Catherine Hall

17 November 2018
EDU 504
Article Summary and Critique
Word Count: 1016

Summary of ​How to be a Global Thinker b​ y Veronica Mansilla

This article, ​How to be a Global Thinker b​ y Veronica Mansilla, is about the importance

of teachers developing a global mindset their students. It details why this is important, from

establishing a global community to having a “big-picture mindset” in all of life. The article then

details practically how to implement this in a classroom. It gives multiple examples involving

students of varying ages using varying teaching methods.

Critique of ​How to be a Global Thinker ​by Veronica Mansilla

“What kind of learning are we actually after? And, how can we best nurture such

learning?” These two questions, quoted from the article ​How to be a Global Thinker,​ sum up not

only the purpose of the article, but the question burning in the hearts of teachers. Why are we

teaching and what are we hoping for? This article is radically important for teachers to read, and

often. It reminds us not only of the ​why​​ behind our profession, but it reminds us of what is at

stake should we forget it!

The main point of this article is to persuade teachers of the importance behind teaching a

global mindset, or a big-picture mindset. I absolutely agree that students should be taught to

think of the big picture. It is important for everybody to know what is going on in other parts of

the world, and to connect how those events can affect our local communities. Because it is so

easy in this day and age to gather information about the rest of the world it is truly a shame that
so few people care to research it. Teaching children from a young age to be informed about

international news not only builds their intellect, but builds a global community amongst the

future generations. Aside from this, there are endless benefits to teaching children why having a

global mindset is important and how to build it in themselves.

This article goes on to detail a few success stories about teachers who actively teach this

mindset and how they do it. It is important to put actual stories of students successfully learning

to think this way in order to persuade teachers of its success. The methods these teachers used

sound peaceful, proactive, and positive! Honestly, they sound nearly too good to be true, which

is partly the reason why I found this section of the article to be weak. In high poverty schools

discussions, such as the one in Lisa’s 7th grade class about immigration, could never have

remained peaceful. From experience, if students do not have a moral compass than it is hard to

have direct conversations about morality. I have found that the best way to teach about morality

is to lead by an example of love, starting with the basics. For the methods in the article to work, I

think they would have to be in schools where students know the basics of love, kindness, and

generosity. This is simply not the case in all schools. To strengthen this part of the article I would

put in conditions for a classroom that would be suitable for learning a global mindset in the ways

described in this article. I would also add ways to teach the global mindset in schools with high

poverty students.

The article continues to describe practicals for teaching a global mindset, which I loved!

It is important to inform teachers about how to practically impart a lesson such as this to their

students. The article included a variety of ages and classes, which is also good for general

experimentation. However, I do not think that learning a global mindset is always appropriate
using the methods described in this article. For instance, it describes Nancy’s 5th grade class

watching the news. Watching the news today as an adult is oftentimes scandalous, frightening,

and downright depressing. For fifth graders, the news cannot only be terrifying, but absolutely

inappropriate. I would never let my fifth grader watch the news and would be upset if the teacher

did so without a signed permission slip. This example I found to be unrealistic. There are

definitely ways to introduce a global mindset to young students, but this is not it. To strengthen

the article I would add a way to start establishing a global mindset in young students and how to

continue it into the older grades.

Finally, an aspect of this article that may be found troubling in the years to come is its

objectivity. Today’s society has a hard time with any objective truths. Now that teachers are

having to ask students what gender they are in order to use the correct pronouns, I do not see any

objective truths being politically correct in the next few years. Again, this goes back to morality

in the classroom and the ability to discuss these sensitive topics if there is no morality. Without

acknowledging objective truths about the world, such as war is bad, how can students argue for

their opinions, or even have an opinion at all? I don’t know if this article could address the

concept of political sensitivity in the classroom over the next five to ten years, but it is a concern

that crossed my mind!

Overall, this article by Veronica Mansilla is incredibly important and contains a lot of

truth. It is good for students to be globally-minded. It is good for teachers to train their students

in this mindset. It is good to remember why we teach and remember why students learn.

However, the examples in this article are not as practical as they first seem. To strengthen this
article I would provide more practical advice on how to implement a global-mindset into

classroom and a long term plan on how to implement this from kindergarten to senior year.

Works Cited

1. Mansilla, V. B. (2017, January). How to Be a Global Thinker. Retrieved November 17,

2018, from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec16/vol74/num04/How-to-Be
-a-Global-Thinker.aspx