Cambridge Lower Secondary

Complete
Global Perspectives
Karem Roitman
Rory Blackstock
Nazim Qureshi
Vijay Shetty

d e n t m a t e r i a l
S a m p l e s t u

Oxford excellence for Cambridge Lower Secondary

Year 7

Challenge Do we need schools for education? Can’t we just learn on

the job? Do schools cause learning?

Education
Do we want education to benefit the individual, their
country, or the world?
Why is it that we need to study? Why do you go to school?
Not everyone in the world has the same access to education.
How is education different in different areas of the world?

Exercise 4.1 Get thinking

• What would you change about your current education?
Challenge overview
• Do you think education should be optional or mandatory?
In this challenge, you have the opportunity analytical skills. You will be finding information
• Should all education be free?
to think about what education is – why you about educational differences. You will analyse
do it, what it should be like, and how it could arguments that support different educational
be improved. You are welcome to research models. To finish this challenge you will create
Imagine the Earth is sending a mission alternative models of education. As you explore promotional videos to promote education
out into space. We are starting a new education you will be practising your research and for girls.
human colony on planet Kepler-452b.
You have been selected to design the
education system in this new colony.
You are in charge of designing the What skills will you develop?
perfect education.
But what would a perfect education Evaluation: facts versus opinions Analysis: thinking about consequences
look like? Would you let each family ➜ You will start by reviewing the difference ➜ You will practise thinking about the
between facts and opinions. You will explore consequences of actions; in particular why
choose what their children learn?
your opinions on education and learn that, we educate.
Would you make sure everyone learnt while it is fine to have opinions, you need to
maths? Would you make it mandatory use facts to support your arguments. Analysis: solving problems
to read certain books? You have all ➜ You will use your understanding of causes
Evaluation: facts and arguments and consequences to create videos to
power. Choose wisely!
➜ You will practise analysing arguments to support more equitable education. You
understand what evidence they are using. will practise creating a plan to achieve
You will work on preparing an argument and your goals.
Stop practise working as a group.
Taking it further
Analysis: understanding causes ➜ This section will give you a lot of ideas to
Spend some time jotting down what you think you need to know in order to
design a perfect education system. Write down some quick notes of where ➜ You will learn to think about the causes of a take your learning further, connecting it
problem. You can practise looking at causes with other subjects and expanding your
you might find this information. You could also write some ideas you already from different perspectives. understanding.
have about what a perfect education would be like. Try to be creative and think
outside the box.
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 Year 7 Challenge 4

Evaluation Exercise 4.2 Facts versus opinions

Facts versus
Try the quiz below. Which are facts, 5. Children should be asked if they
and which are opinions? want to learn maths.

1. Children should only be exposed 6. Children’s access to education can

opinion
to classic literature. be limited by natural disasters.

2. Girls are less likely to be in school 7. All education should include

than boys. weekly quizzes.

3. Some children have to walk 8. Girls like school more than boys.
It is important to be able to separate facts from opinions. This is a several miles to get to school.
valuable research skill, and a major citizenship and survival skill. You
4. School is the best experience
need to be able to spot campaigns or adverts that try to convince you
children can have.
with opinions that are not supported by facts.
It is fine to have an opinion – we all have opinions but opinions may
change. Once you start researching you might find that you change
your opinion. For example, in Challenge 3 you might have started with
The perfect education
the opinion that globalization is always good or always bad, but after If you could create a perfect school what would be taught?
completing the chapter and looking at various facts, you might have Would you make it mandatory for all students to learn maths? Would
changed your opinion. everyone have to participate in a sport? Would you allow students to
While you can start with an opinion on an issue, you need to find choose at what time they came to class? What if some want to start
facts to use as evidence in support of your view. If the facts you find their classes at 10 p.m.?
contradict your opinion, it may be time to change it. Poor arguments
use opinions as if they were facts.
Exercise 4.3
Take some time to ‘free think’ what you would want in a perfect school.
These are your opinions. Then try to fill out the table below, where you write
what you would want the school to have, and why. As a next step try to find
evidence that supports what you want. Will you change your views if you
Remember
cannot find evidence or if evidence contradicts your views?
An opinion expresses a belief or a feeling. You can agree
or disagree with an opinion. An opinion can change.
My perfect school
Ex. I would like to float around without gravity. Opinion Reason why Facts to support my opinion Facts that do not
A fact is something that can be proven with evidence. support my opinion
You cannot disagree with facts. Facts cannot be changed. Schools should Kids can get Children, particularly Parents need to
start later in the more rest. teenagers, need to sleep get to work!
Ex. There is gravity on Earth. day more as they are growing
fast. A study on a university’s
website says teenagers need
more sleep than children

