Gaining a worldview

Times Contributor 

 

Every day we hear about the need for global perspective, and students from Crowther Memorial Junior High have a project to embrace that concept. 

The project is based around the term Worldview. This term is the central term in the Social Studies Grade 8 curriculum and is defined by Alberta Learning as: ‘a collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or group; the lens through which the world is viewed by an individual or group; the overall perspective from which the world is interpreted.’

“I really hope they take ownership of this. They are building the survey themselves and they are going to be giving this survey to all students at Crowther Memorial High School, to try and get this world view,” said teacher Matthew Laslo.

Like sociology or marketing analysts, the students will develop survey questions that they give to other students in the school. The starting point is thinking about who they are and what others might be like. The answers to the survey questions will expand their circle of observation to the description of a typical student at Crowther Memorial. The students will develop teamwork and media skills by working in a group to develop a video that will be shared with others. The hope is to expand the project to Acme and Standard students, to share and compare results. Then the circle explodes internationally, by repeating the process with international students in Paris, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan.

Part of the project plan is also connected in real time through computer media. The project is aided by a Golden Hills pilot initiative to supply laptops to all Crowther students. Laslo said it has helped immensely and combined with the student’s video shoot, it will develop their communication and technology skills. An example of the type of video product they might produce can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2xOvKFFz4.

The social studies aspect will explore current events, news and controversy, historical context, places and people, economics and resources, geography, and culture. 

“We will go back to it all year long and continually recruit new schools to take the survey. That idea of about world views becomes a lens for how you look at the world,” said Laslo.

Laslo said that they have one student in the class from Panama and some of the students said they have had contact with several of the exchange students that participate in Golden Hills exchange program. From that limited exposure, students said they are already curious how other’s lives are different from their own. They also hope to travel across Canada and internationally one day.