Lucheng Wang
Our modern world is marked by rich cultural diversity and a high degree of economic interdependence. In addition to developing intercultural understanding, young people are obliged to tackle global issues and take action collaboratively. The idea of global competence was proposed to delineate the knowledge, skills, and values applied to global issues and intercultural situations. With the goal to pursue higher education abroad, international high school students are at the front line of global competence education. Working as a teacher at an international school in Shanghai, starting from 2020, I began to develop and teach global competence course to tenth-grade students. With three years of teaching and curriculum development experience, the persona of a globally competent Chinese adolescent emerged: a globally competent Chinese adolescent is both respectful and responsible – in the global and intercultural contexts. These students can ask questions with curiosity, actively listen with empathy, and take actions creatively. After the teaching team clarifies the learning outcome, the following evaluation and teaching experience were designed. Challenges lie in defining diversity in a culturally homogeneous classroom; also, despite formative assessments were applied, a more effective approach to assess global competence needs to be developed.