Considering Perspectives - Step in, Step out, Step back

How do I use it?

Provocations:

• Consider using the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), videos or articles as provocation to engage students in thinking about problem-solving in a real world context.
• Present students with a problem, question or challenge, or encourage them to develop their own.
• E.g., students could design a disaster-proof house to address SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Choose:

• Have students decide on the perspective they are taking in a given situation.
• It can be another person, a non-human perspective or a collective group perspective.
• Encourage students to record specific details about the perspective they are taking in their notes or on the Step in, Step out, Step back template.
• E.g., A student could take the perspective of a homeowner in a particular region that is prone to a particular type of natural disaster.

Step in:

• Students “Step in” to their chosen perspective given what they currently know.
• Encourage students to think about how this person/non-human/group might feel, believe, know or experience and record their thoughts in their notes or on the template.
• E.g., Some guiding questions might be:
  • What might the homeowner experience during a natural disaster? What about after the disaster?
  • How might the homeowner feel? What might they be concerned about?

Step out:

• Students “Step out” to determine what other information they might need to gain a better understanding of this perspective.
• Encourage students to think about what else they would need to learn to understand this perspective better, considering both the person/non-human/group and also the environment/situation, and record their thoughts.
• E.g.,Some guiding questions might be:
  • What do you need to know about natural disasters to better understand the homeowner’s perspective?
  • What do you need to know about the homeowner to better understand how to address the challenge of designing a disaster-proof house?

Step back:

• Students “Step back” to think about their own perspective and how it impacts their ability to take on another perspective.
• Encourage students to think about what they notice about their own perspective and how it is similar or different to the perspective they are taking on. Ask them to reflect on what they find challenging to understand and why they think that is, and to record their thoughts.

Variations

• Students could practice individually or in small groups.
  • For some tips on how to support students to work together effectively and respectfully, check out the learning strategy Working Collaboratively.
• Other suggestions for documenting student thinking:
  • Sticky notes, concept maps, chart paper, interactive board
  • Online environment: Padlet, interactive whiteboard, Google Doc

Extensions

In order to extend the learning, students could:

• research their questions from the Step out part.
• invite guests into the classroom to share their perspectives.
• interview family or community members to learn more about their perspectives.
• role-play or debate an issue from different perspectives.
• continue problem-solving through the inquiry or design thinking process.