusses with the students the conclusions they have drawn from reading the text before the lesson. Then, the teacher asks the students to do Exercise 1. The students indicate correct sentences describing the differences between the slogans of democrats and liberals.

Realization

3. Students fulfil Instruction 1. They write down the most important slogans as well as the names of the leading liberal ideologues on the coloured cards. Next, they divide a large sheet of paper into fields concerning various issues, e.g. attitude towards freedom, attitude towards equality, attitude towards change, the role of the state in human life, the state and economy, attitude towards the emancipation of women. They attach the sheet of paper to the board/wall.

4. Then, the teacher asks the students to fulfil Instruction 2 and – after the students write down the necessary information about the ideology of conservatism – to place the cards on the sheet of paper in the appropriate places.

5. Students do Exercise 2 and Exercise 3. They do the puzzle on the tablets’ screens or on the interactive whiteboard and answer the question. They search the Internet for information about Mary Wollstonecraft. They attach a card with a description of her views to the sheet with the categories.

6. When doing exercises and instructions, the teacher uses tents or a set of cards in three colors: green, yellow and red. Students use the cards to indicate to the teacher whether they are having difficulty in fulfilling the instructions (green – I’m doing great, yellow – I have some doubts, red – I need help).

7. The teacher asks the students to divide themselves into 5‑6 groups. Each group is a “party” running for election. The students’ task is to encourage the voters to vote for the organisation they represent. They should use the information from the jointly developed table to create a short slogan describing their program. At the end of the lesson the students present the results of their work to the whole class.

Summary

8. The teacher assesses the students’ work during the lesson taking into account their contribution and involvement. For this purpose, the teacher can prepare an evaluation questionnaire both for self‑assessment and for the assessment of the teacher’s and other students’ work.

9. The teacher gives a homework for volunteer students (not an obligatory part of the script) – to fulfil Instruction 4 in the abstract: consisting in selection of table cells.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

New ideologies: liberalism and conservatism

An attempt was made to understand, evaluate, and name the unprecedented experiences that people encountered at the end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. The great political ideologies of the time, liberalism and conservatism;, tried to face this issue. Liberalism proclaimed individual freedom, equality of all citizens before the law and economic freedom. Conservatism;, on the other hand, assumed the preservation of traditional values and the existing social hierarchy.