Building Global Competence through Evidence-Based Principles
We partner comprehensively with schools and districts to integrate global competence in K-12 teaching, learning, and culture. This is a dynamic process that isn’t a one-size-fits-all program model, so our partnerships demand responsiveness. To ensure sustained impact, we anchor this work in four overarching principles:
Cultivating Connections
We identify and nurture connections to make learning personal and relevant. What this looks like in the classroom:- Personalizing learning to center students' strengths, needs, and interests
- Emphasizing connections across issues and subjects
- Exploring and nurturing connections across identities
- Constructing meaningful opportunities for collaboration
Promote Active Learning Through Inquiry
We build global competence through active learning experiences across disciplines. What this looks like in the classroom:- Cultivating a learning environment where students can be curious, challenge assumptions, and seek multiple perspectives.
- Engaging students in learning that deepens their understanding of the world, builds critical and creative thinking skills, and provides exposure to multiple perspectives.
- Creating scaffolds that help students develop their own questions, lead their own research, and work independently and collaboratively.
Fostering Knowledge-to-Action
We support students to take informed action in their communities and world.What this looks like in the classroom:- Providing opportunities to research global and local challenges and potential solutions, facilitating action-focused learning.
- Illustrating the connections between global issues and local communities.
- Making explicit the connections between understanding and action.
Reflecting & Adapting
We engage in ongoing reflection and adapt to emergent needs.What this looks like in the classroom:- Establishing structured time to reflect on lessons and make changes in real-time to respond to learning opportunities and needs.
- Intentionally reflecting on student learning to understand what is happening in the classroom.
Teachers feel the pressure and the stress of needing to cover state content, to cover math, to cover English Language Arts standards; it’s also good to remember we’re preparing students not only to be academically successful, we’re preparing them to be successful humans in the future. I think everything we’re doing with World Savvy is right in line with that. I’m confident that the stuff we’re doing in class is going to lead to my students being better able to be positive members of the community in the future.”
Andrew Dahm, World Savvy teacher
Our Principles in Action
World Savvy’s educational approach comes to life in the work we do every day, with students and teachers across the country. Here are a few ways in which these principles are illuminated in the classroom:
Cultivating Connections
At the FAIR School in Minneapolis, a World Savvy partner school, economics teachers planned a unit exploring food security and food deserts. Students examined the interconnected nature of this global and local challenge — learning about how supply and demand are integral within food market pricing, how housing policy impacts food distribution, and how food security is integral to human health. Read More
Promote Active Learning Through Inquiry
Seventh graders at Montgomery Middle STEAM Magnet in San Diego engaged in interdisciplinary learning around species extinction by researching what causes species to go extinct, creating a piece of artwork depicting the species, and crafting a public service announcement video using new technologies. By approaching a complex challenge through multiple disciplines, students built their capacities to be systems thinkers and strong advocates for the issues they're most passionate about. Read More
Fostering Knowledge-to-Action
When students at Clara Barton Open School learned that on any given night around 10,000 people experience homelessness in Minnesota, they set out to find a way to help. They designed and created Homeless Emergency Lifeline Packs (H.E.L.P. kits), their own version of a little free library with living essentials instead of books that could be distributed outside of local businesses and were awarded 1st prize at World Savvy's Pitchfest to make their idea a reality. Read More
Reflecting & Adapting
When the leadership team at Windward School wanted to explore how well teaching and learning for Global Competence was embedded throughout the school, they turned to World Savvy to perform a situational assessment. We helped them reveal strengths and challenge areas through surveys, interviews and focus groups of key stakeholders throughout the school community. Learn More
