Four+Corners

The four corners teaching technique asks students to make a choice, and defend that choice. The teacher asks a question and puts up posters labeled with the possible choices in the four corners of the classroom. Students move around the classroom, read the options and stand in the corner of their choice. Students then discuss the reasons for their choice as a group in each corner (or in pairs). Each group then either writes down the top two reasons for choosing that option on the poster in their corner, or tell the class as a whole why they chose that option. This teaching strategy encourages conversation, which boosts higher level thinking.

Instead of a question, the teacher may give a statement and then have Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree in the corners.

This strategy can be useful when students are not motivated and need some meaningful physical movement in order to refocus.

Benefits to students: helps to develop listening skills, verbal communication, critical thinking and decision-making skills in a group activity.

For evaluation, once again, I would informally evaluation participation in the discussions, but also use product assessment by asking them to write a journal entry after the activity to answer questions such as: Why did you make the choice that you did? What influenced your decision? Did another student influence you in your decision making? Did you have difficulty making a choice from the four corners? Why? Did you have a different choice in mind that was not available?

The first place that comes to mind as to where in business education I would use Four Corners, is in the Accounting curriculum when Taxation is covered. There are so many false perceptions out there about taxes - what you can claim, what you cannot, etc. There would be a lot of areas to incorporate this activity into Law as well.

Sources: [|Four Corners] [|Four Corners Teaching Strategy]