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Kate's Choice
Rupert Wegerif
The Open University
 Kate's
Choice (available from www.thinkingtogether.org.uk
and included on the CD which accompanies this focus pack) is an
example of software designed by us to promote talking, learning
and thinking within a curriculum area - that of PHSE and Citizenship.
We have also been working with software in Maths and Science and
had very good results. The PHSE and Citizenship curriculum emphasises
the importance of discussion and of considering the perspective
of others in reaching moral decisions. The aim of the Kate's Choice
software is to encourage reflection about moral issues through stimulating
exploratory talk about the conflict between personal morality (loyalty
to a friend) and social morality (stealing is a crime). All the
design principles given above were applied. There were potentially
complex problems embedded in a narrative structure; decisions taken
by the group made a real difference to the outcome of the story.
This was achieved by using an interactive story in which different
choices led to different consequences for the characters. Arguments
for use in discussion are displayed on the screen when choices need
to be made. Typing is kept to an absolute minimum. The story is
that Kate's friend Robert tells her a secret after first asking
her to promise not to tell anyone else. His secret is that he has
stolen some chocolates from Mrs Cook's shop but he says he has stolen
them as a present for his mother who is in hospital. Kate then has
to decide whether she tells her parents or not. If she does not
tell she comes under pressure from various people and is even accused
of stealing the chocolates herself. If she does tell on Robert the
police are called in and things do not look good for him. At the
point where we join them (Figure 1) a group of children who have
done the Talk Lessons described earlier, were asked by the computer
software to reflect back on the decisions they had made and, all
the different opinions of the different characters in the story
were made available through icons of their heads which could be
clicked on.
Figure
1: Did Kate do the right thing?
Transcript extract of children talking around Kate's Choice
[Computer initiation: "Did Kate do the
right thing? Click on these people to find out what they think.
Do you agree with any of them? Do you disagree? Talk together and
decide".]
Kath [Clicks on Rob's mum and then reads the screen text
shown in Figure 1]
"I don't think Kate did the right thing, Robert is a good boy.
He only took the chocolates to be kind to me".
Alan No I don't agree.
Kath I don't agree with that -
Alan That's just wrong.
Kath Robert's Mum should be on Mrs. Cooke's side really.
Alan Yeah. She should be more strict.
John Next round. Kate's Mother. [Clicks on Kate's mum]
Alan OK [reads from screen] "Kate did the right thing
to tell. She should not lie to me or hide things from me. I am her
Mother".
Kath Alright John - you go first this time
John I think that's alright actually, because if you don't
tell her, and her mother finds out she's going to get really done
because she ain't told her mum.
Kath Yeah, then Kate's Mum will go round to Rob's Mum's house
and say "You did this and you did that and your son is a bad
influence to my daughter."
Alan 'Cos he stole
Kath But that's wrong as well. I know Kate should have told
her Mum - and that's what she did, but if Kate didn't tell her Mum,
then Rob's Mum would sort of fall out with Kate's Mum because I
think Rob's Mum and Kate's Mum are friends so I think Kate's Mum
is right. I agree with Kate's Mum.
Alan Yes. I think about Kate's Mum - and it's also good for
Kate, because she'll have a really guilty conscience and she'll
feel really upset inside. And she'll-
Kath And it will all start to bubble up inside her and she'll
just have to tell somebody.
Alan And Rob, I think if he doesn't get told now what's right
and what's wrong, when he gets older he's going to get into a lot
more trouble than just a box of chocolates.
Kath Yes - in older life there's no second chances. He'd
better start learning.
We can see from the transcript that this very simple software interface,
with a prompt, some resources to explore and then a choice of two
responses, has provoked real thinking that is directed, by the programme
itself, towards realising curriculum aims. Talking around the computer
gives the children a chance to practice the general talking and
thinking skills that they have learnt in order to learn something
together within the curriculum. Here they take up a position in
relation to a range of opinions and so practice and develop their
own moral voice. In this short extract they are seen to take moral
responsibility for decisions using their own reasoning as a basis
for criticising one adult's opinion while supporting that of another.
Kate's
Choice
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The
link below connects to a version of Kate's Choice stored on
the CD. It will open in a separate window and requires Shockwave
Player to work |
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Kate's
Choice
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Further information
Dawes, L., Mercer, N. and Wegerif, R. (2000) Thinking Together:
A programme of activities for developing thinking skills at KS2.
Questions Publishing
Mercer, N. (2000) Words and Minds: How we use language to
think together. London: Routledge.
Wegerif, R., and Scrimshaw, P. (Eds.). (1997). Computers
and Talk in the Primary Classroom. Clevedon: Multi-Lingual Matters.
http://www.thinkingtogether.org.uk
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