people and planet

16
global population issues, which affect, among other
things, food and energy consumption. Only 40% or less
of young adults in all surveyed countries except Sweden
(61%) correctly named China and India as the countries
with more than 1 billion people (RoperASW, 2002).
The follow-up National Geographic–Roper Public Affairs
2006 Geographic Literacy Study was conducted in
the United States. As in 2002, factual questions were
addressed to a representative sample of young adults.
Only 35% correctly chose Pakistan from four possible
choices as the country hit by a catastrophic earthquake
in October 2005. Seven in ten young Americans could
find China on a map but less than two in ten knew that
Mandarin Chinese was was the world’s most widely
spoken native language (GfK Roper Public Affairs, 2006).
International opinion surveys, such as the regional
barometer surveys (Afro, Arab, Asian, Eurasia and Latino)
and the World Values Survey (WVS), include questions
on self-reported knowledge and understanding of global
and intercultural issues. The 2005–2009 WVS asked
about awareness of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs); only 5% of people surveyed in the United States
and 11% in Japan had heard about them, compared with
27% in Germany and 31% in Sweden. Sub-Saharan African
countries registered the highest awareness of the MDGs,
with 66% in Ethiopia, 47% in Mali and 44% in Zambia. This
result indicated that people in countries that received
aid were more likely to be aware of the MDGs than
people in donor countries (Freschi, 2010). The potential
of using international opinion surveys to measure
adult global knowledge and understanding needs to be
further explored.
BOX 16.3
Assessment of global competence in the 2018 PISA assessment
Countries participating in PISA are collaborating to develop an assessment of global
competence to be conducted in 2018. It will involve testing 15-year-olds, who also
take separate tests in reading, mathematics and science.
Global competence is a multidimensional learning domain encompassing three
dimensions needed to engage in productive and respectful relationships with
people from different cultures: knowledge and understanding, skills, and attitudes.
It is defined as the capacity to analyse global and intercultural issues critically and
from multiple perspectives; to understand how differences affect perceptions,
judgements and ideas of self and others; and to engage in open, appropriate and
effective interactions with others from different backgrounds on the basis of a
shared respect for human dignity.
The cognitive assessment in the 2018 PISA currently proposed by the OECD aims
to build a single scale to test knowledge, understanding, and analytical and critical
thinking in a problem-solving context concerning a global or intercultural issue.
It would include tasks that draw on numerous types of knowledge and thinking
processes and would be designed to be appropriate to the context and learning of
15-year-olds.
The questionnaire would also include self-reported components on the dimension
of knowledge and understanding – for instance, how familiar students are with
global issues such as climate change and global warming, global health and
population growth – and on linguistic, communication and behavioural skills
required to interact respectfully, appropriately and effectively with others.
Students’ flexibility, empathy, openness to and respect for cultural otherness,
global mindedness and responsibility will also be assessed.
Sources: OECD (2015e); OECD (2016a); Reimers (2010).
SKILLS AND ATTITUDES
Critical skills for promoting sustainable development
include communicating appropriately and effectively
with people from other cultures or countries;
comprehending other people’s thoughts, beliefs and
feelings and seeing the world from their perspective;
adjusting one’s thoughts, feelings or behaviours to fit
new contexts and situations; and analysing and thinking
critically in order to scrutinize and appraise information
and meanings.
PISA 2018 will be an important step to assess such
skills on a broader scale (OECD, 2016a). The cognitive
assessment will be designed to test knowledge,
understanding, and analytical and critical thinking in
an authentic problem-solving context. Self-reported
items will be incorporated to measure skills such as
communication, flexibility and empathy (Box 16.3).
A number of cross-national assessments examine
attitudes, including openness towards people from other
cultures or countries, respect for cultural otherness and
responsibility for one’s own actions.
ICCS 2009 contained scales for monitoring supportive
attitudes, e.g. on gender equality and towards migrants.
Supportive attitudes on gender equality were captured
by how students responded to positive and negative
statements on ideas such as equal opportunity to take
part in government and equal pay for the same jobs.
Large majorities agreed with positive and disagreed with
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