🔴 August 2017

The World Issues 120 course has the potential to be a valuable experience for our
students. In this course, students and teachers can draw upon the social sciences
disciplines as well as other subject areas to frame their individual worldviews. If approached
meaningfully and authentically, this course can demonstrate how all subject areas are used
to understand and to solve significant local, national and global challenges. World Issues
120 can encapsulate the student’s high school experience all the while leaving the door
open for competencies development long after they have moved on.

The effective teacher is one who introduces relevant issues, engages students to interact
with the issue through varied perspectives and sources, and then invites them to
demonstrate what they have learned and, in many cases, offer solutions. In other words,
the students themselves show that there is clear evidence that their learning has been
enhanced. To achieve this, the teacher and student experiences must be based upon
critical, authentic and experiential inquiry.

That is to suggest that students have theopportunity to deal with many real-life, real-time experiences. All teachers wish to have an
impact in the classroom; the teacher who is constantly and sincerely in search of a deeper
understanding of significant issues may well be the person who has the greatest influence
on learning.