You are here

Worldwise Learning
Share
Share

Worldwise Learning
A Teacher's Guide to Shaping a Just, Sustainable Future

Illustrations by Chris Gadbury, Foreword by Verónica Boix Mansilla



November 2021 | 360 pages | Corwin

Nautilus Gold Award Winner (Books for a Better World) in Social Sciences & Education

Create inclusive, democratic classrooms that prepare knowledgeable, compassionate, and engaged global citizens.

Today’s global challenges—climate change, food and water insecurity, social and economic inequality, and a global pandemic—demand that educators prepare students to become compassionate, critical thinkers who can explore alternative futures. Their own, others’, and the planet’s well-being depend on it.

Worldwise Learning presents a “Pedagogy for People, Planet, and Prosperity” that supports K-8 educators in nurturing “Worldwise Learners”: students who both deeply understand and purposefully act when learning about global challenges. Coupling theory with practice, this book builds educators’ understanding of how curriculum and meaningful interdisciplinary learning can be organized around local, global, and intercultural issues, and provides a detailed framework for making those issues come alive in the classroom. Richly illustrated, each innovative chapter asserts a transformational approach to teaching and learning following an original three-part inquiry cycle, and includes:

  • Practical classroom strategies to implement Worldwise Learning at the lesson level, along with tips for scaffolding students’ thinking.
  • Images of student work and vignettes of learning experiences that help educators visualize authentic Worldwise Learning moments.
  • Stories that spotlight Worldwise Learning in action from diverse student, teacher, and organization perspectives.
  • An exemplar unit plan that illustrates how the planning process links to and can support teaching and learning about global challenges.
  • QR codes that link to additional lesson and unit plans, educational resources, videos of strategies, and interviews with educators and thought leaders on a companion website, where teachers can discuss topics and share ideas with each other.
Worldwise Learning turns students into local and global citizens who feel genuine concern for the world around them, living their learning with intention and purpose. The time is now.
 
Foreword
 
Preface
The Purpose of This Book

 
The Worldview and Beliefs That Frame This Book

 
An Invitation to the Reader

 
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
About the Illustrator
 
INTRODUCTION: THE IMPERATIVE
Global Competence: Transforming Learning to Action

 
Pedagogy for People, Planet, and Prosperity

 
Book Features and Structure

 
 
PART I: CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION
 
CHAPTER 1: THE WORLDWISE LEARNING FRAMEWORK
Learning in a Globalized World

 
Curriculum Design for Understanding and Action

 
The Learning Process: Inquiring Into People, the Planet, and Prosperity

 
 
CHAPTER 2: CREATING INCLUSIVE, DEMOCRATIC CLASSROOMS
The Democratic Classroom

 
Student-Centered Planning in the Democratic Classroom

 
The Worldwise Learning Planning Process

 
Strategies for Democratic Classrooms

 
 
CHAPTER 3: COMPLEX ISSUES KNOW NO DISCIPLINES
Understanding Issues Using Interdisciplinary Learning

 
The Role of Disciplinary Knowledge

 
A Fruitful Exploration of Interdisciplinary Learning

 
“Up and Out” Transfer

 
The Interdisciplinary Learning Continuum

 
Strategies for Interdisciplinary Learning

 
 
PART II: CONNECT: ENGAGING THE HEART, HEAD, AND HAND
 
CHAPTER 4: PERSPECTIVE-TAKING AND PERSPECTIVE-GETTING
Perspectives as Lenses for Understanding Complex Issues

 
When Perspective-Taking Is Not Appropriate

 
Looking Inward: Understanding the Self

 
Looking Outward: Understanding Others

 
Perspective-Getting: Seeking Out Diverse Perspectives

 
Strategies for Perspective-Taking and Perspective-Getting

 
 
CHAPTER 5: THE POWER OF STORY TO BUILD CONNECTION
Stories Are All Around Us

 
The Storytelling Brain

 
Storytelling as a Pedagogical Tool for Worldwise Learning

 
Stories as Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors

 
Beyond Words: Art, Map-Making, and Data Visualization

 
Strategies for Storytelling

 
 
PART III: UNDERSTAND: DEVELOPING “BIG PICTURE” THINKING
 
CHAPTER 6: SYSTEMS, SYSTEMS EVERYWHERE
Understanding Issues Using a Systems Approach

 
What Is a System, Really?

