We have designed a series of programs – Core Four, Service Learning, SEL/Character Education – that provide elementary school teachers with ongoing opportunities to build global competence in their classrooms.  Remembering that elementary school teachers spend 900 hours each year with their students in their classrooms, our hope is that schools committed to building global competence in their students add another 10 to 16 hours of global competence activities over the school year.

What is Core Four?

All One World curricula incorporate a student-centered approach where we encourage elementary school students to begin to develop the skills needed to succeed in the 21st century.  These skills have come to be known as the “4 Cs” – Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration.   Our goal in developing our curricula is to provide students with opportunities to practice and develop the “4 Cs” in each class that is taught.

To that end, as a first step toward building enhanced global competence we encourage educators to offer One World’s Core Four lessons that encourage students to take responsibility for their classroom, agree on the values important to them, achieve their highest loving self, and understand their human connection.

Service Learning – Project-Based Learning at its Best!!

Service Learning is the backbone of our Global Competence program.  It is the final component of our Head-Heart-Hands approach to education.  In our view it is not enough to understand and empathize with the world around us, we must also take action.   

We encourage every One World Classroom that moves forward with our Global Competence + program to undertake at least one service learning project of their choice.  Here is a sample of some of the service-learning projects that students implemented pre-Covid:     

For those educators interested in building a more robust, comprehensive, Service Learning experience, we have a more expansive program we call Agents of Change.

SEL/Character Education

As mentioned above our educators may want to add additional SEL/Character lessons from our E-C-E curriculum chosen from the 30-plus character lessons included here. These include Being a Good Friend, Girls Education Around the World (Malala), and Peacemaking.

Program Delivery:  Our recommended Approach

Remembering that elementary school teachers spend 900 hours a year in their classroom with their students, One World recommends providing 4-30 hours of Global Competence education directly into the classroom or as an after-school/lunchtime club starting in the third grade.