Prof' Nomi Giszpenc

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Framing Global Civilization

• Prof. Noémi Giszpenc
• Montclair State University
• Globalization 101 Users Conference
• Levin Institute, New York, May 18, 2009

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Intro to class Global Civilization

• Not necessarily a course on globalization
• Freshman honors program seminar on contemporary
  issues
• Twice-weekly 75-minute class meetings
• About 15 students per class, from all majors
• Multi-disciplinary
• Taught by various professors each designs own
  course
• Backgrounds include political science, sociology,
  anthropology, history, literature, economics
• Students choose section based on interest, but
  also schedule

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Whats your first instinct?

• Quick! Teach Global Civilization to a class of
  freshmen.
• What do you put in?
• What do you leave out?
• What do you want students to know?
• How will they learn it?
• Do you need a hook?
• Should you narrow the topic down to a smaller
  slice?
• Can you enlist students passions?

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Some answers from MSU profs

• Learn how to inquire about politics, how to
  understand politics in different parts of the
  world, and how to generate and test hypotheses to
  explain politics. Using graphic novels!
• Tony Spanakos, political science professor
• Consider the 21st century from the perspective
  of East Asia. The experiences of China, Japan,
  and Korea provide the lenses through which our
  contemporary age is viewed.
• Ken Olenik, history professor
• Students write a report conceived as a
  stimulative work-in-progress to facilitate
  discussion and to promote action concerning
  the new forces of Globalization shaping and
  altering the planets present and future course.
• Glenn Alcalay, anthropology professor

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My take economic development

• Healthy respect for laws of economics
• What is possible/impossible probable/improbable
• Healthy skepticism of current predominant
  institutions, given the evident problems facing
  world
• Tempered by appreciation for ambiguity, distaste
  for revolution
• Due consideration to social factors, politics,
  history, etc.

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My starting goals for the course

• Focus on big, important issues that cross or
  transcend borders, occur between countries
• E.g. trade, war, environment, health
• Dont take an overly U.S.-centric view
• Give basic facts about the global landscape
• Learn durable concepts from contemporary events

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Process for gathering class material

• Brainstorm What shapes my understanding of what
  is going on? What tools help me to understand?
  Whats important?
• Ask all my friends and family for advice and
  opinions
• Browse Globalization 101 site
• Browse Amazon.comstarting from a book like
  Fareed Zakarias The Post-American World, what
  are related books?
• Go to the library
• Found Reinventing the Bazaar by John McMillan,
  Illicit by Moisés Naím, The Economics of War by
  Paul Poast
• Subscribe to YaleGlobal Online (yaleglobal.yale.ed
  u) and other site feeds for current events and
  latest research

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Topics that I settled on

• Intro to Global landscape countries,
  institutions, history
• Forces at Work Microeconomics Macroeconomics
• Trade Supply Chains, Agreements, Potential
  Benefits
• Finance General and current crisis
• Development What is it? How is it promoted?
  Sustained?
• Environment Climate Change, Water
• War Peace, Money, Arms Smuggling
• International Crime Situation Response
• Women, Demographics, Health, and Education
• Culture, Identity, Language Religion

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Pros and Cons of Topic List

• Pros
• Hits most of the big topics on the news and
  affecting global civilization
• Somewhat coherent all the topics relate to one
  another
• All of them interest me (passion can be
  infectious)
• If a student doesnt like one topic, quickly move
  to next

• Cons
• Any one of these topics could be a whole
  course/book/dissertation
• Hard to design assignments and lessons that
  convey gist without being too simple or
  overwhelming
• No simple answers (but thats part of the point)

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My goals for student learning
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What students say they learned

• I learned that what happens around the world
  DOES affect me, and I need to become more
  politically aware of these issues so that I can
  make informed decisions as a citizen of the
  United States.
• Everything has a good side, a bad side, and a
  gray side. Our world is constantly changing and
  all of our choices can have a multitude of
  effects, good, bad, and anything in between.
• I feel as if I became more knowledgeable about
  how much of a say other countries have on the
  global stage. Prior to this class, my mindset was
  that the United States pretty much controlled
  everything that happened in the world, but
  through this class, I learned that other
  countries, such as the country I was assigned,
  China, have their own share of the vote regarding
  global issues.

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Most successful class components

• Homework
• Weekly news summaries on class topic in assigned
  country
• Lessons
• Interactive class participation or visual aids,
  e.g. the iPod class
• Resources
• Students especially appreciated The Crisis of
  Credit Visualized by Jonathan Jarvis,
  www.crisisofcredit.com
• Readings
• Global Trends 2025 A Transformed World by the
  National Intelligence Council

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Principles

• Start from where the students are
• E.g. How am I globalized?
• In tension with presenting unknown material
• Students learn most from doing next from seeing
  least from hearing
• Small-group discussions of 2-4 students most
  effective
• Energy level increases if students get a chance
  to move
• Specific, concrete examples more interesting than
  abstract theories

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Discussion is key. How to do it?

• Insufficiently structured discussions can be
  hijacked by a few particularly talkative people
• Covering too many topics leads to shallow, if
  any, learning
• Hard to get students to interact outside of
  class, online
• Challenging to bring students just out of their
  comfort zone
• E.g., some students complained about economics
  content, but many also reported that although
  they found the topics difficult, they appreciated
  having a better handle on current events and
  being able to discuss issues more intelligently
• With such complex topics and few packaged
  lessons, preparation time can grow to unbearable
  proportions

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Recommendations for framing

• Dos
• Focus on what interests you within global
  civilization
• Pick small, manageable slices students can grasp
• Keep up-to-date on current developments
• Give students continuity
• Share your work with the world!

• Donts
• Try to teach everything you know about it
• Be afraid to tackle complex subjects
• Get side-tracked too much by todays news
• Limit variety of sources

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Thank you. Questions?

• Noémi Giszpenc
• www.giszpenc.com/globalciv