Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching - National University

Experiential Learning
Global education encourages learning through personal experiences. It is generally
acknowledged that learning by doing leads to greater understanding. Therefore, teachers should
not be glued to the traditional methods of teaching consisting principally of lectures, textbook
readings, practice exercises, assignments, and tests. Extra effort should be made to use audiovisual
materials and other ICTs, the laboratory, and the library where possible. In addition,
activities should include excursions, debates, exposés, speeches, and creative writing. Students
could also be given such assignments as participating in cultural activities, community service,
interviews, school exchanges, seminars, workshops, conferences, or any other project they can
identify.
Experiencing, even if superficially, what others go through leads to greater empathic
understanding and social responsibility, which according to Andrzejewski and Alessio (1999) is
a tenet of global citizenship. More and more youths lack the spirit of sacrifice and community
service, and this habit ought to be inculcated through school activities.
Experiential learning promotes global citizenship by preparing students to be responsible
citizens. For Merryfield and Kasai (2004), this is the first goal of global education. Schattle
(2008) underlines this point by stating that a global citizen ought to be aware of oneself and the
world, be responsible to others and the planet ,and participate in the affairs of the community
whereever he or lives. Citizenship education should therefore provide students withkKnowledge,
skills, and attitudes to act in the future to bring democratic change and social justice (Banks,
2004).
Therefore, the global curriculum as summarized above has as its objective to mold global
citizens with shared moral values and a global responsibility to bring global solutions to the
world’s problems. Such a curriculum favors an “inclusive global education” characterized by a
curriculum and pedagogic approach that recognizes the diversity of all people and strives to
teach peace and social justice (Landorf & Nevin, 2007).
Integrating the Global Curriculum in the Language Class
It would appear there is a lot of literature on the importance of integrating global education in the
language class, but not enough evidence on how it is actually done by language teachers,
especially at the secondary and high school levels. Tarashava (2005) reports on an innovative
course for media students at the New Bulgarian University, which focuses on news analysis of
global issues that are reported in the British media. Hillard (2005) also had a special project on
global education for students in a language institute in Argentina. In both cases, the beneficiaries
were a select few, which defeats the purpose of globalizing global education. Other studies,
including that of Mansilla and Gardner (2007), indicate that global education is taught piecemeal
within different subjects the different levels in no systematic manner. In Cameroon, there is no
evidence of any special projects or attempts to teach global education except as identified in the
syllabuses of various subjects. I maintain that English language teachers could be encouraged to
integrate global issues throughout, since it is the only subject that runs through all the levels.
Reasons abound why English language teachers do not integrate the global curriculum in
their lessons, some of which have been mentioned earlier. For those who find it difficult to
deviate from the national syllabus, here are some proposals. It should be recalled that the
syllabus and the textbook are separate entities, the latter complementing the former. Teachers
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