Global Mind-set
“Despite debates over immigration policy, or perhaps in light of it, it’s
important to teach students to see themselves as global citizens. The world’s
economy is deeply intertwined, and technology continues to evaporate borders”, (Barack,
2018, para. 4).
Global mind-set is here to stay and grow. And with
that come new challenges, especially in education. The industrial model of
education, with its sameness across borders, is no longer relevant. When you
have classrooms with multi-linguistic and multi-culture students and a
staffroom filled with similar variety, education as it is seems fossilized.
“If there is a growing realization of the
desirability of flexibility and diversity and of the
need
to move away from a ‘one size fits all’ mentality in education, what vision of
development is this thinking related to?” (Dighe,
2000, pp. 2).
A number of attempts have been made. Special needs
support, language support for second languages and remedial classes. However,
each of this further divides a set of individuals with new labels. Hence its
effect is limited. “…what is required is designing diversified educational
models that meet the specific needs of each group”, (Dighe, 2000, pp. 2). That is,
a model that caters to variety in the groups that we meet. Hence, principles of
learning design must change.
“Curriculum
designers can explore offering immersion programs to expose students to
cross-cultural experiences”, (Barack, 2018, para. 5). I never knew when I was teaching that
I was working towards global mind-set. In an honest reflection, I can see that
the experiences curated by me, amateur though, had several objectives at heart
that pointed to developing global mind-set.
Maths
Classroom
"You can take any unit and change it a little so
that students really start to see the world globally”, (JSIS, 2013, para.4). When
one weaves skills into lessons with learning about global issues, the immersion
is ready!
“I define
global competency as the knowledge and skills people need to understand today's
flat world and to integrate across disciplines so that they can comprehend
global events and create possibilities to address them”, (Reimers, 2009, para.
3). However, it need not be complex. Integration of global thought processes in
lessons is not that hard when you want to keep things simple.
I give here 5 examples of lessons and assessment to
illustrate this point. For all these examples, the setting is mixed. It changes
between collaboration to individual. The other skills that come into question
are communication, organisation, technology use, empathy and intrapersonal
intelligence.
1.
Geometry: Explore
geometric art as practiced by artists across the world when doing geometry.
Especially one can explore mosaics in a church or even Islamic art, which is
heavily based on geometry. One can set up an inquiry lesson with questions such
as ‘why geometry?’ and take it deep into the culture. Then bring it back to
local by designing art based on geometry for the immediate environment. What
kind of art would be best for the same? The design can be of the choice of the
student to bring in personal creativity.
2.
Ratio: Explore girl boy
ratio in different countries and inquire into the reasons for the ratio tilting
more towards boys in various countries. Watch movie clippings to show how
cinema treats this issue and organize a debate. Then bring it to local by brainstorming how each of the students can make a difference in the school and at
home. Each student can write a short reflective note on how he or she is going
to make a difference. The best note can go into the school magazine.
3.
Number System: With number
system, one can dive deep into history and explore the origins of numbers and
how various civilizations came together to have the final number system that we
have for now. Inquire into the positives and negatives of the various systems
that we have had. For personal creativity, students can work in groups and take
any number system. Then build a game for others to play for mastery of the
system.
4.
Data Handling: “…students can also learn
mathematics by using real data concerning significant global issues such as
population growth…”, (Asia
Society/OECD, 2018, pp.21). Data handling is a topic that can be stretched in
any directions as much as one want. Students can study population dynamics in
different countries and compare and contrast them using graphs. Then they can
assess if the growth is reasonable in different countries and what can be done
to improve it. Finally, they present it with the medium of their choice.
5.
Percentage:
Use percentage to analyze urban and rural choices of food and infer which strata
is more intelligent about diet patterns. Then they can create a presentation to
educate the rest of the school on informed choices for food, as learnt from
both sectors.
Assessment
If one is aiming to develop global mind-set through
the local classroom subject teaching, then to have an assessment that caters to
subject knowledge and analyses only is very narrow. Such an assessment would
ultimately defeat all the efforts of the learning design. For why should I work
towards learning about global ideas if I am heading for an exam that tests my
subject knowledge only?
All the five examples given above use inquiry model to
learn. They can be converted to a project or to a problem solving class. Some
of the work can be collaborative, marked as C in the list or individual, marked
as I in the list. Either way, the assessment needs to be integrated and can
focus on the following:
1.
(a) Questions on Geometry
properties (C/I), (b) reflective piece on geometry and art with examples
globally (I) and (c) the design created (C).
2.
(a) Questions on ratio
(C/I), (b) essay on girl boy ratio across nations with analyses (C) and (c)
individual changes for choices in future (I).
3.
(a) Problems from various
number systems (C), (b) games prepared (C) and (c) reflection on the session
(I).
4.
(a) Mathematical accuracy
(C), (b) presentation (C) and (c) reflections (I)
5.
(a) Questions on
percentage(C), (b) presentation (C) and (c) reflections (I)
While the assessment for maths can be done using
traditional methods. The rest would require rubrics and involve self, peer as
well as teacher assessment. Asking students to assess each other with reasoning
is a great exercise in learning and communication!
Conclusion
A class of maths studies I took once with students
completely closed to maths. I showed them a video on how maths is present in
the world of nature and gave them a sheet with questions requiring maths a
reflection. Most of my classes used to fail with them. This one was a success
with stars in the eyes of the students as they explored nature, creative
writing and…bit of maths. There was a visible change in their attitude to maths
and learning.
We don’t need to do anything to develop students’ intrinsic motivation
for learning with a global mind-set. It is already there! All we need is to
create experience that give space for it to be expressed creatively. And when
we add formative assessment to it, they feel their efforts are recognized, and
there is no end to learning. “An organized, bottom-up,
teacher-led movement can advance global education in ways that advocates have
been unable to do so far, (Reimers, 2009, para. 26).
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