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FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL

SCIENCES

SEMESTER SEPTEMBER / 2019

OUMH1603

LEARNING SKILLS FOR 21ST

CENTURY
MATRICULATION NO : 950823125699001
IDENTITY CARD NO. : 950823125699
TELEPHONE NO. : 0109356588
E-MAIL : Kitut95@gmail@oum.edu.my
LEARNING CENTRE : Sri Rampai Learning Centre
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CONTENTS PAGES

1. 1.0 Introduction 2

2. 2.0 Environment Issue 3

2.1 Infographic 1 4-5

2.2 Infographic 2 6-7

3. 3.0 Global Citizenship Education 8-9

4. 4.0 Discussion on environmental issue: Climate change 10 - 11

5. 5.0 Discussion benefit of the conceptual dimension of 12

GCED in society
5.1 Cognitive 12

5.2 Socio-emotional 12

5.3 Behavioral 13

6. 6.0 Discussion on ways to resolve environmental issue 14

6.1 Replacing disposable item with reusable items 14

6.2 Reducing the uses of paper 14

6.3 Conserving water and electricity 14

6.4 Recycle 15

7. 7.0 Conclusion 16 - 17

8. 8.0 Self-reflection 18 - 19

9. 9.0 References 20
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1.0 INTRODUCTION

Global citizenship refers to a sense of belonging to a broader community and common

humanity. It emphasis on political, economic, social and cultural interdependency and
interconnectedness between the local, the national and the global (UNESCO, 2015). Meanwhile,
Global citizenship education (GCED) is a form of civic learning that involves students' active
participation in projects that address global issues of a social, political, economic, or environmental
nature. GCED entails three core conceptual dimension which are common to various definitions
and interpretations of GCED. They can serve as the basis for defining GCED goals, learning
objectives and competencies, as well as priorities for assessing and evaluating learning

Nowadays, environment issue become a common issue around us. As we look at our
surrounding, we can’t help but notice they are pollution happening as we breath in the air.
Environmental issue is always a major problem for us because an unhealthy environment leads to
an unhealthy life. Just imagine what carbon monoxide can do to our lungs. That is why, it is
important for people from all ages to learn on how to become a global citizen. Global citizenship
education involves students' active participation in projects that address global issues of a social,
political, economic, or environmental nature. Which then, students will acquire what it takes to
become a global citizen such as being an active volunteer in your community, take responsibility
for your actions, be compassionate, have sense of belonging and many more.

In this assignment, I will be pointing out what is Global Citizenship Education(GCED),

the three core conceptual dimension in GCED and how it brings benefit to the society to resolve
the environmental issue. Next, I will point out one environmental issue that is currently happening
now and how it actually affect us. At the end of this assignment, we will acquire more knowledge
regarding Global Citizenship Education and how to become one, the major environmental issue as
well as the causes and ways to prevent it from becoming much worse.
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2.0 ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE

Environmental issue is defined as problem with the planet’s system that have developed as
a result of human interference or mistreatment of the planet. They are many environmental issue
that have been brought up through the times and some of it are a major issue to us. Without an
action, it will soon affect our planet and all the human beings. As a result, they will be a disaster
that lead to loss of life, destruction of building and houses, properties, animals, plants and many
more.

In this topic, I will point out about climate change. Climate change is a change in global or
regional climate patterns (Maya Negev, 2010). Climate change happened due to human activities
such as deforestation, industrial revolution, the increasing uses of automobiles car and many more.
All these activities are leading to pollution which then causing global warming and climate change.
Besides climate change, they are also other major environmental issue that people should look into
such as loss of biodiversity, deforestation, the quality of water and pollutions. All these issue are
becoming more and more serious as it leads to lots of causes.

Lastly, climate change is becoming a global issue, to prevent it from becoming worse, all
the people should stand together and take an action. With GCED, the citizen should be able to
think critically for a way to prevent it. A global citizen should act effectively and responsibly at
local, national and global levels for a more peaceful and sustainable world.
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2.1 INFO GRAPHIC 1

The environment is getting

polluted on daily basis to human
activities. Environmental issues such as
global warming, acid rain, waste disposal,
ozone layer depletion, climate change and
many others has affected the life of not
only humans but also the animals as well
as plants and trees. It is now on an
alarming condition.

