Geo-history manual; learning units (TLUs) and Assessment and self-assessment tools: three proposals to address complex issues
The Get up and goals! project has produced three tools in 12 languages to address both the issue of gender inequalities and the other 3 "hot topics of the project" in daily teaching at school: a global geo-history textbook, a set of teaching and learning units and a set of learning assessment and self-assessment tools.
The global geo-history manual, in each of its chapters, dedicates a special section to changes in social organization and to the occurrence of economic and gender inequalities in different historical epochs. The global history of humanity is told by giving gender inequalities, their historical origins and their local and global consequences, the role of one of the main themes through which to interconnect and understand the entire time and space dimension of human events.
The Learning Units have been built on the basis of two principles.
- From a content point of view, they make complexity understandable, breaking it down into data, causes, effects, each of which is organised into one or more study phases. The TLUs are built according to a modular architecture, and the teacher can decide to use only some of the phases in which each Learning Unit is divided, without losing the comprehensiveness of the approach.
- From a didactic point of view, each TLU proposes a progressive passage from the students' naive knowledge to an expert one. The passage takes place through interactive learning: in each phase, the teacher proposes scientific contents through research and in-depth study methods, and students are at the centre of the action. A final phase (called the "meta-cognition" phase) concludes the Learning Units, and strengthens the experience and awareness acquired in the didactic path.
Assessment and self-assessment tools. The Learning Units and assessment and self-assessment tools (SATs) have both been built on the basis of common content and expected learning outcomes. In this way, the SATs can verify the students' results with regard to both knowledge of a specific topic and global citizenship skills learned. This is done by comparing scores expressed by students and teachers before and after the implementation of the LTU and/or the study of the manual.