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Writer's pictureTom McAndrew

Perception of Risk - Oracy in Action


This lesson was born from the wish to marry the difficult topic of Perception of Risk with an oracy activity. Oracy in education refers to the skills needed for effective spoken communication, emphasising students’ ability to articulate thoughts clearly, listen actively, and engage in dialogue. It includes skills like verbal fluency, confidence, and adaptability in different speaking contexts, allowing collaboration and critical thinking to take place. 


It has been an important part of the school’s development plan for a while now, but a new burst of CPD and a re-emphasising of its importance in the classroom really brought home to me how much oracy methods could be useful - beyond the usual run-of-mill group discussion, pair-share activities. 


After incorporating another of my school’s values within myself - risk taking - I made the decision that I had to incorporate these methods more, and not just on a surface level but to become an expert at using some of them. After browsing through Voice 21’s oracy resources (passed on by my school’s English Department, post-CPD), I decided upon the discussion roles task which has six main roles for the speakers: 


  1. Instigator - this person opens up the discussion or new topic

  2. Prober - this person digs deeper into the argument and asks for evidence (facts & statistics) or for another speaker to justify their ideas further.

  3. Challenger - Gives reasons to disagree or presents an alternative argument

  4. Clarifier - Simplifies and makes things clearer by asking questions.

  5. Summariser - Identifies the main ideas from the discussion. This can be during the discussion to help it move forward or at the end (or both).

  6. Builder - Develops, adds or runs with an idea


Perception definition: a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression.


The perception of risk is in the syllabus under the unit topic: Hazardous Environments. It is a hard concept to teach because it is so subjective.


There are three main parts that influences an individual’s response to any hazardous event:​


  1. Experience – the more experience a person has of environmental hazards, the greater the adjustments to the hazard.​

  2. Material well-being – those who are better off have more choices.​

  3. Personality – is the person a leader or a follower, a risk taker or risk-minimiser?


The above influences will lead to three possible decisions a person will make:


  • Do nothing and accept the hazard​

  • Adjust to the situation of living in a hazardous environment​

  • Leave the area


It is the second option: ‘Adjust to the situation of living in a hazardous environment​’, which concerns geographers the most. How do we adapt to the environment? This has been the focus of multiple lessons. 


Once the students had been taught about the concept of perception of risk and had time to grasp it, with a well placed hinge-question mid-lesson; it was time for the actual discussion to take place. One important consideration for me was to make sure the students had been exposed to the roles and had an initial practice with an easier topic they were familiar with in advance. Each student then needed careful consideration as to which role they would receive. This helped the discussion to flow a lot better once it got going.


What was the discussion topic I hear you ask? 


‘Tokyo is the safest city to live in the world.’ Discuss.


Tokyo was chosen as a place because many people can feel safe their placing their trust in the technology, architecture and materials the Japanese have used to make their cities safer in one of the world’s most tectonically active zones. Earthquakes as large as 9.1 on the Richter scale have and can again hit Japan. Tokyo is also expecting a ‘big one’ in the next 30 years, after studies of historical data and stresses on localised faults show one is due (see the following outstanding Financial Times resource). 


Once the students began the debate, thanks to advance practice and familiarity with the types of roles, and their support sheet; it seemed to flow very well in general. I circled around the group pausing to give 1-1 prompts and advice as and when necessary. It was important for me to allow them to struggle a bit first before deciding to intervene.  


Evaluation:

The lesson timing was a little tight for a 1 hour lesson and some activities had to be sped up. The plenary is a self-evaluation, but my lesson observer remarked that it should be more content focused. I would advise using two periods or a double lesson to get through the content in more depth and to add a more content focused plenary, keeping the self-evaluation as a separate task. 


With some advance practice of the discussion roles with the same students you intend to use them with, these resources will help you to execute an outstanding oracy based geography A-level lesson. I hope you find this article and the resources useful.







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