The review of human rights lesson plans developed during the Southeast Asian Writing Workshop (Writeshop) on Human Rights Lesson Plans held in the Philippines in July 2001 was started for eventual publication.
The Southeast Asian Review Team, composed of representatives from the six countries represented in the SEA writeshop, met in Bangkok on 20-22 July 2002 to review the lesson plans. The Review Team clarified the principles for reviewing the lesson plans and their final format, and discussed the other materials to be included in the publication.
The Review Team decided to follow the lesson plan format adopted in the SEA writeshop as well as the curriculum framework developed by the six country delegations. The curriculum framework is divided into lower and upper primary school levels, and lower and upper secondary school levels. This allows flexibility in using the lesson plans in the different year levels within each category. It is at the same time recognized that primary-level lesson plans may be used for secondary level.
As a result, the lesson plans will have the following characteristics:
focus on specific problems or issues as identified in the table of lesson plans adopted by the Review Team. The emphasis is on issues that are within the experience of the students;
general applicability to the Southeast Asian context and flexibility in adapting the lesson plans to national curriculums, and other national educational conditions. Statements will be written in a general sense to make the lesson plans easily adaptable to any of the countries in Southeast Asia;
addition of notes for the teachers in each lesson plan to explain the topics and the related human rights concepts;
use of single-session lesson plans format of 40 to 50-minute duration that can be adjusted to different time coverage for single session;
use of simple language;
focus on single specific human right per lesson plan;
maintenance of consistency among the different parts of the lesson plan (objectives to application);
There will be an even distribution of lesson plans for lower and upper primary school levels, and lower and upper secondary school levels.
A list of authors will be added in the publication instead of having names and countries in each lesson plan.
The first meeting of the Review Team checked the primary level lesson plans. Most of the discussions dealt with the identification of human rights concepts appropriate to the issues being discussed in the lesson plans.
Members of the Review Team
Identifying appropriate human rights concepts relating to the common experiences of primary and secondary school students is a challenge even for those already involved in human rights education. One cannot help but have sympathy for teachers who are trying to teach human rights within their respective subjects but do not have proper materials on human rights to guide them.
The Review Team will meet again in December 2002 to review secondary level lesson plans.
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