Help Build the EdSteps Continuums
The Global Competence Continuum will give you and your students:
- An unprecedented look at what readers of varied ages and backgrounds value in the area of Global Competence.
- Access to a wide range of examples from across the country that illustrate Global Competence.
- Reference points to determine student growth in Global Competence.
- The ability to chart improvement in students’ Global Competence over the school year and over their entire educational careers.
You can help build the EdSteps Global Competence Continuum. Building the continuum will require at least 3,000 student work samples. The samples will have to represent a broad spectrum of student work in terms of grade level, demographics, ability level, and geography.
Work that Demonstrates Global Competence
Please submit student work that demonstrates Global Competence: the knowledge, skills, and disposition to understand and act creatively and innovatively on issues of global significance (issues that are global in scope or important local issues that are faced by others in the world). Examples of such issues are:
- Environmental sustainability.
- Population growth.
- Economic development.
- Global conflict and cooperation.
- Health and human development.
- Human rights.
- Cultural identity and diversity.
Students should investigate a specific problem or opportunity related to one of these issues or another critical global issue that is meaningful to them. The work should show how students:
- Investigate the world beyond their immediate environment.
- Recognize their own and others’ perspectives.
- Communicate their ideas effectively and with diverse audiences.
- Translate their ideas and findings into appropriate actions to improve conditions.
The resulting work may be created for a variety of purposes: to analyze, describe, critique, explain, persuade, tell a story, express an opinion, offer an artistic interpretation, and so on.
The work can take a variety of forms, such as:
- Written document (e.g., report, essay, story, screenplay, op-ed, poetry).
- Multimedia work (e.g., photo essay, short video, PowerPoint).
- Art of design (e.g., painting, sculpture, architectural design).
The Global Competence Matrix provides more detail on these elements.
Global Competence Matrix
INVESTIGATE
THE WORLD |
RECOGNIZE
PERSPECTIVES |
COMMUNICATE
IDEAS |
TAKE
ACTION |
| Students investigate the world beyond their immediate environment. |
Students recognize their own and others’ perspective. |
Students communicate their ideas effectively with diverse audiences. |
Students translate their ideas and findings into appropriate actions to improve conditions. |
Students:
Identify an issue, generate a question, and explain the significance of locally, regionally, or globally focused researchable questions.
Use a variety of languages and domestic and international sources and media to identify and weigh relevant evidence to address a globally significant researchable question.
Analyze, integrate and synthesize evidence collected to construct coherent responses to globally significant questions.
Develop an argument based on compelling evidence that considers multiple perspectives and draws defensible conclusions.
|
Students:
Recognize and express their own perspective on situations, events, issues or phenomena and identify the influences on that perspective.
Examine perspectives of other people, groups or schools of thought and identify the influences on those perspectives.
Explain how the cultural interactions influence situations, events, issues, or phenomena, including the development of knowledge.
Articulate how differential access to knowledge, technology, and resources affects quality of life and perspectives.
|
Students:
Recognize and expresse how diverse audiences may perceive different meanings from the same information and how that effects communication.
Listen to and communicate effectively with diverse people, using appropriate verbal and nonverbal behavior, languages, and strategies.
Select and use appropriate technology and media to communicate with diverse audiences.
Reflect on how effective communication affects understanding and collaboration in an interdependent world.
|
Students:
Identify and create opportunities for personal or collaborative action to address situations, events, issues, or phenomena in ways that improve conditions.
Assess options and plan actions based on evidence and the potential for impact, taking into account previous approaches, varied perspectives and potential consequences.
Act, personally or collaboratively, in creative and ethical ways to contribute to improvement locally, regionally, or globally and assess the impact of the actions taken.
Reflect on their capacity to advocate for and contribute to improvement locally, regionally, or globally.
|
For a copy of the Global Competence Matrix you can print, please Download the PDF. For a copy of the Global Competence Content-Area Matrices you can print, please Download the PDF.
Who Should Submit Work?
EdSteps seeks samples of writing from authors of all ages, including:
- From students in early childhood and elementary, middle, and high school.
- From college and graduate students.
- From individuals in the workplace.
- From teachers of all subject areas.
- In any form or genre, in all media, and for any audience or purpose.
- From students.
Building a Continuum of Student Work Demonstrating Global Competence
Once enough work samples are collected, the samples will be evaluated by readers from across the country using the Global Competence Matrix. We invite you to help us build the continuum by participating as a reader when the work samples are available later this year.
Note that when you submit, you will need contact information for the author's parent or guardian, if the author is under the age of 18. For a copy of the permission slip you can print, please click here. You will also be asked a few simple questions about each piece of work, a copy of which can be downloaded here.
Why Global Competence?
Teaching and assessing student work that addresses issues of global significance — around the world or in students’ own backyards — are essential to a world-class education system. The global marketplace is real, and today’s schools must prepare students to participate, interact, and thrive in it. The more our students know about recognizing the challenges and opportunities of an interconnected world, the better they will be able to work in it and improve it. Our students’ well-being, the vitality of our communities, and the welfare of our nation depend on it.
Resources for Global Competence:
Here are a few helpful resources related to Global Competence.
Reach the World
Reach the World (RTW) is a unique nonprofit organization with the mission of linking students and teachers to online, global journeys that have the power to expand learning beyond the four walls of the classroom.
Primary Source
Primary Source promotes history and humanities education by connecting educators with people and cultures throughout the world.
Global Youth Leadership Institute
GYLI delivers transformative educational programs that foster global pluralism, collaborative leadership, and environmental care and that help students and teachers become fully engaged citizens of the world
Facing the Future
Facing the Future engages students in learning by making academics relevant to their lives. We empower students to think critically, develop a global perspective, and participate in positive solutions for a sustainable future.
MHz Networks
MHz Networks is an independent, non-commercial television broadcaster delivering international, educational programming and providing diverse cultural perspectives for a globally-minded audience.
World Savvy is a global education nonprofit serving youth and educators through three core programs in three offices nationwide. Their mission is to educate and engage youth in community and world affairs, to prepare them to learn, work and live as responsible global citizens in the 21st century.