Teacher Guide
Introduction
Power League is a way of stimulating discussion among students in Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. You can use it with a class for a single lesson, or as a big project involving the whole school.
The league allows students to cast votes, individually, in which they choose between two competing ideas or things. In a discussion on education, for example, they could vote for what they thought education was for: creativity or academic grounding. In a discussion on how to educate, they could vote for globalised qualifications or choice in learning styles. Each student chooses one out of a series of random pairs.
By repeatedly casting votes, the students create a league, ranked in order of the most powerful, important or influential. The results are often unexpected - students are surprised to see how their peers voted - and a good starting point for discussion. Why is this idea more popular than another idea? What makes this pop star more influential than that politician? How is this power used?
The league was originally designed as a playful way to explore the nature of power, and the students who used it initially voted on questions of who was more powerful, or who they would like to see have more power. 'Power League: Beyond Current Horizons' has a focus on education in the future, but if you create new leagues students can vote on any subject, for instance: which is the bigger cause of global warming, or which is the more important invention?
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