Pro and con grid

When to use it?

• When you want to encourage students to look beyond their own point of view.
• When you want to promote the critical thinking skills of students.

Activity instructions

Preparation

• Formulate a statement on a topic for which students can list advantages and disadvantages (or pros/cons).

Activity steps

1. Make groups
   
Divide the students into pairs or small groups (or let them work individually).

2. Pros and cons
   Give the students 5-10 minutes to make a list with at least three advantages and three disadvantages (or pros/cons).
3. Discuss
   Discuss the advantages and disadvantages (or pros/cons) during a plenary session.

Tips for implementation & variation

• Online teaching: The subgroups can work in breakout rooms.
• During the plenary session, you can write down the advantages and disadvantages (or pros/cons) in a grid on the (online) whiteboard to create a clear overview.
• This teaching format can also be used as a pre-session activity, to let students prepare for a class debate.

Supporting tools

• Breakout room
  You can create breakout rooms in Kaltura Live Room, Microsoft Teams or Zoom.
• Collaborate
  Within their breakout room, students can collaborate in the chat or built-in whiteboard in Kaltura Live Room, Microsoft Teams or Zoom, in an empty document in the Microsoft Teams channel or by using 'Discussions' in Brightspace.