cracking the code with two case studies
For Global Cities to achieve our goals of promoting global learning and developing the capacity for teachers to evaluate global competency education, we had to make sure that our tool was applicable and useful in contexts beyond the Global Scholars program. To do that, we commissioned two new studies looking at two different virtual exchange programs. In both cases, researchers found that the Global Cities global competency evaluation tool (the Codebook) usefully measures global competency learning in different settings. The studies analyzed virtual exchange programs created by AFS Intercultural Programs and their Global You Changemaker and Global Up Teen curricula, and Harvard Graduate School of Education Project Zero’s The Open Canopy and their Planetary Health and Remembering the Past curricula. Both studies demonstrate that the evaluation tool (the Codebook) can be used to identify evidence of global competency learning outcomes in samples of work created by students in virtual exchange programs with different models, curricula, and student populations.
measuring global learning among students in afs virtual exchange programs
This study used the Global Cities Codebook for Global Student Learning Outcomes (the Codebook) to better understand how virtual exchange programs of AFS Intercultural Programs are working and to determine whether students enrolled in the AFS Global Up Teen (GUP Teen) or Global You Changemaker (GYC) programs were developing global competence. It also demonstrates that the Codebook can be applied to a variety of global competency curricula to identify what students are learning and the aspects of the curriculum and program model that drive student growth. By using the Codebook to identify the types of curricular topics and activities that promote global learning, this study provides insight into the effectiveness of the AFS global learning model in achieving its curricular goals. This research advances this new evaluation methodology in the field of global competency education, which can be used in any K-12 program or classroom to identify student progress.
Analyzing Student Work from The Open Canopy Using the Global Cities Codebook
In this study Project Zero researchers applied the Codebook to a sample of student data from a different curriculum model, The Open Canopy. Like Global Scholars, The Open Canopy brings students from around the world together in an asynchronous online discussion platform, on which students post information based on a provided curriculum. The goals of this study were to apply the global learning framework to measure the extent to which we can observe global competency in a sample of Open Canopy student work and, in doing so, add to the evidence that global competencies are measurable and the Codebook is a useful tool for measuring complicated constructs of global competency.