If people remain negligent about

the environmental issue they will become
disastrous for both the life and property.
As a global citizen, people should be able
to acquire knowledge, understanding and
critical thinking about global, regional
and local issue. All citizen should stand
together and start searching for a solution in preventing pollution from happening.

As we know, air and water is essential for the survival of life. But due to human activities
both are getting polluted. When the air gets polluted by means of dust, toxic gases, smoke, motor
vehicles, mills and factories and others are called air pollution. Fresh air is the most important
element of a healthy life; we need to think that what happens if whole atmospheric air gets dirty.
Some of the major causes is burning of fossil fuel such as coal and smoke emissions from the
automobiles such as cars, buses, motorcycle and others. In my opinion of view, socio-emotional
is what we seek in all citizen, people should have that sense of belonging to a common community
or places, sharing values and responsibilities to preventing pollution from happening.

As for water pollution, there can be classified into three types mainly, groundwater
pollution, marine pollution and surface water pollution. Contaminated water from drains and
industries which flows above the topmost layer of the soil usually creeps into the soil and get
mixed with the groundwater, thereby polluting it. This contaminated water then interacts with the
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nutrients present in the soil and alters their quality. This is termed as groundwater pollution.
Similarly, the wastewater released from the industries flows into the river and thereby reaches the
seas and oceans. This is termed as marine pollution. The remaining wastewater will stay on the
surface of the earth and polluted it causing it to the deficiency of nutrients in the soil as nutrients
from other sources are not able to penetrate in the soil due to the presence of the contaminated
water. That is called surface water pollution.

Finally, people should really act effectively and responsibly at local, national and global
level for a more peaceful and sustainable world. As we all know, pollution is now an alarming
condition. Mostly it is happened because of the human wrong doings. We should educate our future
generation to become a better global citizen.
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2.2 INFO GRAPHIC 2

Global warming is when the

earth heats up. It happens when
greenhouse gases such as carbon
dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane
trap heat and light from the sun in the
earth’s atmosphere, which increases
temperature. The Global Warming is
increasing at an alarming rate and its
affecting many parts of the world. It
makes the sea rise, and when the sea
rises, the water covers many
lowlands.

The most common issue is

deforestation. Deforestation is a
human influence because human
have been cutting down trees to
produce papers, wood, build houses
or more. If human continuing deforestation, carbon dioxide will concentrate in the atmosphere and
effect all the living things.

Next issue is industrial revolution. Industrial have been using fossil fuels for powering the
machines. Everything that we use is involved in fossil fuel. For example, when we buy a mobile
phone, the process of making mobile phone have involved machines and machines uses fossil
fuels, during the process carbon dioxide is releasing to the atmosphere. Besides industrial,
transportation such as cars is also releasing carbon dioxide from exhaust.

There are many effects that will happen in the future if global warming continues. First
effect is polar ice caps melting. As the temperature increase, the ice at the North Pole will melt.
Once the ice melt the first effect will be raise on sea levels because the melting glaciers become
oceans. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center “if the ice melted today the seas
would rise about 230 feet”. It affects many low lying areas such as the Netherlands. In future, the
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Netherlands will be cover by water once the North Pole is melted. However, it is not going to
happen so fast but the sea level will continue rise.

Next, the effect will be the loss of habitat. Species that include polar bears and tropical
frogs will be extinct due to climate change. Besides, various birds will migrate to other places
because animals are not like humans. They cannot adapt the habitat that changes their living or
temperature.
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3.0 GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

In this era of 21st century, the concept of global citizenship has become universal in terms
of education. The process of globalization is continuing on a very fast pace, as the people and the
things are getting interconnected with each other. It is important for every person to think about
the role of each and every citizen. In fact, every person is responsible to becoming an active
member in the community. To me, global citizen is a citizen of the world. Meanwhile, UNESCO
already responded to these challenges. It works by empowering learners of all ages to understand
what is global citizenship and it is not just a local issue to be underestimated and we ourselves
must become the active promoter of more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable
societies. Based on the infographic above, it’s shows that they have to embed the respect to the
human rights, including gender equality, freedom of the people and social justice.
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Dimensions of global citizenship education are:

 Cognitive – to acquire knowledge, understanding and critical thinking about global,

regional national and local issue and the interconnected and interdependency of different
countries and populations
 Socio-emotional – to have sense of belonging to a common humanity, sharing values and
responsibilities, empathy, solidarity and respect for differences and diversity
 Behavioral – to act effectively and responsibly at local, national and global levels for a
more peaceful and sustainable world.

