My own children's experiences, coupled with my professional experiences with the families of inner city children leave me feeling skeptical that we, as a society, may not collectively have the mental fortitude, skills, energy, determination, concern and passion to make changes that will be necessary.
Yet I am hopeful that there are researchers and educators who are writing about what I have been feeling and saying for years: That we are still preparing our students for the industrial revolution when it is the age of technology and global economy we must be reaching toward; that there are people with the vision for what is needed, and that I am lucky enough to be in a group of adult students who are privy to this dialogue.
Chapter 1 questions:
I. From your perspective, in what ways are the societal and environmental transformations here described affecting your students’ lives today? How will they be affected in the future? Some young people are global thinkers, but many are mostly concerned with issues that affect only themselves and their families. It seems to me that today's Students are mostly apathetic, yet there are pockets of amazing kids doing amazing things to wake up their communities.
Like Etta Hanlon who devised a recycling program for Christmas Wrapping paper:
http://branford.patch.com/groups/becc-community-buzz/p/volunteers-needed-for-branford-holiday-paper-recycling-program
And the south African engineers who invented the Hippo water roller to help the women who have to travels miles everyday to carry water back to their families: http://www.hipporoller.org/
In New Haven the migration scenario affects some schools more than others due to the mix of urban communities and Yale University and Hospital sharing one city. Some schools still have homogeneous populations, while others have classrooms whose students represent up to 8 different countries. In Branford there is a trickling in of a variety of cultures in all of the schools. My own children are comfortable with the influx of different people and cultures. My son is 13 and his friends represent a variety of races and cultures. It is a positive experience as it opens their minds to perspectives other than their own and their own neighborhood's. That is a reciprocal relationship. In one of our pre-k programs a young boy from Africa stated that girls do not play basketball. Even at 3 and 4 years old, these girls were very angry at his statement. We discussed the topic and showed the African child pictures online of the UCONN Huskies Women's basketball team. we could have knocked him over with a feather. His reaction was priceless. I wish it would be that easy to affect change toward equity among genders and races the world over.
II. In your opinion, what are the key reasons for educating for global competence? What are the barriers such an education might confront?
Key reasons for Educating for global competence are:
To maintain a viable economy
Traditional jobs are becoming obsolete as computers perform the repetitive, manual jobs
Top jobs most in demand today did not exist 6 years ago
Moving from tolerance to acceptance of diversity
Countries economies are now more interdependent than others
Need to share resources more effectively
Technologies are changing and shaping communities/governments
Changes are needed to prevent decimation of natural resources
Barriers:
People innately reject change
Uninformed, uneducated people making decisions
Status quo is good enough for most
Need for developing curriculum for needs of global economy
Parents and communities resist new ideas of education and prefer outdated traditional curriculum
STEM and common core do not promote the higher order thinking and problem solving skills required for global societies.
III. In your current opinion, what distinguishes a high- from a low-quality education for global competence?
Today's traditional classrooms are failing our students. Teachers in low quality educational systems give research assignments then fault students for plagiarizing because the teacher did not lay the ground rules for using online resources. These teachers are still "lecturing" or presenting the information not allowing for students to explore, wonder, create themselves. They have technology but inadequate training to stay ahead of the skills of the digital natives they teach.
High quality education allows for hands-on, experiential learning, in environments that are connected to other communities; provide a variety of technology, teach foreign language in early grades through high school, promote thinking out of the box, problem solving and content areas beyond STEM to include the arts, history, geography, literature, business and ecology. Educators must challenge students to think beyond their own back yards, and beyond the immediate future, to grasp a deep understanding of issues of global significance.
Chapter 1 questions:
I. From your perspective, in what ways are the societal and environmental transformations here described affecting your students’ lives today? How will they be affected in the future? Some young people are global thinkers, but many are mostly concerned with issues that affect only themselves and their families. It seems to me that today's Students are mostly apathetic, yet there are pockets of amazing kids doing amazing things to wake up their communities.
Like Etta Hanlon who devised a recycling program for Christmas Wrapping paper:
http://branford.patch.com/groups/becc-community-buzz/p/volunteers-needed-for-branford-holiday-paper-recycling-program
And the south African engineers who invented the Hippo water roller to help the women who have to travels miles everyday to carry water back to their families: http://www.hipporoller.org/
In New Haven the migration scenario affects some schools more than others due to the mix of urban communities and Yale University and Hospital sharing one city. Some schools still have homogeneous populations, while others have classrooms whose students represent up to 8 different countries. In Branford there is a trickling in of a variety of cultures in all of the schools. My own children are comfortable with the influx of different people and cultures. My son is 13 and his friends represent a variety of races and cultures. It is a positive experience as it opens their minds to perspectives other than their own and their own neighborhood's. That is a reciprocal relationship. In one of our pre-k programs a young boy from Africa stated that girls do not play basketball. Even at 3 and 4 years old, these girls were very angry at his statement. We discussed the topic and showed the African child pictures online of the UCONN Huskies Women's basketball team. we could have knocked him over with a feather. His reaction was priceless. I wish it would be that easy to affect change toward equity among genders and races the world over.
II. In your opinion, what are the key reasons for educating for global competence? What are the barriers such an education might confront?
Key reasons for Educating for global competence are:
To maintain a viable economy
Traditional jobs are becoming obsolete as computers perform the repetitive, manual jobs
Top jobs most in demand today did not exist 6 years ago
Moving from tolerance to acceptance of diversity
Countries economies are now more interdependent than others
Need to share resources more effectively
Technologies are changing and shaping communities/governments
Changes are needed to prevent decimation of natural resources
Barriers:
People innately reject change
Uninformed, uneducated people making decisions
Status quo is good enough for most
Need for developing curriculum for needs of global economy
Parents and communities resist new ideas of education and prefer outdated traditional curriculum
STEM and common core do not promote the higher order thinking and problem solving skills required for global societies.
III. In your current opinion, what distinguishes a high- from a low-quality education for global competence?
Today's traditional classrooms are failing our students. Teachers in low quality educational systems give research assignments then fault students for plagiarizing because the teacher did not lay the ground rules for using online resources. These teachers are still "lecturing" or presenting the information not allowing for students to explore, wonder, create themselves. They have technology but inadequate training to stay ahead of the skills of the digital natives they teach.
High quality education allows for hands-on, experiential learning, in environments that are connected to other communities; provide a variety of technology, teach foreign language in early grades through high school, promote thinking out of the box, problem solving and content areas beyond STEM to include the arts, history, geography, literature, business and ecology. Educators must challenge students to think beyond their own back yards, and beyond the immediate future, to grasp a deep understanding of issues of global significance.
Gail, I agree that a huge obstacle to the suggested educational perspective is rejection of change. You mention that parents may resist new ideas in favor of "outdated curriculum" and I would also argue that some teachers do as well. The catch for me is how do we help teachers gain new global awareness and perspective? I am in total agreement of your entire last paragraph, well said.
ReplyDeleteJoan, I want so badly to share what I am learning with the teachers in my children's schools. But I know my enthusiasm is not appreciated (or welcome) I have emailed two teachers on two different occasions with a tool I thought would be wonderful for their curriculum. For Example, Storify is perfect for the History teacher who assigned 8 research questions saying students can use any resource, then made them all rewrite their answers saying they plagiarized. I sent it with a note explaining I was in grad school and just learned about this really great, user friendly tool... etc... no response. :(
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