Teaching in College

It would be prudent to note that the relevance of developing global competence cannot be overstated. This is more so the case given that we live in what has variously been described as a global village. As a consequence, we ought to ensure that college students have the skills they need to be effective global citizens. Indeed, according to Majewska (2022), global competence remains one of the most crucial 21st century competency based skills. From the onset, there would be need to first develop a concise definition of global competence. In basic terms, global competence could be perceived as the set of skills and competencies that further enhance a persons ability to succeed or thrive on the global stage. It relates to the development of awareness about diverse cultures of the world, concerns of global significance, etc. Majewska (2022) has also defined global competence as a set of skills centered around a knowledge base about world geography, cultures, global issues, and the skills and character to engage sensibly and effectively in a global setting (77). Towards this end, globally competent college students are likely to be more knowledgeable about not only how the world works, but also what their place is in an increasingly interconnected world. With this knowledge students can play a more meaningful role in global affairs, further enhance their abilities as future professionals (i.e. in relation to interprofessional collaboration) and become accomplished global citizens. For this reason, there is need to ensure that college students are equipped with the relevant global competence skills and capabilities.

As Majewska (2022) indicates, global competence learning (on the part of learners) and teaching (on the part of teachers) is not an easy undertaking. The author indicates that there are some inherent challenges on this front that ought to be addressed. One such challenge happens to be shortage of teachers who are trained on global competence instruction. This is a challenge that could be addressed by ensuring that teachers are prepared effectively for this kind of instruction especially with regard to skills...…global perspectives (Leung, Lau, Wan, Law, Kwong, and Wong, 2021, p. 1). More specifically, the platform taken into consideration in this case was PaGamO, in which case learners participate or took part in eTournaments and in the course of doing so got to interact with peers from different parts of the world. In essence, the authors indicate that there is need to be more creative in formats of knowledge acquisition on this front. This is more so the case given that technology has provided us with endless possibilities to seamlessly integrate global competence instruction into the curriculum.

In the final analysis, it should be noted that as has been indicated in the discussion above, there is need to ensure that college students develop global competence skills so as to be able to function effectively as global citizens in an increasingly interconnected world. However, there is need for education administrators as well as teachers to be aware of barriers to effective global competence instruction. Some of those challenges/barriers have been highlighted in this text,…