教甄◆英文科題庫

Directions: 

1. Based on the following passage , design one teaching activity that is aimed at 35 eleventh-grade students. 

2. Explain in detail how this activity will help students improve their four basic language skills and critical thinking skills. 

       Healthy disagreement is the ability to openly, honestly and respectfully present an opposing opinion, instead of simply going along with what’s presented. A culture of healthy disagreement improves the quality of a team’s work by exposing flaws in singular ways of thinking.Healthy disagreement also promotes innovation and help teams avoid group think. 

       To keep disagreement healthy, teammates must remain respectful.Without mutual respect, disagreement can easily become toxic and devolve into personal attacks, destroying the culture of a team or the atomsphere in a home. 

       Heathy disagreement can be difficult to achieve for two reasons.

       The first is that some people have personalities that are simply more agreeable.This isn’t necessarily a bad thing ; highly agreeable people typically display a high degree of empathy and are natural peacekeepers. But taken too far, agreeableness can also become a weakness. It can tempt you to say things you don’t really mean or to resist speaking up when needed, like when it comes to giving constructive criticism.This can prove toxic in the long run. 

       The second reason healthy disagreement is difficult to achieve has to do with the way people tend to act in groups. People feel social pressure to agree with others, even when they don’t understand the reasons—or even when those reasons don’t make sense. 

       Put simply, people are often afraid to be different. 

       For example, a series of experiments by psychologist Solomon Asch showed that a large percentage of people (up to 75%) tend to go along with the decisions of a group, even when the decision doesn’t make any sense.This has to do with what we call “ social conformity” , or , in more simple terms, peer pressure. Interestingly. Asch found in his experiments that when just one person spoke up to give a correct answer, the number of subjetcs willing to conform dramatically lowered. In other words, by simply voicing your opinion, not only can you gain confidence to do the right thing when surrounded by others who don’t, you can actually help others do the right thing, too. 

       There are a few things you can do to promote a culture of healthy disagreement. First of all, don’t disagree just for the sake of disagreeing. But if you lean far on the “agreeable” spectrum, you have to learn how to speak up when needed. One way to do this is to ask yourself : If I don’t say this, will I regret it later? Remember, though, when you do speak up, do so respectfully. Often, it’s not what you say that people take the wrong way; rather, it’s how you say it. So, strive to really understand your teammates’ position before countering it.

        If you are the type who isn’t afraid to speak up even when everyone else agrees, keep doing so respectfully. Or, if you are the opposite ,the next time someone speaks up or starts to rock your boat, resist the urge to dismiss them as “ difficult.” Remember the value they bring and the power of those two emotionally-intelligent words: healthy disagreement.