DOES IT MAKE SENSE? - How to foster critical thinking in young people

Can you believe everything you think? Is everything you experience true? This TC aims to train youth workers to support young people to think in a complex world and grow their ability to question if others' ideas and opinions are just, fair and evidence-based.

Does It Make Sense is a training experience in 3 steps created to develop youth workers’ competences for promoting critical thinking in young people. Participants will be invited to reflect on their own beliefs and question their awareness and biases about different causes, identify which skills they want to develop with young people and learn tools to transfer that knowledge into their own realities. There will be a strong practical/experiential approach to equip participants with tools to engage young people in this reflection and to promote their participation in the causes they believe in. This training will also include online activities before and after the presencial part to ensure that the content can be linked effectively with participants’ daily practice.

Objectives and Learning Outcomes

Objectives:

• Increase awareness about the world around them and the issues that they want to have a voice on.
• Develop individual and groups critical thinking skills and abilities;
• Challenge adultism and feel empowered to voice their questions and opinions through activism.
• Raise their voice by creating media content that reflects their perspectives and realities

Learning Outcomes:

• Question thoughts, biases and assumptions,  and reflect on a topic understanding more perspectives
• Get to know different projects/approaches about the topic of critical thinking
• Create specific media content to their target groups
• Have a clear plan on how to promote critical thinking with their groups
• Methodologies

In this course we will challenge educators to use non-formal learning (NFL) to ignite young peoples' natural capacity to question and challenge current systems in a democratic society. For this we will explore and learn about the art of questioning, coaching techniques, diverse reflection methods and photovoice. We will apply the principles of NFL, the program will be practical, experimental and theoretical.

Timing

23 March 2022 - half a day online meeting

28 March 2022 - arrival day

29 March - 1 April 2022 Training course in person

2 April 2022 Departure day

20 April 2022

Target group

Youth workers, youth leaders, educators, social workers. Up to 30 selected participants.