Heidi Hayes Jacobs

Heidi Hayes Jacobs is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of curriculum and instruction and has served as an education consultant to schools nationally and internationally on issues and practices pertaining to curriculum mapping, dynamic instruction and 21st century strategic planning. She is executive director of the Curriculum Mapping Institute, and president of Curriculum Designers, Inc.

Dr. Jacobs has written several books, including Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World (2010) and The Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates and Tools for Effective Professional Development (with Ann Johnson, 2009).

Dr. Jacobs has also published numerous articles in professional journals, taught at the elementary, secondary and graduate levels, and worked with a diverse array of public and private organizations from the East Asian Council of Overseas Schools to the Disney Company. She completed her doctorate at Columbia University’s Teachers College in 1981 and received her master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

In addition to her keynote speech, Dr. Jacobs will be hosting a special registration-only mini plenary session, A New Essential Curriculum for a New Time. She will be drawing from her book, Curriculum 21, by offering a plan to provoke, invigorate, and replace essential strategies in crafting the kind of education that all students need and deserve in the global 21st century.

An educator who has led curriculum transformation and has traveled the world for decades, Dr. Jacobs has set her sights on helping educators prepare students for success in a changing world.

The mini plenary is free, but is only open to the first 35 registrants. Please register online.

School Showcase

Guidelines and Procedures

As a Global Schools Showcase leader, you will have an opportunity to highlight the best global learning practices from your school and to showcase your school’s globally focused initiatives and partnerships.  All participants that are selected for the showcase will be expected to provide both a visual representation of your work for the table dedicated to your school (for example, a tri-fold display board with photos, student work, etc.) as well as provide any handouts, brochures, or materials you need to share your work with others.

Please read the following guidelines and procedures carefully before submitting your proposal.

• Submit proposal online.

We are seeking proposals from schools that embody global learning in their culture, their curriculum, and their instructional practice.

Preference will be given to school proposals that address one or more of the following:

• Demonstrating best practices in global education incorporated throughout the school design and programming
• Highlighting globally-focused curricula and assessment that includes specific examples
• Providing global educational experiences for all students rather than a select few
• Offering strong world language programs
• Developing strong partnerships with international community organizations
• Using technology and media to connect students with the world
• Offering globally focused professional learning experiences

We cannot consider submissions that do not meet these criteria:

• This Showcase will be scheduled for 90 minutes and will require that the table be manned by school representatives (no more than 2 at a time) for the entire duration of the Showcase
• Showcase presenters are responsible for their own travel and hotel arrangements and expenses, but are eligible for a discount on their registration fee.
• Showcase presenters should be limited to three individuals (for the discounted registration fee).

Other Considerations
The Asia Society PGL Program Advisory Committee will review all proposals and notifications of acceptance will be sent via e-mail in March 2010.

If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to [email protected]

Deadline for Submission: Friday, March 12, 2010

Break-out Session

Guidelines and Procedures

As a breakout session leader, you will have an opportunity to share your knowledge and experiences, and gather valuable feedback from peers. Presenters can showcase programs and best practices to a national audience and help enact a national agenda for reform.

Please read the following guidelines and procedures carefully before submitting your proposal.

• Submit proposal online.

We are seeking proposals on the following topics:

• Curriculum: Innovative curriculum that develops literacy and numeracy in a global context for students
• Teacher Preparation: Strong models for preparing teachers to teach about the world
• Assessment: modern ways of measuring global learning
• Technology: Innovative uses of technology to connect students with the world
• Research: Implications of research on global competency in K-12 education

Preference will be given to proposals that:

• Present programs, services, or policies that improve educational access and success for all students
• Demonstrate best practices and examples of what works in an interactive manner
• Foster dialogue between educators from different professional areas
• Provide research and data to support claims and document outcomes
• Are not commercial in nature

We cannot consider submissions that do not meet these criteria:

• All sessions are scheduled for 60 minutes. Plan your session to allow for sufficient question and answer time.
• Presenters are responsible for their own travel and hotel arrangements and expenses, but are eligible for a discount on their registration fee.
• Presenters should be limited to three individuals.

Write Clear Session Descriptions
As you are writing your session description:

• Create a compelling session title that accurately describes your session
• Limit the session description to no more than 100 words.
• Focus on what participants will be doing, rather than what they will be receiving. Use action words such as “survey,” “review,” “assess,” and “examine” to keep the description centered on the participant experience.
• Write in general terms about the topic rather than reviewing the entire presentation.
• Emphasize what participants can do with the information and knowledge gained.