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 Year 7 Challenge 4

Evaluation Imagine a group who believes the Earth is flat came to your school to
present their case. You and a group of friends are put in charge of finding
facts to demonstrate that the Earth is not flat. You are particularly asked to

Facts and arguments

respond to the textbook article shown above. Prepare your case.

Stop
What steps would you take to prepare your case? There are suggested steps
below, but you might want to try something different.
The truth is the world is flat. Claims of rockets leaving the
Earth and landings on the moon
Anyone walking on the Earth
are all lies. NASA and similar Exercise 4.6 Preparing the case against Flat Earth
can notice that it is flat. How
organizations are traps to
can we deny the truth of what 1. Start by looking at the text you are supposed to address. Make a list of
steal government money and
our senses tell us? points to refute, or prove the text wrong.
confuse the naive. We cannot
If the Earth was round, how trust scientific organizations. 2. Split the research among your group. Either one group member, or a pair,
is it that things at the bottom We must spread the truth. should look for evidence to disprove a particular point.
don’t fall off? How can people
3. Gather evidence. Remember to keep track of your sources (Keep track of
in what they call the ‘Southern
authors, title of books/articles/webistes, URLs, year of publication, and, if a
Hemisphere’, walk with no
website, date accessed – see Section 7.2).
problem? If we could leave
Earth we could see that Earth is 4. Review your evidence. Make sure you have collected facts rather than opinions.
a flat disc, surrounded by a wall
5. Prepare to present your case: write it out or create a presentation in which
of ice so we do not fall off.
you show each argument made by the textbook and your evidence against
it. Then add any other facts you have to prove that the Earth is not flat.
Make sure you list arguments and data in a logical and clear way. Prepare a
list of sources used. This list should be handed in with your presentation, so
Exercise 4.4 Discussion: evaluating a text people can review your evidence if they want to.
What do you think about the text above? Do you think it builds a valid
argument? Why or why not? Think about:
Exercise 4.7 Reflection
• What evidence does the text use to build its argument?
While it might be clear to you that the Earth is not flat, as you work through
• Does the text use facts or opinions as evidence?
this exercise it is important to consider how people who do believe the Earth
is flat might feel when they are proven wrong. Understanding this will help you
Exercise 4.5 Ideal education: critical thinking present your case more effectively and kindly. Think about it: would you listen
to someone who spoke rudely to you or mocked your ideas?
Break into small groups and discuss the following:

1. Should education be only about facts, or also about opinions? Reviewing your teamwork – collaboration
2. Should people whose beliefs contradict science – for example, those who Think over your teamwork. Did splitting your research work well?
argue the Earth is flat – be allowed to teach this to their children, or in schools? Is there anything you would have done differently?
3. Who should determine what schools teach? The government? The school?
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 Year 7 Challenge 4

Analysis
Causes
To be able to solve a problem, we need to understand what causes it. For
example, to stop deforestation from happening, we need to understand
why trees are being cut down. To help girls to stay in education, we need

Understanding
to know why girls are dropping out from school early.

