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Strategies for Economic Development - Lesson Plan: 2 x 1 hour lessons

A series of 'off the shelf' lesson plans and resources for use in the classroom. These lessons deal with Strategies for Economic Development and are relevant to the following specifications:

• AQA: Module 5, 14.5
• Edexcel: Unit 5B
• OCR: Module 2886, 5.6.3

Aim:

The aim of the lessons is to look at some contemporary plans being touted as a means to help trigger economic development in poor countries and reduce poverty. The lesson is centred on the plans announced by Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to cancel debt in some countries and for the UK to pick up some of the debt repayments of poor countries.

Students are given a series of short tasks designed to try to encourage incorporation of theories on strategies for development and the real life issues highlighted by Mr Brown's visit to Africa in January 2005.

The Activity lays the emphasis on the student finding some information on the issues themselves (although a selection of links has been provided to help) and to try to make sense of the complexities surrounding them.

Where possible, it should be emphasised that responses need to be linked to the theory covered on strategies for economic development and the importance of developing evaluation skills at this level.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the lessons, students should be able to demonstrate:

• An understanding of the main strategies for development
• An awareness of the process by which development strategies should work in aiding development
• An awareness of the limitations of such strategies
• An ability to make some evaluative comments on the effectiveness of such strategies
• An understanding of the nature and characteristics of the plans being suggested by Gordon Brown
• An understanding of the factors necessary to make these plans yield any success

Resources:

• PowerPoint Presentation - Development Strategies [322K] (basic version also available for quicker download [229K])
• Mind Map - Development Strategies
• Activity - Development Strategies
• PCs for further research
• Digital projector and whiteboard linked to a PC

Lesson Structure:

Lesson 1:

1. Introduce the aims of the lessons and refresh students' minds on the various models of economic development. (10 minutes)
2. Show the Presentation on strategies for economic development - discuss the process by which the strategies should lead to economic development and the limitations of such strategies. (25 minutes)
3. Introduce the Activity and explain the nature of the tasks. (5 minutes)
4. Set students on task. (15 minutes)
5. Review main points of the lesson and outline plans for next lesson. (5 minutes)

Lesson 2:

1. Remind students of the task in hand. (5 minutes)
2. Students continue working through the tasks. (35 minutes)
3. Bring students together to feedback and discuss the outcomes. (15 minutes)
4. Summarise main points of the lessons. (5 minutes)