State the Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes are keys to helping us understand the focus of your session. They also help participants determine which sessions to attend, based on specific needs. In order to develop an effective learning outcome:

• Clearly state and describe the actual skills participants will develop during the workshop, as well as specific ways the skills can be applied to the participants’ work.
• Make your learning outcomes tangible and concrete; they should be observable and assessable, if needed.
• Here are a few examples of effective learning outcomes:
• Participants will learn how to develop their own step-by-step guidelines for working with new teachers to achieve successful outcomes aligned with the overall goals of their program.
• Participants will walk away with concrete strategies for implementing engaging learning activities within a backward designed model.
• Participants will review strategies to bring K–12 and higher education together to build capacity and proficiency, which will enable them to improve K–16 articulation for their own programs.

Other Considerations
The Asia Society PGL Program Advisory Committee will review all proposals and notifications of acceptance will be sent via e-mail in March 2010.

If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to [email protected]

Deadline for Submission: Friday, March 12, 2010

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How do we reform schools? Sound off in Washington.

President Barack Obama has called for American schools to align student achievement with the demands of the global economy, saying, “The source of America’s prosperity has never been merely how ably we accumulate wealth, but how well we educate our people. This has never been more true than it is today. In a 21st-century world where jobs can be shipped wherever there’s an Internet connection, where a child born in Dallas is now competing with a child in New Delhi, where your best job qualification is not what you do, but what you know — education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it’s a prerequisite for success.”

There have been a lot of talk—and $100 billion in education funding—tied to the idea of creating a world-class education system. But what does it really mean?

In any industry, the financial one notwithstanding, the world is interconnected. Five forces can clearly be seen in the global economy, each requiring a different skill set for true success:

A Science and Knowledge Economy
Students need scientific and technological literacy.

A Resource-Challenged Economy
Students need critical thinking about sustainable economies.

A Globally Interdependent Economy
Students need knowledge about other countries, regions, cultures, and global systems. They need skills to communicate digitally, effectively, and in other languages. They need a values system to respect global peers and cultures different from their own.

A Demographically Diverse Economy
Students need cross-cultural leadership skills.

An Innovation-Driven Economy
Students need to understand complexity and adapt to rapid change.

Students need to be globally competent. Other countries are already investing in these skills. For example, languages help people reap economic returns in addition to cultural and social ones. Most European countries start a first foreign language in the elementary grades and a quarter of Australian students learn an Asian language. Only about one-half of American high school students study a world language; the majority of these students never progress beyond the introductory level and 70 percent study Spanish, which does not help the United States meet the critical language needs identified by the US State and Defense Departments.

Similarly, in China, education leaders study education practices in other countries, teachers are encouraged to study abroad, and schools are strongly urged to form sister school partnerships with schools in other countries. However, less than one percent of American students study abroad, the figure is much higher in other industrialized countries.

The future is here. It’s global, multicultural, multilingual, and digitally connected. If we put the world into world-class education, not only will we be more successful and innovative in the global economy, but we will also lay an important foundation for peace and a shared global future.

Global Competence

The concept of global competence has emerged as a way of articulating the knowledge and capacities students need in the 21st century. What are the elements of global competence?

Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Knowledge and Understanding The bottom line? Learning content matters, here and everywhere else. Global competence requires knowledge and understanding of seminal content and skills within academic disciplines and the capacity to use disciplinary methods of inquiry creatively and productively. They need to learn to think like historians or scientists or artists.  How our “Common Core” standards compare to the curriculum in Brazil, China, Russia or Nigeria matters, too.  It is with people from places like these that our students will collaborate and compete.

Global competence also requires the ability to understand prevailing world conditions, issues and trends through discipline-based and interdisciplinary learning.  A competitive advantage will go to those students in San Francisco or São Paulo who know what’s going on in the world and how the world works, from climate change to migration trends to human rights. Educating students for global competence requires substantive, developmentally appropriate engagement over time with the world’s complexities.
Gaining this knowledge and understanding depends on acquiring and applying four key cognitive capacities – essential dimensions of global competence. Today’s globally competent youngsters are able to:

Investigate the World
Global competence starts with asking important questions.  Globally competent students can frame “researchable” questions – questions that do not necessarily have one right answer, but can be systematically engaged intellectually and emotionally.  They ask questions that are globally significant, questions that address important phenomena and events that are relevant world wide – from elementary school students’ inquiries about how to recycle plant debris to fertilize the school garden to high school students’ impassioned debate on how to create sustainable cities in the midst of arid deserts.

