TASKs for democracy

Prevention as deconstruction
Prevention is an ongoing deconstructive process: teachers deconstruct the traditional classroom practices and
make efforts to dislodge inherited and deeply rooted ideas and beliefs about learning and learners; they may
establish co-operative structures for the purpose of removing hierarchical, judgmental and anti-democratic
systems and transforming classroom practices. Thus, they may choose to restructure the learning process
and adopt new roles to become facilitators of significant learning. Such structural changes will not only lead
to changes in teachers’ attitudes, skills and knowledge but also to changes in learners’ achievements and
relationships, which, in turn, will help prevent discrimination and violence in schools.
Pointers and examples
In this book, the reader will find activities that apply the co-operative principles and structures that we have
described in detail in this chapter. In some examples, the co-operative structures are described step-by-step
and closely follow the guidelines as presented in the table above. Here we would like to point the reader to
a sample of these activities:
Activity number Type of co-operative structure Page number
6 Group roles 59
18 Word rotation 107
19 Gallery tour 109
33 Jigsaw 175
35 Placemat 1 187
36 Placemat 2 191
47 Contact activities 261
Bibliography
Arató F. and Varga A. (2008), Együtt-tanulók kézikönyve – Bevezetés a kooperatív tanulásszervezés rejtelmeibe
(Manual for learning together – Introduction to the secrets of co-operative learning) (2nd edn), Educatio, Budapest.
Aronson E. (2000), Nobody left to hate: teaching compassion after Columbine, Henry Holt, New York.
Cohen E. (1994), Designing group work: strategies for the heterogeneous classroom, Teachers’ College Press,
New York.
Johnson R. T. and Johnson D. W. (1999), Learning together and alone, Allyn and Bacon, MA.
Kagan S. (1992), Co-operative learning, Resources for Teachers, San Clemente, CA.
Rogers C. (1995), On becoming a person (A therapist’s view of psychotherapy), Houghton Mifflin Company,
Boston/New York.
Part One – Principles and pedagogical approaches Page 31