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Politics and politicians

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Can LEGO parts be used to promote debate about politics and politicians? Yes, it is possible, and CLIC – the Polytechnic University of Lisbon’s Language Centre shows us how.


Politics and sustainability is the theme of one of the units at the Advanced Level at CLIC' English course. As politics always appears to be a sensitive theme and, probably, a not much-loved one, our teacher has proposed a new approach to it.


In this model each student builds a sceene, using LEGO parts and, after that, they present it to their classmates. The LEGO parts are supposed to represent the politicians, the people, some ideas and their relationships. Furthermore, students relate their own ideas about the theme with the scenes they have built.


This method seems to generate a good interaction among the students and show the way students look at politics and politicians.


Firstly, this kind of approach appeals to students’ creativity. They need to find, among an ocean of LEGO pieces, those which are adequate to build a sceene to sustain their own ideas.


Moreover, it seems to be a relaxed way to approach this theme, always seen as uncomfortable or even polemic, for many people.


Finally, after having built the sceene, each student describes it characterizing the politicians, using three strong words - which should convey ideas – about them.


The pictures illustrate some of the sceenes designed by CLIC’s students. Although they have different explanations for their installations, curiously the words they choose give the same idea about politicians.


Generally speaking, the global image of politicians is not good, indeed. Currently, they are generally connected with the use of power in self benefit, with corruption and, even with blood crimes as genocide.


On one hand, most students have connected politicians with words like: corruption; chaos; opportunism; darkness; or interest. 


On the other hand, some of them – few to be honest – have recognized that some politicians are really connected with their causes and their people, though these are a minority.

To conclude, this methodology - using LEGO parts, appears innovative and could be a good way to promote the interaction, breaking the ice among students.


We consider that these results are, possibly, related with the students’ experiences -in the case, with the Portuguese situation. In that case, could the results of students from other countries and another social realities be different?

Comments

  1. FábioJanuary 16, 2024 at 3:36 AM

    I really have enjoyed to participate in this activity, it is indeed a very clever way to talk about controversial themes without harm anybody. At the same time it also push for the creativity of the students giving shape to thoughts.
    Maybe the politicians in the debates also should do a Lego competition and show us their goals ahahahha.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 19, 2024 at 7:18 AM

    The use of LEGO parts to discuss politics and politicians is an innovative and effective approach. It encourages creativity and provides a comfortable setting for addressing a typically sensitive topic.
    The scenes created by students using LEGO represent their perspectives on politics, with prevailing negative perceptions of politicians such as corruption and opportunism. However, some students recognize the potential for politicians to serve their causes genuinely.
    Overall, this method encourages active participation, critical thinking and reflection on political realities.
    Margarida

    ReplyDelete
  3. David LeiriaMarch 19, 2024 at 8:36 AM

    This was a very fun activity where a lot of creativity was shown by all the participants in it. We can see it in the different pictures shown here, where a lot can be said in a small Lego assembly while basing it on just 3 words to describe World politics. It also shows how dark the World of politics can be in a unique way.
    Overall, this was a great piece of work.
    David.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Teens Class - CLiCJune 24, 2024 at 11:38 AM

    We agree that Lego is a great innovation to breaking ice among students because in the teenagers class we also play with Lego and we think that it is an excellent idea to learn more about different subjects.
    Maria Gonçalves and Júlia Santos

    ReplyDelete

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