Raising pupils' achievements
This unit will help you assess how using the global dimension raises pupils' achievements. You will explore some ways in which informal and formal assessment can be a positive experience when based on pupil-centred and active methodologies that are integrated with and part of the philosophy of teaching the global dimension.
You will want to assess the knowledge, understanding and skills that pupils have gained and the extent to which pupils' values, attitudes and feelings are changing as a result of teaching the global dimension. You will also want to celebrate achievements and successes.
Being a global teacher
Click on the thumbnail below and look at the two cartoons (Steiner, 1993, p. 21, and Hicks and Steiner, 1989, reproduced in Steiner, 1993, p. 21).
Is
it this?; Or is it this?How do you feel about them? Do you identify with either one or with elements of both? With neither? Would a teacher with awareness of the global dimension be different? Make notes on the questions. Alternatively, draw your own global teacher cartoon and annotate it. Don't worry, no-one will see it - but keep it for reference at the end of the unit!
Self-reflection is an important aspect of knowing what we want to achieve and assessing the progress that we are making towards our goals. It can become a useful aspect of the assessment of achievement in teaching and learning the global dimension - for you and your pupils.
Now look at the activity on the right, which you can carry out with your pupils. This activity is designed to help pupils develop a sense of what they themselves want to achieve. It also gives them the chance to reflect on their own understanding and sense of themselves and their relationship to the wider world. Self-assessment plays an important part in assessment. Motivation can be high if pupils learn to set their own goals and see their learning as a journey towards these goals.
Activity Resources:
- Images
- Interactive
- Sound
- Text
- Video
Activity
- Ask pupils to think about what a 'global citizen' is like. Have a short discussion. If they find it hard, ask first for ideas about being a 'good citizen'. They will probably mention aspects of social consciousness like picking up litter or helping old people. You can prompt them to widen this to the idea of a 'global citizen' by referring to the actions of the 'good citizen' and asking how these might relate to the wider world. For instance, picking up litter might lead them to think about the environment, which could lead to thinking about how a global citizen might make their own contribution to reducing global warming, such as cycling to school.
- After a short discussion and before all the ideas are exhausted give each pupil three small blank pieces of paper or card. Ask each pupil to write three different ideas about what a global citizen knows or can do, or thinks or feels, on the three separate pieces of paper. Then ask pupils to work in pairs or threes. They should share their ideas on the pieces of paper and group or cluster them if there are similarities.
- Then ask for feedback from each group. As the ideas are reported write them up on the board or a flipchart, trying to group them as you go. Do any themes emerge? Are there any other aspects which have been forgotten? Ask each group then to write a group statement entitled 'A global citizen is ...' and make it into a poster.
Taking it further
You could make a wall display of these posters. This could provide a good starting point for further discussion about what we want the world to be like and the actions of people that can make a better world. It could provide stimulus for role play and drama. The display can also provide a reference point for assessment and evaluation during subsequent work incorporating the global dimension.
