Introduction to A K Strands

The AK Strands –

simplified overview of outcomes.

All teachers explicitly develop the AK Strands within their day-to-day teaching.  The Strands influence the curriculum content chosen, the big ideas or questions addressed and the choice of activities used.  When integrating the Strands, teachers are conscious of the ‘Strand understanding(s)’ that are being developed alongside subject specific content and skills.  The Strands work most successfully when they are integrated into the enduring understandings of a unit and form an integral part of the teaching and learning.

Successful implementation of the Strands will be marked in students’ knowledge, understandings, skills and behaviours. 

Students will be able to:

Ethics

·  Develop, and habitually apply, a clearly defined ethical stance, so that this becomes their own construction, not a blindly received idea.

·    Understand and reflect on the origins of their ethics, understanding how these are constructed from their own values and morals, as well as those of their families, communities, and inherited religious stances.

·    Understand the value and significance of living a moral life and act in accordance with their ethical beliefs, making informed and responsible choices.

·    Reflect on and critically evaluate their own choices and actions from an ethical perspective.

·    Clearly communicate their ethics to others through both their words and behaviour.

·    Defend their ideas and choices in terms of their ethical basis when challenged by others.

·    Have the disposition to understand and the capacity to evaluate other ethical frameworks.

·    Continually reflect upon and evaluate their ethical stance.

 Pluralism

·  Form, and continually reflect upon, a secure sense of their own identity, so that this is a construct of their own making and not a received idea.

·    Develop a complex, nuanced understanding of the identities of others, and how these are similar to and different from their own.

·    Critically examine and evaluate different points of view, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and leading to a well-developed personal position.

·    Develop and sustain meaningful relationships with people different from themselves.

·    Continually learn from others, particularly people of difference, to develop a richer, more complex view of the world.

·    Collaborate with varied groups of people, working collectively to reach a goal or solve a problem.

·    Underpin their actions with sound knowledge and understanding of the results of pluralism (or its absence) in different times and places, and how developing and reinforcing pluralism leads to enhanced quality of life for individuals and societies.

 

Cultures

 ·   See themselves as cultural beings:  form, and continually reflect upon, a secure sense of their own cultural identity.
·     Be open to learning about and from cultures, developing a nuanced understanding of the cultural identities of others and how these are similar to and different from their own
·     Manifest a nuanced understanding of the contributions of Muslim cultures and civilisations through time and space.
·     Understand and respond to cultural diversity, showing awareness of the factors that cause cultural variety.
·     Develop a sense of the evolutionary nature of culture, the contributions of the past to the present and the responsibilities of the present to the future.
Understand how cultural groups interact with, influence and impact each other in different times and places and the effects of these interactions.

Economics for Development

·  Explain how current economic systems emerged.

·   Understand the process of decision making that determines how resources are allocated.

·  Understand the connections between economic activity and quality of life.

Appreciate the diversity of traditions in economic thinking, evaluating different economic traditions on the basis of factors such as underpinnings, assumptions, key thinkers, logical coherence, blind spots, geographical and temporal reach, inherent contradictions, influence of belief systems, environmental and political sustainability.

Civi Society and Governance

·  Consider the rights and responsibilities of individuals and groups in ensuring quality of life for all.

·    Describe and analyse the governance of their own country, its historical roots and related current issues.

·    Evaluate types of authority and governance used in different places and times, and their strengths and weaknesses in different situations.

·    Understand the factors that give legitimacy to authority in differing contexts, and ways to create transparent and accountable authority structures.

·    Evaluate the qualities of effective leadership in differing contexts.

·    Analyse the types of organisations that make up ‘civil society’ and their varying impacts.