Globally competent students can explain how a local issue like their school recycling exemplifies a global process far beyond their back yards. They can articulate the significance of their questions and know how to respond to these questions by identifying, collecting and analyzing credible information from a variety of sources.  These sources include international resources in multiple languages available through digital technology. From analysis to synthesis to evaluation, they can weigh and integrate evidence to create a coherent response that takes into consideration geographic, cultural, economic, political, and other contextual factors and provide a compelling, evidence-based argument that considers multiple perspectives and draws defensible conclusions.

Recognize Perspectives
For global competence, the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” becomes the platinum rule:  “Do unto others as they want done unto them.”  This seismic shift in perspective – from inward-out to outward-in – has profound implications. Globally competent students recognize that they have a particular perspective that others may or may not share. They are able to articulate and explain the perspectives of other people, groups or schools of thought and identify influences on these perspectives, including how differential access to knowledge, technology and resources can affect people’s views.  They can compare and contrast their perspective with others, and integrate their own and others’ viewpoints to construct a new one, when needed.

Communicate Ideas
Globally competent students understand audiences that differ on the basis of culture, geography, faith, ideology, wealth and other factors and that they may perceive different meanings from the same information.  They can effectively communicate, verbally and non-verbally, with diverse audiences which requires speaking more than one language.  They’re media and artistically savvy as well; they know how to choose and effectively use appropriate technology and media with diverse audiences.

Take Action
What skills and knowledge will it take to go from learning about the world to making a difference in the world?  First, it takes seeing oneself as capable of making a difference.  Globally competent students see themselves as players, not bystanders.  They’re keenly able to recognize opportunities from targeted human rights advocacy to creating the next out-of-the-box, must-have business product we didn’t know we needed.  Alone or with others, globally competent students can creatively construct options for action based on evidence and insight, and assess their potential impact, taking into account varied perspectives and potential consequences for others.

Global competence is a crucial upgrade in our understanding of the purpose of education in a changing world.  Students everywhere deserve the opportunity to succeed in the global economy and contribute as global citizens. Knowing what knowledge and skills they need to seize that opportunity, and designing schools that help them attain them are essential for students to succeed in the interconnected world of the 21st century.

Discussion
Do the qualities described in this article encompass what students should know and be able to do in a global economy? Please share your perspectives and experiences in the comment board below.

Interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning

In today’s world, teachers have a long wish-list for their students: They want them to be globally competent, critical thinkers across disciplines, technology literate, and collaborative, to name just a few. But those characteristics cannot be taught through traditional instruction.

Project-based learning (PBL), slowly displacing traditional forms of teaching, has evolved as a way for teachers to help their students become what the world will one day demand of them.

Learn more about project-based learning–and how to infuse global, interdisciplinary content–as the Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning conference in July.

What Is PBL, Anyway?

Project-based learning is an increasingly popular approach to teaching that allows students to explore real-world problems and challenges through working and collaborating with other students in small groups.

Just as in the real world, the challenges involved in the projects require students to use a spectrum of skills, which helps them fine tune their critical thinking ability, gets their creative juices flowing, and involves using knowledge from a breadth of curriculum.

While standard lecturing and text book reading may be part of PBL, the majority of the projects focus on active and engaged learning, which studies show help students retain a deeper knowledge of the subjects they’re studying.

In addition, PBL also helps students polish their organizational and research skills, build teamwork ability necessary for the real world, and become better communicators.

Furthermore, instead of traditional grading rubrics such as tests, PBL typically culminates with a presentation to an audience other than the teacher and classmates, and oftentimes includes producing a finished product, such as a Web site. This generally makes the work more meaningful for the students, who in turn, put more effort and enthusiasm into their work.

Most importantly, PBL allows students to better understand how academic work can connect to real-life experiences.

Challenges In Implementing PBL

While the benefits of using PBL in schools in clear, the method does come with a unique set of challenges.

The most common concern Dr. John Larmer, director of programs at the Buck Institute for Education, fields from teachers who want to use PBL but have not yet taken the leap is that PBL is not standards-based. Larmer’s response: “Well, make sure it is standards-based.”

Teachers can include numerous standards in projects once they become more comfortable with the teaching format, he assured. For beginners, however, he suggested including only the key standards that are most important, and if formal teaching has to be used to accommodate some standards, it is not the end of the world.

