Brexit: Causes and ReferendumActivities & Teaching Strategies
Active learning transforms Brexit from a distant headline into a living debate where students interrogate primary evidence and take on roles. By researching, debating, and mapping, they move beyond memorizing facts to analyzing why half the country voted differently, seeing how history, economics, and identity intersect.
Learning Objectives
- 1Explain the primary historical and economic factors that contributed to the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
- 2Analyze the core arguments presented by both the 'Leave' and 'Remain' campaigns during the 2016 referendum.
- 3Evaluate the democratic legitimacy of the Brexit referendum by considering voter turnout and the implications of a simple majority decision.
- 4Compare the stated objectives of the 'Leave' campaign with the potential consequences highlighted by the 'Remain' campaign.
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Ready-to-Use Activities
Jigsaw: Key Brexit Causes
Divide class into expert groups, each assigned one cause like sovereignty, immigration, economy, or Euroscepticism history. Groups research and create summary posters with evidence. Experts then regroup to share and build a class cause-effect map.
Prepare & details
Explain the main reasons for the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
Facilitation Tip: When running the Jigsaw Research, assign each expert group a colored folder so students can physically rotate materials and track evidence sources.
Setup: Flexible seating for regrouping
Materials: Expert group reading packets, Note-taking template, Summary graphic organizer
Debate Carousel: Leave vs Remain
Set up stations for main arguments; pairs prepare 2-minute speeches for Leave or Remain. Rotate stations, responding to opponents' points with counter-evidence from campaigns. Conclude with whole-class vote reflection.
Prepare & details
Analyze the different perspectives and campaigns during the Brexit referendum.
Facilitation Tip: For the Debate Carousel, set a strict 2-minute transition between stations so students practice concise argumentation under time pressure.
Setup: Groups at tables with case materials
Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template
Timeline Build: Road to Referendum
Provide event cards from 1973 EEC entry to 2016 vote; small groups sequence them on a shared wall timeline, adding campaign quotes and regional impacts. Discuss how events built momentum.
Prepare & details
Evaluate the democratic legitimacy of the referendum process.
Facilitation Tip: During the Timeline Build, provide blank strips with dates already printed so students focus on causal connections rather than date accuracy.
Setup: Groups at tables with case materials
Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template
Mock Referendum: Voter Analysis
Students receive voter profiles based on real demographics; in pairs, they decide votes and justify using arguments. Tally results, compare to actual 2016 outcomes, and evaluate legitimacy factors like turnout.
Prepare & details
Explain the main reasons for the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
Facilitation Tip: In the Mock Referendum, give each voter a colored ballot and hang a large UK map to mark results visually as they cast votes.
Setup: Groups at tables with case materials
Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template
Teaching This Topic
Teachers succeed when they treat Brexit as a case study in contested democracy rather than a policy lecture. Avoid framing it as ‘leave or remain’; instead, focus students on how arguments were constructed and how turnout, regional identity, and constitutional roles shaped the outcome. Research shows that role-play and data mapping deepen empathy and analytical precision, especially when students confront real polling station maps and turnout disparities.
What to Expect
Students will show they can weigh competing claims, trace causal chains over time, and distinguish between advisory results and legal outcomes. Their work will reveal not just what happened but why perspectives varied so sharply across the UK.
These activities are a starting point. A full mission is the experience.
- Complete facilitation script with teacher dialogue
- Printable student materials, ready for class
- Differentiation strategies for every learner
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Common MisconceptionDuring Jigsaw Research: Students may claim Brexit resulted only from immigration fears.
What to Teach Instead
Use the card-sorting section of the Jigsaw Research: give groups sets of cause cards labeled sovereignty, immigration, economics, and institutional reform, then ask them to rank cards by importance and justify placements in a group consensus chart.
Common MisconceptionDuring Mock Referendum: Students may assume the referendum result legally forced Brexit.
What to Teach Instead
During the Mock Referendum, insert a parliamentary role-play mini-debate after votes are tallied. Assign some students as MPs who must argue whether the advisory result should translate into law, using printed constitutional excerpts as evidence.
Common MisconceptionDuring Timeline Build: Students may believe voting patterns were uniform across the UK.
What to Teach Instead
During the Timeline Build, pause after regional events like the Scottish independence referendum to overlay colored pins on the timeline map showing Leave/Remain results by region, prompting students to annotate disparities directly on their strips.
Assessment Ideas
After the Debate Carousel, pose the question: ‘Was the 2016 Brexit referendum a fair reflection of the UK’s democratic will?’ Ask students to identify at least two pieces of evidence from their carousel notes to support their argument, considering turnout and margin of victory.
After the Jigsaw Research, provide students with a card asking them to ‘Identify one key argument from the Leave campaign and one key argument from the Remain campaign.’ For each argument, students write one sentence explaining its core message based on their expert research.
During the Timeline Build, display a list of terms (e.g., Sovereignty, Article 50, Single Market) and ask students to write a one-sentence definition for each on a sticky note, then post definitions on the timeline strips as they build connections.
Extensions & Scaffolding
- Challenge early finishers to draft a 150-word speech for a fictional 2020 election where Brexit is still the central issue, incorporating at least two Leave and two Remain arguments.
- Scaffolding: Provide sentence starters like ‘One cause of Brexit was…’ on cards for the Jigsaw Research stations.
- Deeper exploration: Invite students to compare the 2016 referendum with the 2014 Scottish independence referendum by annotating parallel timelines for sovereignty themes.
Key Vocabulary
| Sovereignty | Supreme power or authority. In the context of Brexit, it refers to the desire for the UK Parliament to be the ultimate law-making body, free from EU directives. |
| European Union (EU) | A political and economic union of 27 member states located primarily in Europe. It operates an internal single market that allows free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. |
| Referendum | A direct vote by the electorate on a particular proposal or question. The Brexit referendum asked voters whether the UK should remain in or leave the EU. |
| Article 50 | The formal procedure within the Treaty on European Union laid out for a member state to withdraw from the EU. Triggering Article 50 began the official process for the UK's departure. |
| Single Market | A free trade area where member states have agreed to remove all barriers to the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labour. |
Suggested Methodologies
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