Through
role playing, participants work together to understand many perspectives
on an issue.
Purpose
To practice
listening to all voices and coming to a consensus.
Group
size: 12 to 36 participants.
Time Needed:
One hour.
Materials
Paper
and pens for participant groups.
Directions
Divide your participants into groups of 5-7 people, preferably strangers,
with various backgrounds.
Assign each person a role in the game: parent, head of a local industry
or business, teacher, banker, graduating teenager, elderly person, municipal
service provider (e.g. policeman), medical professional.
Situation: Discuss what skills and knowledge children of today will
need in order to be productive members of our society as adults. Situation:
What is the largest sustainability problem in our community?
Start small group discussions of the situation, with each participant
bringing up points appropriate to the role he/she is playing. For example,
the "business owner" might complain that young adults do not
have good enough language skills to work as salespeople. Groups should
determine whether or not there is a problem.
Groups should strive to arrive at consensus (30 minutes).
Ask one person from each group to state the group's answer to the
entire room.
Lead a discussion of the process by which each group arrived at consensus.
Note
Many issues
are complex and cannot be defined in 30 minutes. In these cases, the desired
learning outcome is understanding the complexity of an issue, not identifying
a solution.