Developing global awareness and responsible world citizenship with global learning

Abstract

Global learning is a student-centered activity in which learners of different cultures use technology to improve their global perspectives while remaining in their home countries. This article examines the use of global learning with gifted students to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary for world citizenship. We describe a pedagogical approach that is based on a set of conditions for global learning, associated learner attributes, and processes developed in global learning leading to acquisition of world citizen characteristics. Six processes and nine attributes are identified as essential for global learning. Two examples are presented of how this approach can be used to integrate global learning into the curriculum-one at a university level and another in a middle-school setting.