The Cambridge Global Perspectives™ curriculum encourages learners to explore issues through personal, local (or national) and global perspectives. At Primary level, learners are likely to find it easier to explore local issues (those that directly affect their lives in some way) through their personal perspectives, especially by focusing on things or people they are familiar with as a starting point.
From personal, to local, and to global
The following activity uses a simple graphic organiser to help learners develop an understanding of other people’s perspectives. This helps them to move beyond the personal to the local (or national), and then to the global.
The graphic organiser consists of three concentric circles, which learners can draw themselves:
Personal
Depending on the issue you’re going to explore, ask the learners to draw something that matters to them personally, and is related to the issue, in the centre circle. I’m going to use the example of fruit, which could be a starting point for a number of different Challenges (‘Fun with fruits’ at Stage 1, ‘Healthy living’ at Stage 2, ‘Where does my food come from?’ at Stage 4, ‘How can we stay healthy?’ at Stage 5, etc.).
As it would probably be a good idea to model this procedure yourself the first time you use it with a class, I’m also going to provide the sort of commentary I’d give while doing this:
When you ask learners to do this themselves, they can draw their choice of fruit individually. You can then pair them up to explain to each other their choice of fruit, as part of a ‘Think-Pair-Share’ procedure.
Local
The next step is to ask learners to think of questions they’d like to ask their family and friends about the fruit they’ve chosen. Learners can write or draw their questions in the middle circle on their chart. Again, it’s a good idea to model this the first time you do it:
When learners have come up with two or three questions, ask them to share their questions with a partner. Encourage learners to predict what they think the answers to their questions will be, and to refine their questions by giving each other feedback.
At this point, give learners the opportunity to ask their questions at home among family and friends (or, if this isn’t practical, at school among their peers, or other trusted adults). Ask them to record the answers they get so that they can report back. This represents a first step in beginning to explore local perspectives related to the issue, using a simple primary research approach whereby learners are collecting their own data.
Ask learners to report the answers to their questions back to one another in small groups. Their group task is to come up with a set of questions to ask about fruit. They could do this by choosing from among the questions they have already asked, or by creating new questions in the light of the answers they have received. Learners could include the questions in a questionnaire, or as a script to use when interviewing people.
An example of a questionnaire might look something like this:
Again, give learners the opportunity to carry out some primary research using their questionnaire or interviewing people, and then report back to the class on their findings.
In class discussion, encourage learners to look for patterns in their findings which may represent different local perspectives. For example, do some people have a strong preference for fruit that is produced locally, while others are unconcerned about where their fruit comes from? Do people who eat a lot of fruit have a better understanding of its health benefits than those who eat little or no fruit, or are there other reasons for their behaviour?
Global
Having explored local perspectives in some depth, learners may now be ready to make connections to global issues. Returning to the chart, learners can use the outer circle to write or draw questions for further research, which may involve the use of secondary sources:
We have used fruit as an example here to show how something very familiar can be used as a starting point for exploration of personal perspectives on an issue. This leads primary research into local perspectives, and ultimately to some secondary research into global perspectives on the issue. You could use other food items for other Challenges – for example, chocolate for the Stage 4 Challenge ‘How and where is chocolate made?’. Or you could use other familiar household objects – for example, electrical equipment for the Stage 6 Challenge ‘Powering our lives’.
Although we have mentioned research most frequently, this activity can also help to develop other Cambridge Global Perspectives skills. Learners need to collaborate and communicate to carry out pair or group tasks, and there are also opportunities to reflect when learners compare what they knew about the issue before doing the activity with what they know by the end of it.
About the author:
As well as working as a trainer of ESL teachers around the world, Thomas taught as a Primary teacher in the UK for 15 years. He is also the co-author of our Cambridge Primary Global Perspectives series.
If you would like to get more support on this subject, explore our Six free resources for the Cambridge Global Perspectives™ classroom blog.