To become a global citizenship, they must have the sense of civic responsibility toward
their local community whose action helps in the contribution of building values and practices of
community. Education in the global citizenship required more from the younger generations such
as creativity, flexibility and proactive so they capable of solving problems such as environmental
issue that we faced today which is pollution all around the worlds. Thus, with a high degree of
knowledge and awareness of environmental pollution it will create a good human population and
be responsible for the preservation and conservation of the environment for future generations.

Meanwhile, global citizens are those who live in the moment, they are intellectual and
above all else they live morally. They should know the ultimate goal of global citizen before being
one which is to create sustainability throughout the entirely of the world. Sustainable community
are necessary for the survival, happiness and peace amongst the global population.

Finally, with global citizenship education, we are able to bring nurture in the humanities
the care of environmental issues so that they do not persist and intensify. With this in mind, the
environmental pollution can be solved which is yearly conversation and live in harmony
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4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE: CLIMATE CHANGE

I chose climate change because it’s a major environmental issue happens now but people
seems did not care about it at all. People took it as a small matter where they think it won’t be
affecting them but in fact it is. For starters, NASA stated that weather is what changes we see and
feel outside from day to day. It is always changing, for an example, today might but a rainy day
but next day it would be a sunny day. that’s weather. But climate is the usual weather of a place.
It can be different for different seasons (NASA, May 15, 2014). A place might be warm and dry
in the summer, but the same place might be cool and wet in the winter. That’s a climate.
Meanwhile, Earth’s climate is what you get when you combined all the climates around the worlds.

Climate change occurs when changes in Earth’s climate system result in new weather
patterns that remain in place for an extended period of time. These period of time can be few
decades to millions of years. It is affected by the human activity. For the people who studied
Earth’s climate stated that Earth is getting warmer for it temperature has increasing about one
degree Fahrenheit in the last 100 years and they expecting it will keep increasing in the future if
there is no action taken.

There are many factors that can causes climate change either it is naturally or man-made.
For an example, when there is a volcano eruption, the temperature of the earth will change. When
Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines on June 15 1991, there has been estimated 20 million
tons of sulfur dioxide and ash particles blasted more than 12miles high into the atmosphere
(JoAnna Kendell, 2016, june 9). Those eruptions caused widespread destruction and loss of human
life. Gases and solids are injected into the stratosphere and reducing the solar radiation reaching
the earth’s surface, lowering temperatures and changing the climate.

There is also greenhouse effect which is affecting the Earth’s climate. When sunlight
reaches Earth’s surface, it can either be reflected back into space or absorbed by Earth. Once the
sunlight absorbed, the planet release some of the energy back into the atmosphere as heat or
infrared radiation. Gases such as water (H20), Carbon Dioxide (Co2) and methane (CH4) absorb
energy, slowing or preventing the loss of heat to space making Earth warmer than it would be
otherwise be. Many of these gases occurs naturally, but human activity is increasing the
concentrations of some of them in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide (Co2) is the greenhouse gases
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most commonly produced by human activities and it is responsible for 64% of man-made global
warming.

Other activities such as deforestation are leading to global warming. Tropical forest trees,
like all green plants, take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen during photosynthesis. Plants also
carry out the opposite process also known as respiration which they emit carbon dioxide but
generally in smaller amounts than they take in during photosynthesis. The surplus carbon is stored
in the plant, helping it to grow. When people are cutting down the trees and burned them, their
stored carbon are released into the air making the concentration of CO2 in the air increased.

