Civics lesson note

1. “ Your Kids Our Kids!” “ ልጆችዎ ልጆቻችን ናቸው!”
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2022/23 Academic Year
•
1.
Civic and Ethical Education Lesson Note
For Grade 11

2. UNITTEN
ACTIVE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
LessonOne: Civic Participation
Objectives
 Describe the importance of civic participation
 Participate in civic societies
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• Civic is a word originated from the Latin words (civicus/ civis) which
means citizen.
• Civil is a term originated from the Latin word (civilis) which means
citizen.
• Civic participation is the participation of citizens in their society’s
life.
• It is the action of citizens outside of .

3. .........continued
Democracy cannot be built and maintained and there will not be peace,
stability and prosperity without citizens unreserved and full engagement.
Civic societies are:
• Non-governmental: associations established and function without
government interference.
• Not-for-profit: their goal is promoting the common good and welfare
of the society, not to maximize profit.
• Voluntary: established by its members free from governments
interference and by its members free will and membership is based on
individuals free will.
• Non-political party: they don't have the ambition to capture political
power.
• Civil: their actions are outside of religion, direct political participation
and military.

4. ............ continued
Civic societies are instrumental in:
 curbing poverty
fighting against human and democratic rights violation
enforcing laws and regulations
serving as a platform for training and learning (networking
leadership participation cooperation)
solving common problems like sanitary illiteracy crime
domestic violence terrorism etc.
forcing the government towards development, peace and
stability
providing humanitarian assistance

5. ............. Continued
Civic participation requires dedication, commitment, team spirit,
cooperation and being legal.
• Dedication and commitment refers to individual’s strength to maintain
the efforts until attaining the goals.
• Team spirit refers to the belief that common problems can be solved in
sustainable manner if it is tackled with other co-minded individuals.
• Cooperativeness refers the ability to work with others in an efficient
manner.
• Legal: civic actions should be done by respecting the laws of the land.
Class work
1. what are the objectives of Ethiopian women lawyers’ association?
2. What success did the Ethiopian women lawyers association achieved in
their effort wards fighting gender inequality?

6. Lesson Two: Monitoring and Influencing Actions of Government Bodies
Objectives
 Explain how to monitor and influence the actions of the government
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Any community that engages its members in the work of the community
can:
Collect more resources
Achieve more success and,
Developed in a more holistic and beneficial way.
Hence, empowering and enabling the community to be successfully
requires community participation.
There are two forms of community participation viz; political participation
and civic participation.

7. ..... continued
1. Political participation: is a form of community participation through
which the community make their voices heard and participate in political
issues.
Through political participation citizens influences the actions, plans, goals
and policies of the government. Put differently, they can influence and make
political decisions.
Some of the ways of political participation includes: voting in election,
financing election campaigns, lobbying, joining political parties, participate in
public debates, administrating ones Kebele, demonstration, etc.
Demonstration is public display by groups to show their support, sympathy
or disapproval towards a cause.
Funding Election Campaigns: organizing and publicizing party’s programs
and policies requires spending a lot of money. Supporting your political party
helps you to be the beneficiary of government actions and policies.

8. .......... continued
Lobbying is the act of influencing government bodies or officials to make
decisions for or against something/a certain cause/issue.
Lobby is an organized group of people who work together to influence
government decisions that relate to a particular industry.
Being a member of a political party enable members to have a say, shape and
design public policy or set public agenda.
Public policy is a promise pledged by competing parties that they are going to
do if they are elected. It is a general goal and procedures of a party.
Public agenda is a list of issues that are drafted to address a problem in society.
Public agenda setting is a process by which problems and alternative issues
gain or lose public and elite attention. Put differently, it is a process by which
social issues are adopted as governmental issues or policy problems.

9. The steps of forming public agenda
.
Problem
Identification
Publicizing
Debate on the
Problem
Problem
Analysis
Decision
Making

10. ......... continued
1. Problem identification
Members of the political party identifies and submit their societies gaps,
needs, problems, constraints, concern, goals, interests’, motives, etc.
2. Debate on the problem
Party members debate on the issue/problems raised by party members on the
necessity, severity and priority of the issue. If the issue being raised gets
strong support, it proceeds to the next step.
3. Problem analysis
Here, an issue with strong support from party members is clarified, its
boundary is established and key issues are established. Organization of the
data and information collected from the debate and using models to clarify
understand the issue are conducted here.

11. .......... continued
4. Decision making
Trade-offs are analyzed, decisions are made and common grounds are reached in
this stage.
• Trade-offs are the consequences of the actions to be taken and the risks or
costs of the decision.
• Common grounds are the values that individual holds in common
5. Publicity is dissemination of the public policy to the general public using
medias and word of mouth.

