09 July 2019
Starting from the year 2021, the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) will attempt to assess creative thinking ability and global competency in students.
The organisation headquartered in Paris has defined global competence as “the capacity to examine global and inter-cultural issues, to take multiple perspectives, to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with people from different cultures and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development”.
Students will be assessed on these skills as follows:
In the first part, students will read about a case study, and respond to questions that evaluate their capacity to understand the complexity of the case, the multiple perspectives of the diverse actors involved, and suggest solutions.
This will be followed by a questionnaire to gauge their openness towards people from other cultures, respect for cultural otherness, global-mindedness and responsibility.
Teachers and school heads will also be given a questionnaire which aims to provide a comparative picture of how education systems are integrating global, international and inter-cultural perspectives through the curriculum and other activities.
Pisa believes that it is important to nurture the capacity of students to look at the world through different lenses and perspectives, appreciate different ways of thinking and different cultures.
Education has always been the way to pass down knowledge, skills, values and culture to enable subsequent generations to thrive. Educators, as well as parents, need to foster a fuller range of skills, including creative thinking and global competency, to enable young people to adapt and thrive in this rapidly changing world.