Savremena Gimnazija in Belgrade, Serbia, takes great pride in fostering students’ critical thinking and communication skills, as well as promoting a culture of cooperation and creativity. Two years ago, they decided to refresh their national curriculum by introducing innovative teaching approaches and sprinkling it with new perspectives – Global Perspectives.
The idea to introduce Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives and Cambridge International AS & A Level Global Perspectives & Research came from Principal Svetlana Belic Malinic, who encourages teachers and students to embrace project-based learning and teaching.
Svetlana explains why she values the subject: 'Global Perspectives engages not only students individually, but also whole classes. The students learn from each other, collaborate and create their knowledge together. In a nutshell, skills developed through Global Perspectives target the intellectual capacities of our students, help them fully employ their cognitive potentials, and prepare them for the most competitive academic positions worldwide.'
A creative and interdisciplinary approach to modern education
Savremena Gimnazija introduced Global Perspectives to their curriculum alongside English and Mathematics to provide a content-rich yet creative and interdisciplinary approach to modern education. As a pioneer in 21st century teaching in Serbia, the school encourages students to develop the knowledge and skills they will need to respond to the demands of the future.
Although the Serbian national curriculum offers a very broad general education, the school believes that students benefit from learning how to apply such knowledge in an interdisciplinary context. For example, they conducted a lesson on Language and Communication in collaboration with the English language teacher, and students learnt to communicate using sign language. A lesson on Disease and Health was taught in collaboration with the biology and chemistry teachers, and provided students with hands-on knowledge about burning healthcare issues.
Collaborative teaching
One of the challenges in introducing Global Perspectives at the school was to find teachers who could deliver the subject to more than 140 students of mixed English-language abilities, aged 15 to 19. Apart from being fluent in English, the teachers need to understand the criticality and interdisciplinarity of the themes, be internet-savvy, and creative enough to teach the subject alongside the national curriculum.
A team of teachers now work together on brain-storming, lesson planning and delivery. The English teacher helps with the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) level and bilingual approach while the Cultural Studies teacher adds value with his research and a project-based approach.
'It is difficult to teach the students new knowledge when English is not their mother tongue’, says Ljubica Krstic, English teacher. ‘However, I noticed that their language and presentation skills improved greatly through debating.'
Opportunities to explore, experiment and debate
The students are greatly encouraged to explore, experiment and debate to develop their critical thinking and analytical skills. In one of the projects, the students engaged in a peaceful resolution by assuming the roles of countries that are currently in conflict in a court simulation. The judge initiated the discussion, requested evidence and cross-referenced both sides of the argument. The young diplomats used knowledge gained during Global Perspectives lessons to represent the interests of the conflicting parties in a well-informed and convincing way, just like real international representatives. The final verdict determined a treaty to be signed between the nations in order to resolve the conflict in a peaceful way, leaving both sides as winners and avoiding an escalation of hostilities.
Global Perspectives raises students’ awareness of the burning issues, teaches them how to think of solutions at global, national and personal levels, and encourages them to question their decisions and engage in joint efforts to make the world a better place.