12. UNIT ELEVEN
THE PURSUIT OF WISDOM
LESSON ONE: the significance of knowledge
Objective
• Explain what reasoning and objectivity mean
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• Humans have a natural tendency to want to know more about the world.
• We have an instinctive thirst for knowledge.
• Knowledge has given us power on earth.
• We are able to reach up the environment in our desire.
• Today we are conquering outer space and have explored the moon.
• Knowledge has helped us developing the power of reasoning.

13. ....... continued
Reasoning is a process of thought that helped us make objective judgement.
Through the knowledge that we have and the reasoning that we develop we can
make objective judgement .
Objective judgement is a judgement which involve / use facts that are verifiable
by scientific methods. It doesn’t involve personal feelings, emotions and prejudice.
Democracy is based on citizens being knowledgeable and informed.
Reasoning can be deductive or inductive.
Inductive reasoning is a process of reasoning that moves from specific
observations to broader generalisations.
• It involves moving from specific to general and it's known as a botto up
approach.
• The truth of the premise doesn’t guarantee the truth of a conclusion
• It is fast and easy to use and we use it in our daily lives

14. ......... continued
Deductive reasoning moves from general statements to reach a logical
conclusion.
• It involves moving from general to specific and known as a top dupown
pproach.
• The conclusions has to be true if the premises are true.
• Comparatively is difficult to use as we need facts that are relevant and true.
Example - premise 1: man is mortal
premise 2: socrates is a man
conclusion: socrates is mortal

15. Lesson Two: Knowledge and Data
Objective
explain the purpose of analyzing data.
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Knowledge:
• The sum total of what has been perceived, discovered or inferred.
• Fact, ideas and skill shared throughout generations.
• The outcome of relevant data.
• Data are facts or figures obtained through observation or survey.
• Relevant data leads to relevant conclusion.
• Data serves as a basis of making calculations in drawing conclusions
• Processed data becomes useful information

16. ...... continued
Information is knowledge acquired about a specific subject as a result of
facts.
• Information is necessary to make an informed decision
Data Analysis is the process of evaluating data using analytical and
statistical tools.
• Data analysis involves data collection, inspecting, organizing,
transforming, analyzing and interpreting results.
The purposes of data analysis are, to:
• Discover useful information
• Inform
• Support decision making
• Suggest policy alternatives

17. Lesson Three: Reading For More Knowledge
Objective:
• Explain the purpose of reading
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===
• Knowledge can be obtained in various ways including reading,
observation, experimentation, research etc.
• Reading is a complex process (cognitive) of decoding symbols in order to
construct meaning.
• It means to understand the meaning of printed words, that is written
symbol. In the process the reader understands what the writer intended to
convey.
• It requires a complex sort of interaction between the text and the reader
which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experience, attitude and
language community.

18. .......... CONTINUED
The purpose of reading includes:
• To be knowledgeable: reading increases our general knowledge and
widens our mental horizon.
• Pleasure/ entertainment: novels, magazines, poems, play and other
literary workers are full of stories that inspires, creates fear, anger,
delight & euphoria.
• To function well in our everyday life (reading notices, forms, bills,
direction, street, signs, place name, etc.)
• To learn second language
• Get good grades
• Develops your imagination
• Helps you become an interesting person
• Introduce you to new ideas, people's, characters, etc
• It takes you to places and times you never visited and experienced

19. ....... continued
How to develop your reading skills?
• read fictious works
• commit to read
• start with short stories
• don’t consider reading as a worrisome task
• read aloud

20. lesson four: Truth versus Myth
Objectives
• Explain the difference between myth and truth.
• Be truthful in your dealings with others.
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Truth is the proven facts about something rather than what people generally accept.
Knowledge is truth about things in nature and society.
Myths are beliefs that are not true/proven scientifically. The basis of a myth is often
tradition.
Myth can be defined as traditional cultural beliefs that are not based on empirical
evidence.
Cultures hold myths as important though they may recognize that they are not true.
They may be used for social unity and to help give an understanding of how society
works.

21. ........... continued
• Although myths are important, they should not be a barrier to develop our
culture.
• With knowledge, the world has transformed a great deal. Knowledge is key to
improving the life of people. Knowledge, wisdom and truth are tools to a
good life. Today, governments are making use of knowledge to improve the
living conditions of people.
• Myths are unscientific stories that people would like to tell and believe.
Knowledge is truth.
Class work
1. Are there any other myths that you know of that have been disproved by
science? Share these with the rest of the class.
2. Are there any myths that have inspired you or any people that you know of?
What were they and how did they inspire.