Empowering Global Citizens

guided by their teachers in developing these projects, they will ultimately be
encouraged and able to carry out their projects independently.

PROJECT—BASED AND GROUP LEARNING

Emphasizing the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes thrhough
project—based, cumulative sequences of units within and across grades, our vari—
ous units about different cultures and regions of the world were intended to
cultivate the students’ ability not only to seek and identify the best global prac—
tices and to transfer them across geographic, disciplinary, and professional con—
texts but also to recognize how these different geographic, cultural, and other
perspectives matter in devising effective solutions to global challenges. Instead
of being asked to merely engage in individualized learning, students are asked
to interact with others, learn with others, and influence others. For example, in
grade five they are asked to create an awareness project about the SDGs; then
in grade six, they are asked to implement an advocacy project about the SDGs.

ASSESSMENT: MORE T HANA NUMBER

From kindergarten, students not only learn but also are engaged in demon—
strating their understanding of what they’ve learned throughout the year. We
integrated formative and summative assessments into the course because we
believe that global competency and twenty—first—century learning require au—
thentic forms of assessment (Greenstein, 2012). More than merely display—
ing knowledge, students are asked to engage in creating a product, whether
that product is a puppet show (kindergarten), a book (first grade), 3 busi-
ness plan (third grade), a game (fourth grade), or a social enterprise (eighth
grade). Learning is constructed as cumulative, with knowledge building on
prior experience and understanding. For example, in third grade, students
learn to understand global interdependence through participating in cre—
ating a social—enterprise project in chocolate manufacturing. The learning
objective is to build an entrepreneurial spirit in young children through an
understanding of global food chains and the ethics of free trade and child
labor using the case of chocolate. The primary geographic focus is on West
Africa’s chocolate—manufacturing countries.

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