Analysis: causes
In the previous exercise, you will have found that girls lag behind boys in

causes
their access to education. Have you thought about why? What causes girls
to go to school less or to drop out earlier? Discuss some possible causes
with your class and research this issue.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a

series of goals that member countries of the United FPO Exercise 4.9
Nations committed to in 2015. These are goals to
end poverty, protect our planet, and support the
200874_ph 4.3 Use the information you came up with in your discussion and research to fill in
wellbeing of all people. a Venn diagram like the ones below.

Goal 4 of the SDGs is:
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality
education and promote lifelong
learning opportunities for all.
To achieve this goal, we need to look Why girls don’t attend school
at how equitable, or equal, education is
for children throughout the world. We
need facts to understand how equal or Personal National
unequal education is worldwide. reasons reasons

Exercise 4.8 Finding facts: education inequalities

In groups or individually find facts to answer these questions:

• Is there a difference between how many girls and how many boys attend
Perspectives are inter-related
school in your country? Spend some time thinking about the area where the circles
intercept. This area shows you how different perspectives are
• Is there a worldwide difference in school attendance between girls and boys?
inter-related and overlap. Think about how other perspectives
• How many years of education do most children in your country receive? overlap. How does the global affect the personal?
What is the average worldwide?
• How much money is spent on the education of each child in your country?
What about in other countries (choose three or four countries to look at)? Exercise 4.10 Analysing Malala’s story
Have you heard about Malala Yousafzai? 1. How was Malala’s life affected by
Stop You can read about her story here: national politics?
https://malala.org. As you read Malala’s 2. Would Malala’s story be different
Education equality is a large topic. To research it we can look at various story try again to find the personal, local, without global support?
areas such as: gender (do girls and boys receive the same eduation?), religion national, and global forces that tried to
(do children of different religions receive more or less education?), age 3. What would you have done in
keep Malala from going to school, and
(do governments spend more money on the education of younger or older Malala’s place?
the forces that helped her stay in school.
children?). Then answer the following questions:
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 Year 7 Challenge 4

Analysis get an education? We need to understand the consequences of

deforestation or girls not getting an education to understand
why these problems need to be solved.

Thinking about Reflection

consequences
Think about why you go to school. What do you want the consequences of
your education to be?

What is education all about? Exercise 4.12 Researching alternative models

Have you ever thought about why we educate? This is again a why question,
but while in Section 7.4.3 you were looking at causes (why do girls drop out
of, or don’t attend, school?), in this section we are looking at consequences:
what effects does education have?
Exercise 4.11 Discussion: why educate?
of education
Spend some time learning about alternative models of education and try to
understand if they have different views on why we should educate. There are
innumerable models to learn about, but you could start with:
• environmental education • religious education

What do you and your classmates think education should do? What should the
consequences of education be? In other words, why do we educate?
As a class, come up with a list of reasons why you think we should educate.
Here are a few more reasons you can add to your list:
A. Education should prepare youth for their future jobs
• home-schooling • un-schooling.
As you learn about these different ways of education keep track of:
➜ the websites or other sources you use to find information
➜ the key terms you use to search for information.

B. Education should make people better

C. Education should make people happy

Exercise 4.13 Perspectives
D. Education should teach us to fit into our society. One of the challenges of alternative education is that there might be different
outcomes at the local, national, and global level.

Try to use the diagram below as you think through different models and
what consequences they might have at different levels or perspectives.
Consequences
Type of Consequences: Consequences: Consequences:
Consequences are the effects something has. To understand education Positive/negative Positive/negative Positive/negative at
a problem we need to understand its consequences. at the local level at the national level the global level
Understanding the consequences of a problem helps us to Multi-lingual
understand why we need to solve it. For example, why does it education
matter if we cut down trees? Why does it matter if girls do not
Home
education
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 Year 7 Challenge 4

Exercise 4.14 Analyse the argument Exercise 4.15

Read the article below. What is its main argument? What does Bladen believe Read the following article about uniforms in schools, and find:
education is for?
• the main idea of the article

• the consequences listed in the article.