“At first it may seem like you’re spending more time than you think, but then after a year or two you get the hang of it and realize just how many standards you can fit into a project.”

Many teachers are also hesitant about using PBL because they don’t think their students are ready – they can’t work in groups, so how can they possibly do a lengthy project.

“That may be true to an extent,” Larmer admitted. “Some schools spend a whole first quarter training students on PBL skills: how to be a team member, how to plan your work, how to set timelines, how to use technology and make a presentation.”

PBL does not have to radically change teaching styles, he stressed. There is still plenty of room for traditional lecturing, for example. But now, because the students know it is part of a larger more exciting project, they have more motivation to listen.

Time constraints and resources are two additional hurdles for teachers. And while there is not much one can do about ever-shrinking resources, teachers can (and should) build time into their summers to plan out any PBL curriculum.

PBL Is Not Activity-Based Teaching

An important distinction Larmer stressed during the conference was that between PBL and activity-based teaching.

“Teachers do lots of activity-based teaching, which isn’t bad,” Larmer said. “It’s better than just lecturing all day and doing worksheets and textbooks. But it’s not really PBL unless it’s got some definitive features to it.”

Activity-based teaching for example would be reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, and then learning about the past and current history of Nigeria, acting out scenes from the book, watching videos about the country, and making African masks. They are fun and interesting activities, but not intellectually rigorous.

“It wasn’t heads on,” said Larmer. “It was hands on.”

PBL, unlike activity-based teaching, is focused on a driving question and a central problem or challenge that frames all the work of the project.

“A lot of folks say, ‘Oh we do projects,’ but we call those dessert kinds of projects- the kind you do after you teach traditionally.”

How To Use PBL Successfully In The Classroom

They key to successful PBL is a good driving question that will guide the entire project.

Successful driving questions should be provocative or challenging, but accessible to students. They should be open-ended with multiple possible answers. They should be answerable, of course, but not in a simple way. Stay away from questions that can be answered with a yes or no.

Importantly, the question shouldn’t sound like it came from a teacher. It should be interesting from a student’s point of view.

The best way to engage students with the project from the beginning, Larmer recommended, is to introduce them to it in a unique way. Take them on a field trip, invite a guest speaker to the class, ask them a puzzling question, or show them startling statistics.

From there, the PBL activity will guide itself. Teachers still need to monitor the groups of students to make sure they are adhering to timelines and working as a team, but with a good driving question and an engaging introduction to the project, the students should take lead themselves.

Refining A Driving Question A driving question is the backbone of all successful PBL. The best questions are provocative and challenging, accessible to students, open-ended with multiple possible answers, and linked to important content. Here are some examples of how questions can be refined to get the best possible results from students. 1. From a “simple right answer” to more complex, local, and actively problem-solving: What are the characteristics of healthy soil? Better: Is our soil healthy enough to support a vegetable garden? 2. From abstract to concrete and challenging” How do architects use geometry? Better: How can we design a theater that meets specification with the greatest number of seats? 3. From “too big” to answerable: How has technology affected world history? Better: Does technology make war more or less humane? 4. From “sounds like a teacher” to student-friendly: How does the author use voice and perspective in The House on Mango Street to reflect on his childhood and community? Better: How can childhood memories show who we are today? (Content provided by John Larmer, director of programs at the Buck Institute for Education)

Graduate Profile

Before embarking on reform, it is important to have an idea of what an internationally oriented education encompasses–and what competencies students will acquire. It is also important to have a school culture open to global learning.

The Partnership for Global Learning conference will highlight several models, and offer practical advice and tools on how to create and sustain a high-quality program.

Here is just one example of a graduate profile from the Asia Society International Studies Schools Network:

International Studies Schools Network (ISSN) goal is that each of our students possess the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind necessary to succeed and contribute in the 21st century global environment. The following is a profile of an ISSN graduate.

ISSN graduates are Ready for College. They have successfully:

• Completed a globally focused course of study, including classes, extracurricular activities, and international travel, that has enabled them to develop interest and demonstrate expertise in a specific world culture or an important international issue.
• Earned a high school diploma with credits sufficient to pursue a college education in the United States or abroad or to pursue other rigorous post-secondary education.
• Learned how to identify options, evaluate opportunities, and organize educational experiences in college to enable them to pursue a career within the global economy.

