Here are brief instructions for the teacher using the student role cards:
What:
The student role cards exercise involves assigning specific roles to students within a group project. Each role has distinct responsibilities that contribute to the overall success of the project.
Why:
This exercise helps students develop innovation competencies such as critical thinking, initiative, creativity, teamwork, and networking. It encourages active participation, enhances collaboration, and ensures that each student has a clear purpose and contribution to the group.
How:
Assign roles: Distribute the role cards to students, ensuring each student understands their specific role and responsibilities.
Explain objectives: Clearly outline the goals of the project and how each role contributes to achieving these goals.
Facilitate collaboration: Encourage students to communicate and collaborate effectively, leveraging each other's strengths.
Monitor progress: Regularly check in with the groups to ensure they are on track and provide guidance as needed.
Reflect and provide feedback: After the project, have a reflection session where students can discuss what they learned from their roles and provide feedback on the exercise.
Different ways to use role cards:
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Role-switching
How it works: After a set period, have students swap role cards with each other.
Purpose: Encourages empathy and deeper understanding by seeing the situation from multiple perspectives.
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Role expansion
How it works: Add extra information or additional objectives mid-way through the activity to deepen the complexity of roles.
Purpose: Keeps students engaged and challenges them to adapt to new circumstances.
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Team-based roles
How it works: Group students into teams with complementary roles.
Purpose: Promotes teamwork and shows how roles can collaborate to achieve a common goal.
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Mystery Roles
How it works: Keep certain roles secret or ambiguous so others have to deduce each student's role through their actions or statements.
Purpose: Adds an element of critical thinking, deduction, and creativity.
5. Reflection of roles
How it works: After the exercise, ask students to reflect their learnings still in the role.
Purpose: Deepens engagement and helps students connect their roles to real-world concepts.
or
How it works: After the activity, give students a different role card and ask them to analyze how their new role would have approached the situation.
Purpose: Encourages reflection and diverse thinking about alternative approaches.
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Role customization
How it works: Allow students to modify or "build" their roles based on factors you set (e.g., traits, goals, or relationships with other roles).
Purpose: Promotes creativity and ownership of the exercise.
Student role cards: Instructions for students
What is this exercise?
You will participate in an activity using role cards to take on specific roles or perspectives. Each card provides information about your role, including your objectives, responsibilities, and key details. Your task is to act according to your role and contribute to the overall activity or discussion.
Why are we doing this?
This exercise helps you:
Develop innovation competencies such as critical thinking, initiative, creativity, teamwork, and networking.
Understand different perspectives.
Improve collaboration skills by working with others in varied roles.
Practice problem-solving and decision-making in teams.
Engage in active learning, making concepts easier to understand and apply.
How to use the role cards?
Read your card carefully: Understand your role, goals, and any key information. Feel free to ask questions if anything is unclear.
Engage in the activity: Actively participate, staying true to your role. Use the information on the card to guide your decisions and contributions.
Collaborate with others: Listen to their perspectives, contribute your own, and work together towards the activity’s objectives.
Reflect afterward: After the exercise, think about what you learned from your role and how it contributed to the overall task.
These examples illustrate how each role can contribute to a successful group project.
Critical thinker - A student analyzing data from a science experiment to identify patterns and draw conclusions. They question assumptions, evaluate evidence, and consider alternative explanations to ensure their findings are robust and accurate.
Initiator - A student who takes the lead in organizing a group meeting, setting the agenda, and assigning tasks. They proactively seek out resources and suggest new approaches to tackle the project, motivating the team to stay on track.
Creative mind - A student brainstorming unique ideas for a marketing campaign in a business class. They use mind maps and other creative techniques to generate innovative solutions that stand out and add value to the project.
Team player - A student who excels at facilitating group discussions, ensuring everyone’s voice is heard. They help mediate conflicts, encourage collaboration, and coordinate efforts so that the team works efficiently and harmoniously towards their common goal.
Networker - A student who reaches out to industry professionals for insights and advice on a project. They build relationships with external experts, integrate their feedback, and bring valuable external perspectives to enhance the group’s work.
