Global Awareness in Education America has a widespread lack of knowledge in the world around us as most of our society remains ill-informed about foreign currency, traditions or policies. Americans often state that other countries have more knowledge about the world and are able to better adapt to travels beyond their area. One of the matters to blame for our lack of knowledge in the world beyond us is our American education system and the inability to mold students into globally aware citizens. The article, “School of Education at Johns Hopkins University-The Merge of Global Awareness and Classroom Culture: Helping Future Teachers Meet New Challenges” by Camille A. Allen and George Antone of Salve Regina University explains the importance …show more content…
First I have learned in many of my classes that working with the ELL students in your classroom and sharing information about where they are from and what traditions they are accustomed to is a great opportunity to introduce the world beyond America to students. Second, from the presentation our class received about refugee students, there are many opportunities and services for teachers to use to become more familiar with the world beyond them and transfer the knowledge to the students. Finally, I have also learned from the presentation that America is severely lacking in the amount of knowledge in other countries and places. Teachers need to be aware of the lack and educate themselves to make better, smarter and more prepared students. Global awareness in education is something that is not talked about much, but is an issue within American schooling. Many American students have little to no knowledge on important aspects to their outside world. Since American teachers have been taught through the education system growing up, it is important that they are able to research and become knowledgeable on such aspects to our outside world. In this way, according to Allen and Antone students are able to stay engaged, understand their world beyond their own community and be more successful as
What is more important to education? The content or the how the content is taught? Many policy makers today believe that the former is far more crucial to the development of our youth. With high-stakes testing and an entire industry of textbooks and test making, the current system places empirical results over all else. Unfortunately, this approach only helps with the lower levels on the depths of knowledge (DOK) and Bloom’s Taxonomy charts. It only helps with basic recall of facts and knowledge. A second area of concern with this type of teaching is that only instills one point of view in the pupils. This is also problematic for diverse classrooms with students from various backgrounds. Would an approach that reinforces critical thinking and higher levels of DOK be more appropriate? A technique that incorporates the diversity of the classroom and life experiences of those students can be explained by Christopher Emdin and Django Paris who are two advocates of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy or Reality Pedagogy.
Teach for America is an important program for today's and future education because it establishes contemporary thoughts and teachings. Like Kuhn states, “society is changing so fast” (Kuhn). Due to this belief, education is transforming and it is the teacher's priority to keep up with this pace. Teachers from Teach for America, or even great teachers within current education, are constantly reinventing their teaching styles and les...
There’s times where you just sometimes lose motivation for learning, am I right? We don’t realize how much our globalized world is changing and how this might affect us. According to, The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman our world has changed and it’s becoming flat. We are all competing for jobs and those jobs that were able to get without further education are now being sent to other countries. But why do we sometimes just lose interest of getting educated? Could it be that our education system is failing to prepare us for the “real world”? Can we change this for new generations? Providing Universal pre-k programs for all children is important for our globalized flat world. Once children start school the school
These lessons are important in the classroom for several reasons. First off, we as teachers need to find ways to make sure that students from all ethnic backgrounds are included in classroom discussions and that they have the ability to apply themselves to the material taught in the classroom. However, teachers also need to realize that these practices need to be implemented so that stereotypes among the different cultures do not
There are several key ideas that are crucial to understanding the best way to teach young, ELL students. The first idea is the importance of recognizing ELL’s feelings of isolation and alienation. When a teacher recognizes this, they are more capable of helping the student feel a part of the class. The student will struggle to participate if they do not feel like they belong with the other students. There is not only a language barrier, but also sociocultural differences that prohibit them from feeling accepted. Tiffany emphasizes the importance of acknowledging this problem and being aware during classroom activities. She suggests that you get a deep understanding of their cultural background, not just a “touristy” one.
Strauss, Valerie. "Where U.S. Stands in Education Internationall." Washington Post. N.p., 25 June 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
Hauhart, Robert C., and Jeff Birkenstein. "Globals" And The American Dream: A Survey Of Student Aspirations In An American Studies Course." Perspectives On Global Development & Technology 12.1/2 (2013): 355-374. Business Source Complete. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
America now knows where they stand on the totem pole regarding education. Having a powerful military and democratic government will only get Americans so far as being a world leader. Teaching American students rigorously will increase America’s dominance as a country and as a people for generations. Teachers are an essential need in America. The United States often takes teachers for granted and if the U.S. government helps educators by improving the quality of their teaching, students will succeed in the classroom. America can perhaps no longer be a country with a zombie-like attitude, but a country thriving with accomplished students supported by the community around them.
