“Global Citizenship Education (GCED) makes my new skills become second nature”

After one semester with this new subject, the Vinsers from Vinschool Central Park Secondary School enjoyed a meaningful and exciting day for their semester-end personal inquiry reports. Here are some very special comments from Vinsers about this interesting subject.

“What are the negative impacts of electricity waste in Saigon on the surrounding environment and people? What should the government do to put an end to forest destruction in Cat Tien National Park? Why does inequality still exist in rural areas of Vietnam? Why are young LGBT people so commonly affected by social prejudice? In what ways should they be helped to overcome their situations and have their voices heard?”, etc. Those are the personal inquiries made by Grade 6 to Grade 9 Vinsers from Vinschool Central Park Primary School in their semester-end reports for their Global Citizenship Education (GCED) class.

Introduced to the Vinschool Education System at the beginning of the school year 2019-2020 with the mission of arming students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to become Global Citizens in the new era, GCED has gradually helped Vinsers improve their abilities and gain knowledge and skills to serve the community.

For Secondary School Vinsers, different grades learn about different things in GCED: “Poverty and Hunger reduction” for Grade 6, “Climate change” for Grade 7, and “Equality and Inequality reduction” and “Sustainable economic development” – very hot global issues – for Grades 8 and 9. How do Vinsers approach GCED?

Nguyen Xuan Mai from Class 8B5, shared: “In GCED class, I feel like I’m in university because there are the definitions and terms which I have never encountered before. In GCED, any issue, big or small, can be examined in different aspects. GCED is totally different from other subjects because not only do I gain knowledge, but I also learn to expand the topic and analyze the issue thoroughly from different points of view. In order to debate in lessons, I must think critically, so I find this subject very interesting.”

During Semester 1, the issues are not only “big”, but also seen in five ways, including Global Mindedness, Systematic Thinking, Information Criticality, Innovation, and Collaboration for thorough approach and analysis.

Xuan Mai said satisfactorily: “GCED helps me develop critical thinking skills and analyze issues thoroughly from different viewpoints. Therefore, I can acquire many important skills which will help me learn other subjects better and especially succeed in the IGCSE exams at the end of grade 8. GCED makes critical thinking skills become second nature to me, so it is very easy to practice these skills later which will be very useful for my studies in the future.”

The complete personal inquiry process involves three steps: selecting inquiries, finding out the answers, and delivering a presentation. Using the five different ways of exploring a main issue, Vinsers can figure out the answers to their own questions.

Huynh Ngoc Khanh Nhu from Class 8B5 said with excitement: “My leadership skills have improved thanks to GCED. Normally, in projects I have done for other subjects, I work in a group, and each person in my group has a unique role, such as searching for the information, making slides, or giving a presentation, etc., according to his/her own strengths. However, when it comes to the personal inquiry work in GCED, I have to do everything by myself. Despite many difficulties, I understand the issues more deeply in the end.”

Ms. Tran Thi Anh Dao, a GCED teacher at Vinschool Central Park Secondary School, commented: “Though GCED is a completely new challenge for them, Vinsers quickly found their feet and took to it rather well. Today, the students give their opinions on global issues passionately. The issues are puzzling, but the students have the typical high spirit of Vinsers, that is to “Do it best and shine bright” and prove themselves through convincing presentations. From that, we can see how hard they have worked to conquer the new subject GCED in particular and knowledge in general.”

By completing the personal inquiry presentation, Vinsers have finished their research and got themselves ready for teamwork in the action phase – running a project in Semester II to benefit the community. This will help to keep students thinking about their responsibility for the community and the society, to understand the matters deeply, and to always improve their own knowledge.