UNIT 5: LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • To explore different aspects of power.
  • To introduce some theoretical concepts of power.
  • Help participants to identify obstacles to participation and the different levels of participation that exist.

UNIT 5: OUTLINE

Exercise
Number		 Exercises Handouts Approximate Timings
1 Recap from Unit 4 and Introduction to Unit 5 15 mins
2 The Power Chair Game 30 mins
3 Feeling Powerless A & B 45 mins
4 Different Dimensions of Power C 30 mins
5 Participation D,E & F 75 mins
6 Group Project 75 mins
7 Recap and Summary Learning Logs 15 mins
Total Time approx. 4 hours 45 mins

UNIT 5: TUTOR SUMMARY NOTES

GENERAL

You should collect in Learning Logs in this unit to have a look at them and to give participants some feedback. Doing this at this stage gives you enough time before the assessment is due to pick up on any difficulties with individuals. How you do this is up to you but individual tutorials have proven to be a successful method.

EXERCISE 1: RECAP FROM UNIT 4 AND INTRODUCTION TO UNIT 5 (15 minutes)

Having covered quite a lot of material over the past couple of units this gives a chance to recap and reflect on the different ideas covered.

EXERCISE 2: THE POWER CHAIR GAME (30 minutes)

The aim of this exercise is to introduce how power is affected by the physical environment and how this can be altered to influence power relationships. It is also quite a good energizer and gets people moving around at the start of the session.

EXERCISE 3: FEELING POWERLESS (45 minutes)

This exercise gives participants the chance to draw on their own experience. It can be quite emotive for some so you should try to finish the exercise by looking in a positive fashion at what can be done.

EXERCISE 4: DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF POWER (30 minutes)

This can be a very thought provoking exercise for participants and it is useful to get people to identify examples of the different dimensions of power from their own experience.

EXERCISE 5: PARTICIPATION (75 minutes)

This exercise is designed to let participants think about varying degrees of participation and to consider examples from their own knowledge/experience in light of this.

EXERCISE 6: THE GROUP PROJECT (75 minutes [+ 1 hour ‘homework’ if required])

By this stage the group(s) should be preparing materials, allocating tasks or roles and possibly starting to rehearse. You should try and give more time in this session for group project work and again allow people to do some work on it in their own time if this is suitable.

EXERCISE 7: RECAP AND SUMMARY (15 minutes)

Recap and summary. Collect learning logs and make arrangements to feedback to individuals either at the next session or at a separate time.