Overpopulation are also contributing to global warming which affecting our Earth’s
climate. There are 7.7billion population as of October 2019 according to the most recent United
Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometers. It is a root cause of climate change but the
governments and international organizations are reluctant even to acknowledge overpopulation as
an important factor in diagnosing the problem. According to the Association for Canadian
Educational Resources, the Co2 level will keep rise between 540 and 970ppm by 2100 and if that
happen we are likely heading similar to the world of the dinosaurs dominated 100 million years
ago. Overpopulation will also cause people to open up new land by cutting down the trees so that
they will be new place to stay.

Therefore, people should really take climate change as a serious matter, the effect might
not be seen today but surely it will affect us if we did not take any action on preventing it. For
starters, people can make their commute green. It will help to produce fewer emissions of gases.
Other than that, the people can use renewable energies. The best way to prevent climate change is
to move away from fossil fuels.
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5.0 BENEFIT OF THE CONCEPTUAL DIMENSION OF GCED IN SOCIETY

As we all know, there are 3 concept or main core in global citizenship education. These 3
key conceptual dimension can contribute to a many thing, in resolving environmental issue are one
of it. There are:

5.1 Cognitive: to acquire knowledge, understanding and critical thinking about global, regional
national and local issue and the interconnected and interdependency of different countries and
populations

One of the factor causing climate change is the attitude of a human being for not taking
environmental issue seriously and a lack of knowledge on what causing it, how it affecting us and
how to prevent it from becoming worse. With this concept, people should be able to acquire more
knowledge and help the people to think more critically in resolving environmental issue such as
planting more trees, use eco-friendly product, invent new product from used item and many more.
Therefore, the environment can be save from pollution, people will have a better future and a better
place to live in and the connection between peoples will grow stronger because they all aiming for
the same thing which is a better environment for all of us to live in.

5.2 Socio-emotional – to have sense of belonging to a common humanity, sharing values and
responsibilities, empathy, solidarity and respect for differences and diversity

From this point of view, global citizenship education (GCED) can teach people to have a
sense of belonging to one another, one that is responsible for one another. This kind of behavior
needs to be instilled in everyone because with such a human nature it is easy for us to produce
human beings who respect each other in protecting our environmental rights. For an example,
people can organize a campaign for all to joining in and do activities such as recycling, planting
trees and mores.
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5.3 Behavioral – to act effectively and responsibly at local, national and global levels for a more
peaceful and sustainable world.

In order to achieve a safe and sustainable world without environmental pollution it is not
just a theory but it is a practical necessity because the theory will not be perfect without practice.
Existing knowledge but not practiced can be ascribed to a fruitless tree.
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6.0 WAYS TO RESOLVE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE

6.1 Replace disposable item with reusable items

In order to solve the environmental issue that we are facing right now, people should start
by replacing their disposable items with reusable items such as shopping bag and food container.
By using the reusable bag, it will save more money and resources also it is strong and can be used
for a long time. Meanwhile, plastic bags are non-biodegradable, it requires crude oil and natural
gas to manufacture (C.Thompson, 2010). Plastic bags cause environmental damage and also threat
to the animal.

6.2 Reducing the uses of paper

Paper is well known to be made from the trees. Trees is essential for us because it produce
the oxygen that we breathe right now. People may start joining a library instead of buying books,
print as little as possible. It may seem like a simple action, but most people failed to do so. Other
than that, people can start to cut out the products made by palm oil companies that contribute to
deforestation. A global citizen should be able to act effectively by doing what is right for the
environment.

6.3 Conserve water and electricity

For this point, Conserving the water and electricity is important and it should be applied to
all people especially to young children. This is to make sure they have the sense of belonging to a
common humanity, sharing values and responsibilities. They can start by turning off the sink when
not in use and switch off or unplug and devices that uses electricity when not in use. After that,
people should remove any chemical outside of the house and use eco-friendly pesticides that won’t
contaminate the ground water.
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6.4 Recycle

A global citizen should know that recycling is an important thing to be done. People should
start recycle their waste items such as plastic, bottle and others. First of all, they must acquire
knowledge, understanding and critical thinking about recycling, it is to make sure they are using
the proper separations containers which is cans, paper and plastic bin. Therefore, recycling can
reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and prevents pollution by reducing the need to collect
new raw materials.
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7.0 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this assignment is more focused on Global Citizenship Education(GCED)

and environmental issue. This assignment will point out what is GCED and its three core
conceptual dimension. Next, environmental issue are also included in this task which is global
warming. The connection between GCED and environmental issue also has been discussed and
how GCED manage to help in reducing the environmental issue that we facing right now.

