Author: GLE Team | Published on 1 May 2023

 

Learners create surveys with questions to be asked of other students, beyond their peers. Then, learners of different genders move around the room, ask and discuss questions/answers based on the particular topic/answers. 

Stage 1

Introduce learners to the idea of creating a survey. Discuss what a survey would be used for: how to use a survey, where do we see these in life; what formats do they come in (digital such as online forms, paper); why do people take surveys? 

Stage 2

Allow learners time to create a survey of questions to be asked based on a topic studied/learnt in class. Set a time frame for this to be completed – 20 minutes suggested but adapt according to your class. 

Stage 3

Mid-way through, ask learners to share some of the questions and ideas they have included. Are these open ended or closed questions? If most questions are closed, give some examples of open-ended questions. Discuss the importance of the questions being produced allowing the person answering the opportunity to say more than ‘yes/no/one word answer’. Share some examples questions based on the topic.

Stage 4

On completion of the allocated time, explain to learners that they will navigate the room asking questions to a variety of people. Depending on your space, this could be a free-roaming scenario, or a case of 2 lines of seats facing each other with people on one side rotating after a given period of time (3 minutes for example). 

Stage 5

As a plenary to the lesson, ask learners to share something they have found out from someone else or a question they were asked by someone else that they particularly enjoyed.  

Gender Responsive Notes: Ensure gender neutral language throughout; mixed gender groupings across rows of seats to ensure engagement with learners of all genders; ensure answers are taken from a variety of learners; ensure questions being asked are using gender neutral language also. 

Glossary

Gender Neutral Language: language that avoids bias towards a particular sex or gender. In English, this includes use of nouns that are not gender-specific to refer to roles or professions, formation of phrases in a coequal manner, and discontinuing the blanket use of male or female terms. For example, it’s referring to someone you don’t know as “they” rather than using the pronoun “he” or “she,” or  perhaps addressing a group as “everyone” rather than saying, “Hey, guys, and adapting gendered terms such as businessman to business person instead.

Plenary: the final task in a lesson that rounds up the learning. 

Open-ended questions: those that allow a longer answer e.g. what do you enjoy most about the beach?

Closed questions: those that only require a yes/no/one word answer e.g. do you like the beach?

Want to know more about the GLE Team?

In a groundbreaking initiative, the British Council, under the English Connects programme, undertook a transformative mission to champion gender-inclusive practices in Sub-Saharan Africa with a cohort of 41 dedicated teacher educators and teachers from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Sudan. This dynamic group referred to as the GLE Team worked together to design this resource.

Read about our Creating Gender Pedagogy Resources for Teachers project: https://africa.teachingenglish.org.uk/creating-gender-pedagogy-resources...

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