Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is creating respect for everyone and building communities with a common sense of belonging. It also notes to helping learners become responsible and active global citizens (United Nations, n.d.).
Implementing this notion of global citizens is important for students to learn about events happening around the globe so they can form ideas and solutions to problems and become vital citizens of the world (Unesco, 2015).
To allow my students the opportunity to practice becoming a global citizen, I would present them with a project to answer a global topic that is related to the content being taught.
I would approach this task with Project Based Learning (PBL), this style of learning allows the students to learn about a topic as the unit progresses instead at the end of a unit as a ‘recap’ of the learning (Buck Institute for Education, 2023). PBL is largely focused on student inquiry rather than the teacher explicitly providing instruction. This approach to learning provides ‘real’ world contexts and can allow students to explore different issues happening around them and potential solutions to resolve them.
As a teacher, I would present my students with various global topics and allow them to select which one they would like to research. The topics will include, deforestation, ocean pollution, air pollution, overfishing and climate change. These topics can be linked to general capabilities (GCs) and Cross Curriculum Priorities (CCPs). The GCs and CCPs that can be linked to this learning approach are Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical Understanding and Sustainability.
I plan to approach my students with an introduction of the different topics. These introductions may be in the form of a video (linked below), infographic (linked below), a documentary or a PowerPoint presentation. After the students have been introduced to the topics, they will choose one and they will be asked a question. This question becomes the focus of their project for the unit. The questions may be like, “what might be the effects that ocean pollution will have on future generations and how will you provide a solution to this?”. The students will then have the opportunity to work on this question and present the class with a multimedia presentation. The audience will need to write down 2 interesting facts and 3 sentences to summarise what they have been taught from the students’ project. This allows students to take initiative of their own learning and have a student focused classroom instead of an explicit teaching focus. By the end of the unit, students will have gained insight on global issues that they can take into the real world and implement the solutions provided into their everyday lives, therefore becoming proactive global citizens.
Learning Links:
General Capabilities: AC9S9I01, AC9S9I02, AC9S9H04, AC9S9I07
Cross Curriculum Capabilities: AC9S9I02, AC9S9I07
Ocean pollution infographic:
Phung, S. (2021). From land to Sea: The Effects of Ocean Pollution. World Ocean Network. Retrieved from, https://www.behance.net/gallery/116182411/From-Land-to-Sea-The-Effects-of-Ocean-Pollution
Deforestation video:
National Geographic. (2017). Climate Change 101: Deforestation. National Geographic. Retrieved from, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic-J6hcSKa8
Reference List:
ACARA. (2024). F-10 Curriculum. V9Australian Curriculum. Retrieved from, https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/learning-areas/science/year-9?view=quick&detailed-content-descriptions=0&hide-ccp=0&hide-gc=0&side-by-side=1&strands-start-index=0
Buck Institute for Education. (2019). PBLWorks. Pblworks.org. Retrieved from,
https://www.pblworks.org/
United Nations. (n.d.). Global Citizenship Education. United Nations – Academic Impact. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/page/global-citizenship-education