In a recent study, the National Geographic Society and the Asia Society shed light on a growing concern that showed students from the United States lacked understanding and knowledge of different people, places, and cultures around the world. This growing concern demanded higher-quality education as well as for teachers to understand the value and necessity of developing lessons based on global education. Since the 1980s, the United States government has tried repeatedly to introduce and incorporate multiculturalism and global education into the system but was met with hostility and protests by many of its citizens. Many protestors believed that global education introduces anti-Americanism, and that multiculturalism introduces and encourages "separatism and disunity". Therefore, it is important and necessary to inform and introduce the general public to the benefits of global education, or cultural education in general to our youth. This will help rise a more knowledgeable generation that is better equipped to deal, communicate, understand, and help the rest of the world.
Most elementary schools are not prepared to implement cultural awareness in their classroom curriculums. A diverse staff that is also extremely culturally content is a necessity. Teachers must have the ability in expressing diverse beliefs and implicating those beliefs in personal experiences with the students; willingness to discussing controversial issues is a virtue as well. “According to a 2008 survey by the Public Agenda Foundation, a 76 percent of new teachers reported that their training covered teaching diverse students, but only 39 percent called this training helpful” (Walker). It is also believed that implementing such broad topic like culture into the curriculum can cause difficulty towards the teachers stability in teaching, “learning about students’ cultural backgrounds is an ongoing process that lasts a teachers’ entire career, beginning all over again each year with a new set of students” (Quinton). Also traditional curriculums, heavily apply to regions such as North America and Europe like South America or Africa. Students are the ones who experience this the most since certain textbooks do not provide accurate facts instead creating a bias from historical and modern times. For example, Christopher Columbus is celebrated as an American hero who discovered America
The cultural diversity in society, which is reflected in schools, is forcing schools not to solely rely on content-centered curriculum, but to also incorporate student-centered lesson plans based on critique and inquiry. This requires multicultural education to a dominant part of the school system, not just an extra course or unit. Further, it demands that learning itself no longer be seen as obtaining knowledge but rather, education be seen as creating knowledge. Multicultural education should be seen as affirming the diversity of students and communities, promoting the multicultural ideas of the United States, and building the knowledge and behaviors needed for students to be a positive and contributing member of society and the global community as a whole.
“Schools are changing in ways that, up until a few years ago, we thought unimaginable. Today, schools are more diverse than ever, and those trends will continue into the future. Unfortunately, teachers and schools have not always met the challenge of linguistic and cultural diversity” (Laureate, 2014). We must take the opportunity to get to know our students in order to recognize and value their uniqueness. “Teachers must work to understand the cultures of their students in a meaningful way, which involves recognizing the beliefs, values, and behaviors that characterize the various cultures of their students. Students themselves can be a valuable resource in learning about a culture” (Trail, 2000). Observations are a valuable method of assessment. Through observations, teachers can take note on students’ development, learning styles, students’ needs, and cultural influences. Teachers can use these notes to make better choices that impact student learning. These observations and interactions will also help us learn about other cultures. Having the opportunity to observe and interact with the students will equip you with information that cannot be learned from a book.
Too many people are oblivious to the events happening all around the world that few people consider important to them specifically, yet may indirectly be influencing their lives without them even knowing it. If students are taught the same exact things in the classroom that their parents and their parents were taught and so on and so forth, what progress, or lack thereof, could be measured from such teaching methods? Teaching someone only about the current events of their homeland or the land they are currently residing in narrows one’s perception of the world by not showing them how those events are connected to the rest of the world, or possibly how they were a result of other & bigger global events. Students taught with a global education standard experience more success in their fields, especially if they undergo lengthy study abroad programs to better understand how their area of expertise impacts or was impacted by the rest of the world (Jackson,
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school” this quote by Albert Einstein states the importance of education, its influence on our daily lives and its power over all other devices. My teacher once asked me what’s easier, to remember or to forget? I answered confidently “to forget” but he made me realize I was wrong, I can never forget the alphabet “a” for example even if I try erasing it from my memory; moral of the story is that education will stay with you for the rest of your life.
Changing the World Through Education My philosophy of teaching involves changing the world through my students. I want to enable my students, through education and motivation, to leave the world better than they have hounded it. Like many social reformists, I feel that we as teachers owe it to the future generations to instruct them how to handle the problems they will encounter in hopes that they will pass on fewer problems to their children. I will work every minute of every day to ensure my students’ successful futures.