You see some second-grade students huddling around a teacher as she shares the story behind the book Eight Days: A Story of Haiti. And as you move down the hall, you see some fourth-grade students studying some compiled news articles to find out the human and environmental toll of all the plastic materials being manufactured, used, and dumped.
Up in the nearby high school, you see students putting up visual displays about the recent COVID-19 that show and explain the origin, mode of transmission, repercussions, policy debates, and corresponding social stigma of such a disease.
All of these students share one thing in common — they’re fully engaged in global learning.
What is Global Education?
So, what exactly is global learning? At the heart of this learning method is the premium placed on diverse perspectives and connections with the wider world.
These students are exposed to educational experiences that will enable them to respect and appreciate different points of view while understanding their individual connections to the bigger world in which they exist.
In doing so, they effectively collaborate and communicate across countries and cultures. If implemented consistently and across all learners, global education can lessen, if not eradicate, racism, cultural stigma, and other supremacy issues among races and cultures.
What Should Be Done?
Since it has so much potential for good, global learning should not be merely an elective option for some students. Instead, it should be open to everyone and made compulsory. Teachers can be creative with fun, relevant projects to engage students on the topic.
Why? Simply because global issues affect everyone. Most students these days are neither aware of these pressing global issues nor interested in tackling them unless they are exposed to the issues at school. If their knowledge, awareness, and perspectives can be widened, you can help train them to take action and to be more empathetic. Apart from this, global education can help shape the holistic success of a student where it’s possible for him to be academically inclined, empathetic, and critical all at the same time.
Improve Student Engagement
If students learn through real-world experiences and authentic tasks, they become more engaged, which in turn can encourage higher school attendance and achievement. Since they get to see and experience what they’re learning, it’s easy for them to visualize the concepts and ideas they are reading about. In essence, they’re learning beyond the theories in books. Say, for example, you’re teaching kids to speak Spanish. The best way to do that is by allowing them to speak with somebody whose native language is Spanish. You could invite someone who speaks fluent Spanish or you can let them meet via Skype. It’s easier if learning is experiential.
If you’re teaching students how to write an argumentative essay, it’s better to have them debate on global issues you can pull straight from the newspaper headlines instead of lecturing them about the technical parts of an essay.
Preparedness for College and Future Career
It’s a fact that the economy is global. Currently, there are more than 40 million jobs that are tied to international trade. As such, employers are more than eager to have graduates with cross-cultural awareness and skills that can make them work effectively in diverse teams and clients from all parts of the globe.
If students are given the opportunity to understand how the wider world and diverse cultures, people, and perspectives converge, they will have a competitive advantage in the global marketplace.
These are just a few of the benefits students can get from a global kind of learning environment. The point is, global education is not just a trend that offers shallow benefits. The impact of such a learning process on your kids’ minds and character is phenomenal. You’ll be amazed at how critical and aware your kids can become.
If you’re convinced that your child needs a learning environment that cultivates global learning, enroll them in international institutions like the American International College. It will be an amazing investment for their future.
