Fostering Global Citizenship In
Mathematics Classrooms
Russasmita Sri Padmi

Gabriel Matney

SEAMEO Regional Centre for QITEP inMathematics

Bowling Green StateUniversity

INTRODUCTION• The importance of Global Citizenship Education (GCED) to educate
students as future citizens of the world.
• The strong potential of mathematics as the gate to GCED.
HOW?

Model
Eliciting
Activities

The useof aglobalissue as acontext

Cross‐
borderlesson

RESEARCH QUESTION“When students engage in a cross‐border model
eliciting mathematics activity, what elements ofglobal citizenship education are enacted?”Project Setting and Timeline

The students presenting their solution through WebEx.

The Lesson

Wiemken, R., Padmi, R. S., & Matney, G. (2021). Global connections through mathematical problem
solving. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching Pre-K – 12, 114(3), 219-226.

• The lesson was not planned to adhere to specific curriculum standard, but as an enrichment task
whereby students would apply prior knowledge to real‐life data and give justification for theviability of their mathematical model to solve a global problem. Furthermore, the task was notaimed at a specific grade or age, but designed in such a way that it can be solved by grade 9‐12students.
• The lesson was to be conducted in English.
• The students use real‐life data from credible and reputable global organizations.

Wiemken, R., Padmi, R. S., & Matney, G. (2021). Global connections through mathematicalproblem solving. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching Pre-K – 12, 114(3), 219-226.

[5METHOD
Data Analysis

Modified from Global Citizenship in Mathematic Task Protocol (Evans, 2018)

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The Cognitive Domain
An example ofmathematical modelby Indonesian students

An example ofmathematicalmodel by USstudents

Wiemken, R., Padmi, R. S., & Matney, G. (2021). Global connections through mathematical problem
solving. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching Pre-K – 12, 114(3), 219-226.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The Cognitive Domain• When defending their model, the students have to justify the choice of the mathematics
operation.
Example of transcript
Indonesian student 1: If we just add them together, it won’t do any significant …
Indonesian student 2: It’s the same if we add or multiply.
Indonesian student 1: Multiplying is the best choice.
Indonesian student 3: Because these two are different factors, so if we add them together, it justdoesn’t seem right.
US Teacher: Is China’s number boosted because of multiplication? Wouldn’t another country, sayIndonesia, benefit more from addition?
US student 1: Well, they are dividing by GDP which is also really big, so it evens out themultiplication, I think.

• Indonesian students learned about the dominance of English language and how it affects theway they convey information, while US students learned how to speak with other people
with different cultural and national background.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONThe Socio‐emotional Domain• The task exposed the difference in culture, where US students are more used to expressing
personal opinions and perspectives, while Indonesian students are generally stricter on staying
within the line of mathematics facts and procedures.
• The difference was also evident in justifying the importance of some variables, in particular GDP.
The model of Indonesian students considers high GDP as a predictor of fewer turbines, because itmeans the country can afford clean energy themselves. The model of US students considers GDP
as predictor of more turbines, because it means the company can count on that country as afuture market.
Example of transcript
Indonesian student 3: Essentially, we have the same idea in how we have to divide by the importance, or
how much they need it. So, how much they need it, over the total of how much all country need it – do you
get what I mean?
US student 2: Well, I saw fair as relative. Aside from moral question in a sense of do we distribute to those inneeds, there is also business question of do we distribute it for profit. We tried to consider both ethical andbusiness side.

CONCLUSIONCOGNITIVE DOMAIN• Students used criticalinquiry skills.
• Students learned about thedominance of the English
language and how thisaffects non‐Englishspeakers.

SOCIO‐EMOTIONAL DOMAIN• Students learned about
difference and diversity.
• Students learned aboutcommon factors thattranscend difference anddeveloped an ability torespect differences.

Lesson learned
The worth‐exploring potential of MEA with global context as a wayto:• foster the students’ problem solving ability, and• helping the students recognizing themselves as a world citizen andmember of an interconnected community, by providing a platform
where they can brainstorm different opinions and thoughts in solving
a particular problem with students from different countries.

Thank you!