Activation

Function
During the sub-phase of „Activation“ the teacher should “meet students where they are”. To reach this goal the teacher should address the previous knowledge and ideas/ belives of the students to activate knowledge-structures and to link the new knowledge to the existing one. Gaps in the learners knowledge should become apparent and new questions should be raised or developed for the students to work on. By this the new knowledge is automatically interconnected to the existent.

Ways of achieving function
Usually motivation and activation are linked closely and sometimes do overlay. E.g. realizing that someone has knowledge gaps often goes hand in hand with the motivation to close those gaps.

To activate the individual knowledge-structures you can:

• externalize individual pre-conceptions and/or knowledge (e.g. by collecting different associations, words etc. linked to the topic)
• give one possible access to a topic
• Present seemingly contrary statements
• ...

Methods

• discuss statements (e.g. in a Forum )
• individual or collective mind-mapping
• doing a Role-Play