Ethical education involves teaching students about morals and values, based on the subject of their study. While many parents prefer to teach morality in their home, some academic sources offer a unique moral lesson that is implicit in the field. For instance, American history teaches about the value of equality from the pleas of founders for self-governance, the struggle against segregation and the suffrage movement. While parents and teachers can explain the value of equality to students, a thematic teaching approach shows students the reasons why this value is so important from a historical perspective.
Writing new lesson plans can be a daunting task, but many textbooks offer a thematic teaching plan included in the teacher's reference material. You are free to add your own resources to the information they provide, such as additional readings, beneficial worksheets and lectures over areas that the given plan does not cover. The thematic approach gives teachers a specific perspective to use when you determine how to approach a new topic. As an example, you could approach the suffrage movement through your equality theme, focusing on the specific desires of the women who led the movement and including information about the differences in rights between men and women in the early 20th century.
Students who are unreceptive to studying dates and facts can find the thematic approach more fulfilling. They have the opportunity to learn more than the basic information about their subject, studying the reasons for things developing the way they did. For instance, you can use your equality theme to connect historical events, such as suffrage and segregation, showing how different groups fought for similar ideals. This perspective also helps you show how these events affect each other, influencing and inspiring each other.
Many students find learning easier if motivated by the subject they are studying. A carefully selected theme can be this motivational force, if you select themes to which students can connect. As an example, students may connect to issues of inequality, based on their own teenage desires for independence from their parents.