Maths ‘should be optional’

Secondary school pupils should be able to drop maths for GCSE and study
more practical numeracy skills, says a teachers’ union leader. There is some debate as to whether and sameness. But even with uniforms,
“Mathematics has always been a main subject, but why?”, said Terry Bladen, school uniforms should be mandatory. students can show their creativity
president of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Schools want to create a uniform policy through hairstyles and accessories.
Teachers. that promotes learning and student On the other hand, school uniforms
“I would always argue that pupils should be numerate, with numeracy happiness. Do uniforms help students can help build a sense of community
taught throughout all the key stages, but numeracy can be divorced from to learn better, or do they distract and belonging. Moreover, with
mathematics.”
them? I think uniforms, while having everyone wearing uniforms, it is harder
“How often do the majority of people need or use mathematical concepts some negatives, help students to for students to waste their energy
once they have left school?”
learn better. comparing clothes and styles. To create
He said that, while all children should be numerate, allowing them to drop a sense of belonging and to avoid poor
advanced concepts such as quadratic equations and trigonometry at the Some argue that uniforms do not
students feeling disadvantaged, I think
age of 14 would still allow enthusiastic pupils to choose the subject for allow students’ individuality to shine
GCSE if they wanted. uniforms should be worn in schools.
through. Uniforms impose conformity
“Maths classes would for the first time be made up of pupils who actually
enjoyed and wanted to pursue the subject.”
“This would also help schools to some extent overcome the problem of
recruiting specialist maths teachers. It would also allow more time in the
curriculum for other subjects,” he said.
Exercise 4.16 Causes and consequences
Look at the issues below. In a small group, think about possible causes and
consequences for each problem.
Remember
Causes Issue Consequences
To understand a problem, we need to Increased international
understand what causes it and what are its travel
consequences. Greater number of
students applying to
university
Fewer students doing
sports
Schools lack sufficient
technology

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Taking it further
Want to think and research more about
education? Here are some suggestions to
take your learning further:
Surveys and education
• Use your knowledge and skills to
improve your own education. Conduct
a school-wide survey on how the
students in your school think their
education can be improved.
• Or survey teachers on what they need in
order to improve their teaching.
As always, think carefully about your
questions. Make sure they are clear
and focused, and make sure they
are not leading questions. Present
your findings to the leaders in your
school. Think carefully about how to
best present your findings – take care
to write clearly and use evidence to
support your arguments.
Religion
• Should religion be a part of education?
If so how? Write an opinion piece which
might be submitted for publication
in a newspaper. This is a large and
important question. To answer it you
could consider local, national, or global
perspectives.
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Year 7 Challenge 4
Exams
• A regular criticism of education is that
it is all about exams. Do you think we
could get rid of exams? How would we
Education
• Look into Howard Gardner’s theory of
multiple intelligences. Find a personal
assessment you can do of your
ensure that children are learning? own learning capacities. Does this
Maths Inclusiveness
knowledge give you insights into how
you work in school and what you want
• How should mathematics be taught? • All students are different. Some really to do in the future?
How is it taught in your school? Are like maths. Others love writing. Some
there other methods? You could need extra help with writing. Some work
interview your maths teachers and/ best in quieter places. How can schools
or email teachers in other schools to be designed to make sure all children
compare strategies. are included?
History
• Some say, ‘History is the story of the
victors.’ How is history taught in your What did you learn?
school? Do you think it could be taught
When you complete this challenge, take a moment to reflect over what you have learnt
from different perspectives?
with the table below:
Sociology
Skill I get it! I am starting to get it! I need to review this.
• Home education is becoming I know the difference
increasingly common in many countries. between facts and
Can you create a short podcast opinions.
explaining to your audience why I understand the
parents choose to home school? The need to use facts
answer might be different for different to support my
countries, or for different communities arguments.
in a country. I understand what
Art causes are.
I understand what
• Should art be a mandatory part of consequences are.
education? If so, how should art be
I can evaluate
taught?
whether an argument
is supported by
evidence.
I am learning to be a
team member.
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