 
Developing Systems Thinkers

 
Strategies for Systems Thinking

 
 
CHAPTER 7: UP TO THE CONCEPTUAL LEVEL
Conceptual Thinking to Understand Complexity

 
Levels of Conceptual Thinking

 
Level 1: Concept Formation

 
Level 2: Generalizing

 
Level 3: Transferring Understanding

 
Clearing Roadblocks to Conceptual Thinking

 
Developing Conceptual Understanding Through Case Studies

 
Strategies for Conceptual Thinking

 
 
PART IV: ACT: PARTICIPATING AS GLOBAL CITIZENS
 
CHAPTER 8: CITIZENSHIP WITHIN AND BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Big Ideas of Global Citizenship

 
What Global Citizenship Is Not

 
Big Idea #1: Global citizens develop global citizen identities.

 
Big Idea #2: Global citizens interrogate and draw connections between the structures, systems, and perspectives that underpin issues, including at different scales.

 
Big Idea #3: Global citizens engage in purposeful, informed action with others.

 
Strategies for Global Citizenship

 
 
CHAPTER 9: BEING A WORLDWISE EDUCATOR
Global Competence as an Ongoing Journey

 
Connect Phase for Worldwise Educators

 
Understand Phase for Worldwise Educators

 
Act Phase for Worldwise Educators

 
Strategies for Worldwise Educators

 
 
Appendix A: Sample Unit Planner: Pollinator Power!
 
Glossary
 
References
 
Index

Worldwise Learning offers a necessary pedagogical framework to advocate for students to push for global understanding and action. Building a co-created classroom that positions itself in global meaning-making is a profound need for maintaining our democracy, educating our youth, and allowing students to channel their inner curiosity. This work offers a clear outline for transforming one's classroom for worldwide change.

Chris McNutt
Executive Director, Human Restoration Project

This book is an invitation, guidebook and launchpad aimed at activating the Worldwise Learner in all of us. Relevant, authentic, inspiring and chock full of tools to reflect, grow and synergize, Worldwise Learning truly empowers us to think for ourselves, explore alternative futures and take action to ensure the wellbeing of our entire global ecosystem.

Julia Fliss
6th Grade Language Arts Teacher, Evergreen Middle School, Evergreen, CO

"I am recommending Worldwise Learning: A Teacher’s Guide to Shaping a Just, Sustainable Future because as a global educator and Black woman it is imperative for others to understand the ins and outs of being a global citizen. Our students need to be able to learn from those who are wanting to teach culturally relevant teaching and to be able to share their voice with others. We as educators need to be able to show our students, parents, and surrounding communities what diversity, equity, and inclusivity really looks like and how to stand up for the truth. This book takes the time to help others to unlearn and dismantle oppressive systems within and beyond us."

Marla Hunter
Founder and CEO of Live. Love. Teach! LLC, DEIJ Specialist, and Global Educator

There could be no better time to publish a book on transformative education for a better, more fair, world. May this thoughtfully crafted learning tool not only spark students and educators intellectually -but also touch their hearts. This can bring about the much needed shifts from competition to compassion and from comparison to all children everywhere shining in their true potential; like stars on earth. 

Charlotte Leech
Co-founder, Loka School India

Worldwise Learning is a compelling and timely book that presents a powerful vision of transformative education for our times. Steeped in democratic values and a respect for student agency, the authors offer a framework for educating responsible and compassionate learners in a complex and interconnected world. 

Dr. Shari Tishman
Dr. Shari Tishman, Project Zero Harvard Graduate School of Education

We can't afford to fail in our pursuit to raise citizens empowered to understand and take action on local and global challenges. While too many adults look the other way, educators like Marschall and Crawford inspire children and young people to be the force for change that this world needs. Worldwise Learning: A Teacher’s Guide to Shaping a Just, Sustainable Future is grounded in research and filled with practical strategies inspiring students to engage critically, take responsibility, and produce change

Rachel French
Director of Professional Learning International and co-author of Concept-Based Inquiry in Action
  •  

Sample Materials & Chapters

Sample Pages


For instructors

Select a Purchasing Option

ISBN: 9781071835944
£30.99