Developing Global Competence: An International Research Study

A worldwide study into how best to grow students’ capacity to understand and respectfully connect with other cultures, has identified five key practices, including volunteering and learning about different cultural perspectives.

Dr. Christina Hinton and team of researchers from Research Schools International and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who conducted the study on behalf of Round Square, assessed students’ global competence with measures based on Round Square’s Discovery Framework and OECD/PISA’s Global Competency Framework, using this as a benchmark from which to collect successful examples of good practice in promoting International Understanding.

They found that students’ global competence is best developed through volunteering, learning about different cultural perspectives, celebrating cultural diversity, discussing world events and learning how to solve conflicts.

As is customary practice within the Round Square community, student participation and voice has played an important part in the research process with 24 students from 12 schools working alongside the professional Research Team as Research Fellows and Ambassadors. The schools were:

Aiglon, Chesières-Villars, Switzerland; Belgrano Day School, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Buckingham Browne & Nichols, Cambridge, MA, USA; Christ’s College, Christchurch, New Zealand; Colegio Los Nogales, Bogotá, Colombia; The Doon School, Dehradun, India; Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut, USA; Ivanhoe Grammar School, Melbourne, Australia; Latymer Upper School, London, UK; St Constantines School, Arusha, Tanzania; Transylvania College, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; and YK Pao School, Shanghai, China.