Global Education is something that I would wager is not at the forefront of many teachers minds. Speaking from personal experience, it has often not been something I have put much though into, especially prior to completing my Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology in 2016. Since that time, I have made more of an effort to think from a global perspective. Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) (2014) lists framework points for states to focus on in order to help educators focus on Global Education. The list begins with focus on teachers: for students to be global, teachers must be global. I think this is essential for students to be global minded, teachers must be. You cannot teach someone something that you do not know yourself. I think many teachers do not intend to neglect talking about how people around the globe are impacted by others around them. Teachers are not intentional about starting and maintaining conversations, so the conversations do not happen. P21 also lists transform and leverage language learning as an action that needs to be taken. This means students need to learn other languages to be able to effectively communicate with people around the world. I somewhat agree with this. I think it is important for students to learn more about other cultures and languages, however English is the third most spoken language in the world with Mandarin Chinese being first and Spanish being second. I would advocate for students to learn Chinese or Spanish since they are the first and second most spoken languages respectively (Lane, 2018).
P21 also lists some essential elements for state leadership including adopting global competency standards, having effective and scalable teacher support, approaching language differently (as talked about above), having whole school models, networking and recognizing districts, and providing global experiences for students and educators. The P21 article goes into much more detail on each of the essential elements listed. The one that was most pertinent to me was to provide teacher support, resources and tools. The framework mentions that states should provide content for teachers to embed global themes and problem based learning (PBL) that focuses on global issues. As I wrote about above, it is not that teachers intend to leave out topics related to global education, it is that they are not intentional about including it. A curriculum with resources specifically for including global education would help educators to put their focus there.
The P21 Teacher Guide for K-12 Global Competence Grade Level Indicators (2014) gives outcomes by grade level based on attitudes, skills, and knowledge. The indicators are a great place to start for educators trying to implement global competencies. The indicators are broken into four levels: understanding, investigating, connecting, and integrating. Each level gives a description of what can be expected of students in that level. I think these indicators/levels give a fair representation of where students stand in the area of global awareness.
The last article is a case study that provides an example of PBL and videoconferencing being used in the classroom to expand students global awareness and involvement. According to Hopper (2014), a school in Texas designed and implemented global projects built on existing curriculum. “With a curriculum topic and a distant partner, collaborations enabled students to learn about other countries and work on projects while also developing relationships with students and teachers around the world” (Hopper, 2014, p. 80). Students were able to interact with other students from 13 other countries and five states within the United States. The students used videoconferencing to collaborate. That particular school found many successes in the process and outcome. While completing my Master’s program I had the opportunity to use Skype to conference with students from other states in a kindergarten and a third grade class. Both were successful in letting students experience what it is like in other states. We were unable to videoconference with people from other countries due to differences in time. We did have the opportunity to meet an author and learn about the writing process. Video conferencing can be such a valuable resource for all types of learning, but especially for global awareness and education.
I have had an opportunity to bring some of the ideas for increasing global awareness into the classrooms I co-teach in. As stated above I facilitated Skype video calls with students from around the United States and with an author of a children’s book. Students really engaged in the discussion during and after the experiences with the teacher about cultural differences and similarities. This was a great way to start conversations about global matters. I have also shown videos to students and tried to help them put themselves in someone else’s place to see what it is like. Google Maps has also brought awareness to physical global differences such as land forms, climates, and conditions of roads and buildings (via street view). Technology is such a vast resource that can really shed some light on other parts of the globe. I teach in a relatively small impoverished community and many of the students will never have the opportunity to go to other places. Technology brings them an opportunity to see landmarks, watch videos about other cultures, interact with different types of people, and gain an understanding of what people in other places face. It gives them the opportunity to learn about other cultures and their traditions. I will continue to encourage students to use the tools available to them to learn more about other people from around the globe.
Works Cited:
Hopper, S.B. (2014). Bringing the world to the classroom through videoconferencing and project-based learning. TechTrends, 58(3), 78-88.
