Global Perspectives for the 21st century learners in the 21st century classrooms to develop citizens for the 22nd century.
Uncategorized Mar 08, 2022
Global Perspectives for the 21st century learners in the 21st century classrooms to develop citizens for the 22nd century.
Living in a globalised world with the world changing rapidly, with the fast-paced globalised economy creating opportunities, providing multifarious challenges, unpredictability which necessitates thinking on one’s feet and competition and innovation evolving at a breakneck speed, it is crucial that OUR learners understand the world around them.
Students across the globe are their future co-workers as much as they are their competitors, and it is vital to see and understand how the world works, and how we are all interconnected through a common ecosystem, trade, media, digital technology, travel and politics. One of the most valuable lessons for the future generation to be successful is the need to learn, to be informed, understand and appreciate perspectives other than their own.
This objective of exposing students to the global scenario and enabling them to participate in shaping a better, shared future is made possible with the subject — Global Perspectives introduced by The Cambridge International Examinations. The study of this discipline leads to unity and interdependence of human society, allowing learners to develop a strong sense of self, in addition to appreciating cultural diversity, affirming human rights and social justice, building peace and working towards a sustainable future around the globe.
I enjoy implementing Global Perspectives with my learners following the 4 C’s- Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication and Collaboration. This school of thought-Globalization in education can be brought into our 21st century classrooms in many interesting ways.
- Including stories from around the world through books, videos, and documentaries, as these are excellent ways to introduce children to other cultures that they may not be familiar with.
- Getting involved in projects after extensive research on global solutions to local issues.
- Planning educational tours worldwide, for example, Green School, Bali.
- Connecting with other global educators through our Cambridge School network.
- Applying for the ‘Teachers for Global Classrooms Programme.’
- Interfacing with classrooms across Cambridge International Schools across the globe.
- Organizing theme — based Special Events & Projects
- Cross curriculum unit of work
- Introducing students to Media & Research
During my research into implementation of topics, I stumbled upon ‘Deliberation for Global Perspectives’ from the Centre for the Study of Global change. The DGP lesson plan involves a six step process in which students:
IDENTIFY- DEFINE — INVESTIGATE- DELIBERATE-REFLECT and ACT on their core values relating it to topics with local, national and global implications. This gives students a ‘hands- on and minds-on approach and enables them to delve deep into the topic, through research and analysis.
Global Perspectives is a dynamic and an evolving subject, exposing international concerns, fostering a wider understanding of world issues and a commitment to change. Implementing this in our classrooms across grades 3–10, we have found that
Global Perspectives as a subject:
- Focuses on society and environments we live in.
- Fosters critical thinking and communication in classrooms.
- Provides opportunities to explore change in an effort to build peace, strive for human rights and share responsibilities across genders, classes and different strata of society, equipping them to face challenges in the future.
- An opportunity for students to develop positive and responsible values/attitudes/skills and encourage active participation across all realms.
Global Perspectives is one subject that encourages a child to explore learning across different subjects. It can be widely integrated across subjects of Arts, Mathematics, English, Geography, Social Sciences and Technology not essentially limited to these disciplines. Special projects that are led by inquiry/project based learning in a learner centric classroom provide opportunities for students to be engaged and is proven to have a lasting educational impact on all learners.
We ended our last academic year with a year- end programme focussing on the theme, ‘We the Change Makers towards Climate change,’ where the learners of early years programme brought out the NEED for the action, the primary and middle school worked on putting together props and costumes made out of waste , and the high school presenting facts, figures and plan of action with the data collated from surveys conducted over the year, interviews with residents and government officials and visits to laboratories.
At Pallikkoodam Coimbatore , the first 21st century school in Tamil Nadu, Global Perspectives is a welcomed subject as it focuses on the 4C’s of a 21st century learning environment.
This is one subject that instils in its learners awareness, sense of responsibility, thereby getting them ‘future ready’ to handle conflicts and thrive in the 22nd century, an era of the unknown.
Swetha Krishnamurthy, M.B.A,M.Ed(Research University of Birmingham)
Founder, Rak’s Pallikkoodam School of Excellence,
Coimbatore,Tamil Nadu,India.
Handling Global Perspective for Grade7,8.