Lesson Plan

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Lesson Plan
Grade: Date: 17/01/2026
Subject: Economics
Lesson Topic: composite indicators: Human Development Index (HDI)
Learning Objective/s:
  • Describe the three dimensions and associated indicators of the HDI.
  • Explain the min‑max normalization and geometric aggregation used to calculate the HDI.
  • Calculate an HDI value from raw data using a spreadsheet or calculator.
  • Interpret HDI scores and classify countries into development categories.
  • Critically evaluate the limitations of the HDI and identify complementary indices.
Materials Needed:
  • Projector and screen
  • Whiteboard and markers
  • Printed handout with HDI data tables
  • Calculator or spreadsheet software
  • Laptop for teacher demonstration
  • Sample country data cards for pair work
 Introduction:
Begin with a quick poll: which single statistic do you usually think of when measuring a country's development? After a few responses, point out that GDP alone misses health and education, setting the stage for a more holistic measure. Explain that today’s success criteria are to compute and interpret the Human Development Index and discuss its strengths and weaknesses.
Lesson Structure:
  1. Do‑Now (5'): Students list one limitation of using GDP alone; share a few responses.
  2. Mini‑lecture (10'): Introduce HDI dimensions, indicators, and data sources with slides.
  3. Guided practice (12'): Demonstrate normalization formulas and calculate each dimension index using a sample dataset.
  4. Pair activity (10'): Learners compute the education index and overall HDI for a different country using calculators/spreadsheets.
  5. Class discussion (8'): Interpret the resulting HDI scores, classify development level, and discuss limitations.
  6. Extension (5'): Brief overview of IHDI, GDI, and MPI and when they are useful.
Conclusion:
Summarise that the HDI combines health, education, and income into a single comparable score, and that geometric aggregation prevents high performance in one area from masking low performance in another. For the exit ticket, ask learners to write one advantage and one drawback of the HDI. Homework: research a country’s latest HDI value and prepare a short paragraph linking it to recent policy changes.