Lane, J. (2018). The 10 most spoken languages in the world. Babbel Magazine. Retrieved on November 25, 2018 from https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-10-most-spoken-languages-in-the-world/
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2014). Framework for state action on global education. Retrieved on November 25, 2018, from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/Global_Education/p21_state_framework_on_global_education.pdf
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2014). Teacher guide: K-12 global competence grade-level indicators. Retrieved on November 25, 2018, from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/Global_Education/P21_K-12_Global_Ed_Indicators.pdf
P21 also lists some essential elements for state leadership including adopting global competency standards, having effective and scalable teacher support, approaching language differently (as talked about above), having whole school models, networking and recognizing districts, and providing global experiences for students and educators. The P21 article goes into much more detail on each of the essential elements listed. The one that was most pertinent to me was to provide teacher support, resources and tools. The framework mentions that states should provide content for teachers to embed global themes and problem based learning (PBL) that focuses on global issues. As I wrote about above, it is not that teachers intend to leave out topics related to global education, it is that they are not intentional about including it. A curriculum with resources specifically for including global education would help educators to put their focus there.
The P21 Teacher Guide for K-12 Global Competence Grade Level Indicators (2014) gives outcomes by grade level based on attitudes, skills, and knowledge. The indicators are a great place to start for educators trying to implement global competencies. The indicators are broken into four levels: understanding, investigating, connecting, and integrating. Each level gives a description of what can be expected of students in that level. I think these indicators/levels give a fair representation of where students stand in the area of global awareness.
The last article is a case study that provides an example of PBL and videoconferencing being used in the classroom to expand students global awareness and involvement. According to Hopper (2014), a school in Texas designed and implemented global projects built on existing curriculum. “With a curriculum topic and a distant partner, collaborations enabled students to learn about other countries and work on projects while also developing relationships with students and teachers around the world” (Hopper, 2014, p. 80). Students were able to interact with other students from 13 other countries and five states within the United States. The students used videoconferencing to collaborate. That particular school found many successes in the process and outcome. While completing my Master’s program I had the opportunity to use Skype to conference with students from other states in a kindergarten and a third grade class. Both were successful in letting students experience what it is like in other states. We were unable to videoconference with people from other countries due to differences in time. We did have the opportunity to meet an author and learn about the writing process. Video conferencing can be such a valuable resource for all types of learning, but especially for global awareness and education.
I have had an opportunity to bring some of the ideas for increasing global awareness into the classrooms I co-teach in. As stated above I facilitated Skype video calls with students from around the United States and with an author of a children’s book. Students really engaged in the discussion during and after the experiences with the teacher about cultural differences and similarities. This was a great way to start conversations about global matters. I have also shown videos to students and tried to help them put themselves in someone else’s place to see what it is like. Google Maps has also brought awareness to physical global differences such as land forms, climates, and conditions of roads and buildings (via street view). Technology is such a vast resource that can really shed some light on other parts of the globe. I teach in a relatively small impoverished community and many of the students will never have the opportunity to go to other places. Technology brings them an opportunity to see landmarks, watch videos about other cultures, interact with different types of people, and gain an understanding of what people in other places face. It gives them the opportunity to learn about other cultures and their traditions. I will continue to encourage students to use the tools available to them to learn more about other people from around the globe.
Works Cited:
Hopper, S.B. (2014). Bringing the world to the classroom through videoconferencing and project-based learning. TechTrends, 58(3), 78-88.
Lane, J. (2018). The 10 most spoken languages in the world. Babbel Magazine. Retrieved on November 25, 2018 from https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-10-most-spoken-languages-in-the-world/
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2014). Framework for state action on global education. Retrieved on November 25, 2018, from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/Global_Education/p21_state_framework_on_global_education.pdf
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2014). Teacher guide: K-12 global competence grade-level indicators. Retrieved on November 25, 2018, from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/Global_Education/P21_K-12_Global_Ed_Indicators.pdf