Global Citizenship Education (GCED) refers to a sense of belonging to a broader

community and common humanity. It emphasis on political, economic, social and cultural
interdependency and interconnectedness between the local, the national and the global. GCED
entails three core conceptual dimensions which is cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioral.
These three core conceptual serve as the basis for defining global citizenship education goals,
learning activities and competencies. In order to become a global citizen, every citizen should have
an open mind, educate themselves with a lot of knowledge, get involved in a community and travel
when possible.

On the other hand, environmental issue refers to a harmful effects of human activities on
the biophysical environment. Major current environmental issue may include climate change,
pollution, environmental degradation and resources depletion. By facing environmental issue, it
actually affects us on the decreasing of water quality, increased pollution and greenhouse gas
emissions, depletion of natural resources and contribution of global climate change. Some of these
are the direct result of human activities, whereas others are secondary effects that are part of a
series of actions and reactions.

Global citizenship education can contribute to a solving environmental issue through its
three conceptual dimensions. A global citizenship should be able to practice these three key
conceptual dimensions in their daily life in order to make a right decision. Implementing these 3
key conceptual in every citizen especially younger generations may help these generations to have
a better critical thinking and finding ways on how to solve a wider problem in their surroundings.
As a result, all the citizen can have a better future and a more sustain environment for the younger
generations to live in.
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8.0 SELF-REFLECTION

I want to thank God that with His permission I was given the opportunity to complete this
assignment. For starter, this assignment is about a global citizenship education and environmental
issue that we currently face right now. This assignment is closely related to how GCED benefit
the society in resolving the current environmental issue and also how their three key conceptual
dimension can help in producing a global citizen. Throughout my journey of completing
assignments, I have encountered many challenges and obstacles but I have also gained invaluable
knowledge.

First of all, before starting this assignment, various questions came to my mind as, was i
be able to complete the assignment in a short time, could I answer each question correctly and
could I get the exact reference and material needed for this task. As a student with a background
in medical science, these subject is new to me. As I going through the syllabus given and the
assignment pointed to me, I realized that these was not an easy task. I need to read more from any
related trusted article, books and journal.

While completing this assignment, I find it hard to find a relevant reference for me to
include in this assignment. A relevant reference should not be taken from the website such as
Facebook, twitter, blogger and Wikipedia as these websites can easily be edit by other person.
Next, I also find out that I have less knowledge about global citizenship educations, and what it’s
actually benefited to us. With that, I have to read more so that I can acquire more knowledge about
this assignment. After that, I also obtained a various knowledge on environmental issue. There are
actually many major environmental issue that we are currently facing right now, it’s just we are
not concern enough for our environment.

Other than that, I also learned that we all can become a global citizen if we actually applied
the global citizenship education in our daily life. In order to achieve world peace and a sustainable
environment, we must become a global citizen.

After completing, I was able to know about the environmental issue that we face right now
and how to prevent it from becoming much worse in the future. I learned that by being a global
citizen can help us in our daily life as much as it helping us in maintaining the environment in its
good form. In conclusion, I strongly agree that we all should become a global citizen in order to
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create a better future. For me, this subject is an important subject for all student to take because it
allows us to learn more valuable knowledge and it allows to practice our critical thinking.
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9.0 REFERENCES

Maya Negev, Yaakov Garb, Roni Biller, Gonen Sagy(2010, may 10): The journal of
Environmental Education.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258341924_Environmental_Problema_Causes_
and_Solutions
C.Thompson, Tim O’Brine Richard(2010): Degradation of plastic carrier bags in the marine
Environment
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X10003553
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (2015): Global Citizenship
Educations
https://en.unesco.org/themes/gced
JoAnna Kendell, Mohi Kumar(2016,june 9): Pinatubo 25 years later: Eight Ways The Eruption
Broke Ground
https://eos.org/articles/pinatubo-25-years-later-eight-ways-the-eruption-broke-ground
National Aeronautics and Space Administration(May 15, 2014): What is Climate Change ?
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-climate-
change-k4.html