ISSN graduates are Prepared for Success in a Global Environment. They:

• Are 21st century literate and are proficient in reading, writing, listening, and speaking in English and in one or more other language.
• Analyze and evaluate global issues from multiple perspectives, gather and synthesize relevant information from around the world, and draw conclusions that consider the impact from various viewpoints.
• Understand how the world’s people and institutions are interconnected and know how critical international economic, political, technological, environmental, and social systems operate interdependently across nations and regions.
• Are proficient in the use of a digital media, can evaluate the validity and integrity of information, and can identify sources of bias.

ISSN graduates are Connected to the World. They:

• Understand and value the opportunity to work collaboratively with individuals from cultural backgrounds different from their own and can see the world from the perspective of others.
• Are comfortable and competent in different cultural settings and know how to shift behavior and language to respectfully interact with people from different backgrounds.
• Understand that decisions and actions taken in the United States may have international consequences and that events worldwide may have national and local implications.
• Understand their responsibility to make ethical decisions and responsible choices, to weigh the consequences of their actions for themselves and others across the globe, and to act toward the development of a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world.

Create Success in a Global Era

The world in which today’s students will graduate is far different than the world in which we know now. As never before, American education must prepare students for a world where the opportunities for success require the ability to compete and cooperate on a global scale.

The globalization of economies, the rise of China and India, advances in science and communications technology, acceleration of international migration—and the fact that virtually every major health, environmental, and human security challenge Americans face can be solved only through international collaboration—will require our high school graduates to be far more knowledgeable about world regions, cultures, and global issues.[1] But we have not emphasized such skills in our schools. A 2007 report from the National Academy of Sciences warns, “The pervasive lack of knowledge of foreign cultures and languages threatens the security of the United States and as well its ability to compete in the global marketplace and produce an informed citizenry.”

Innovations in Schools and Communities

Over the past few years, schools and communities across the country have begun to respond to this new reality and are seeking to redesign education to produce students who are both college ready and globally competent.

Consider this example: The Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago, an inner-city magnet school that is one of Chicago’s most ethnically diverse schools, has shown how integrating global content enhances academic excellence. Founded in 2000 and now one of the top schools in Illinois, the school’s mission is to prepare students for “leadershipin their community, the nation, and the world.” Every student studies a world language for four years and experiences a home-stay exchange with a sister school in China, France, north Africa, Japan, Switzerland, Chile, Italy, or South Africa. Use of technology, including videoconferencing, connects Payton classrooms to their sister schools and to subject-matter experts around the world. An array of international visitors, students, and seminars further develops the international spirit of the school. The school is also the flagship of Chicago’s Chinese language program, the largest Chinese program in the country. This award-winning school is clearly an outstanding school. But data collected on hundreds of schools from more than 40 states and from rural and inner-city areas, as well as suburban and private schools, show that many schools are embarking on similar journeys. Our research shows that schools typically start in a small way and gradually broaden their approaches. Over time, globally oriented schools develop key common elements. These schools:Consider this example: The Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago, an inner-city magnet school that is one of Chicago’s most ethnically diverse schools, has shown how integrating global content enhances academic excellence. Founded in 2000 and now one of the top schools in Illinois, the school’s mission is to prepare students for “leadershipin their community, the nation, and the world.” Every student studies a world language for four years and experiences a home-stay exchange with a sister school in China, France, north Africa, Japan, Switzerland, Chile, Italy, or South Africa. Use of technology, including videoconferencing, connects Payton classrooms to their sister schools and to subject-matter experts around the world. An array of international visitors, students, and seminars further develops the international spirit of the school. The school is also the flagship of Chicago’s Chinese language program, the largest Chinese program in the country. This award-winning school is clearly an outstanding school. But data collected on hundreds of schools from more than 40 states and from rural and inner-city areas, as well as suburban and private schools, show that many schools are embarking on similar journeys. Our research shows that schools typically start in a small way and gradually broaden their approaches. Over time, globally oriented schools develop key common elements. These schools:

• Create a global vision and culture by revising their mission statements and graduate profiles and creating a school culture that supports internationally focused teaching and learning;
• Develop an internationally oriented faculty by recruiting teachers with international interests and encouraging teachers to take advantage of the many professional development and study/travel opportunities offered through universities and international organizations;
• Integrate international content into all curriculum areas, bringing a global dimension to science and language arts, as well as social studies and languages;
• Emphasize the learning of world languages, including less commonly taught languages, such as Chinese and Arabic;
• Expand student experiences through internationally oriented service learning, internships, and partnerships and exchanges with schools in other countries; and
• Harness technology to tap global information sources, create international collaborations, and offer international courses and languages online, especially to underserved communities.

Learn more.