You might be sitting on the other side of the world, reading the #AgEd2Malaysia blog and following our tweets and wondering why our group is engaged in such a wide variety of activities. I thought they were there to study agriculture education, you might ask yourself. Why on earth are they doing things like learning to play musical instruments?
The answer to this question is global competency development. Global competence is a big term that helps us express all the knowledge, skills and dispositions that students need to be global citizens in the 21st century. One of the four aspects of the Asia Society definition of global competence is that globally competent students have the ability to investigate the world. This means that globally competent students are aware, curious, and interested in learning about the world and how it works.
Looking at the four items listed above, you can start to categorize our activities. For example, we are engaging all five senses as we investigate the country and culture of Malaysia.
We’re using the sense of taste by eating different types of Malaysian food, including foods we’re never tried or even heard of before! An early and impactful tasting opportunity included visiting the university orchard, where students were able to walk up to a tree, pick off a fruit, and enjoy it in the moment. The picture to the left is a photo of students trying rambutan for the first time in the orchard.
Our sense of smell is overwhelmed as we smell the durian fruit, which is unique to Malaysia. You don’t even have to get close to the fruit to smell it – you can easily whiff the aroma from quite a distance. In fact, durian is not allowed in many hotels because the smell can disturb other guests! The picture to the right was taken immediately after three participants tried durian for the first time – they are trying to decide if the strong smell matches the actual taste of the fruit.
We’re using our sense of hearing to listen to the different languages we hear around us, notice the calls for prayer, and to engage with traditional musical instruments.
The picture to the left is from our gamelan music lesson. The gamelan is a traditional instrument from this region of the world that remains very popular. Not only did we engage deeply with our sense of hearing, but learned other important lessons as well. The music teacher, Mr. Seth, emphasized that with gamelan, teamwork is essential. When we started to rush through the song, he wanted to know if a ghost was chasing us. And finally, we got to experience what it might feel like to be in a high-pressure Malaysian classroom when each of us had to play the entire song through by ourselves.
We’re using our sense of touch through experiencing the weather, riding bikes through campus, dancing the traditional Zapin dance, and trying new things such as weaving a traditional fabric called songket. The picture to the right is of a teacher participant getting her hands in the soil by planting a pineapple plant at the Pineapple Development Center.
Finally, we’re using our sense of sight to take in our new surroundings. Whether it is people watching in public spaces, noticing different styles of dress, observing different religious spaces, and seeing how people interact with each other. The picture to the left is of the group exploring the inside of a Hindu temple.
Of course, with each of these experiences, we are engaging more than one sense. At the end of each day, we spend at least half an hour in a reflection session, but there is no way to talk about everything that we saw, heard, smelled, tasted and touched that day. But because we are engaging all of our senses, we have a better chance of creating lasting memories and developing global competence. Stay tuned as the bold learners and adventurers continue to expand their horizons and share their discoveries with you!
Dr. Melanie Miller Foster (@GlobalMelanie) is a Global Learning Specialist (@GlobalTeachAg) at The Pennsylvania State University (@Penn_State @Agsciences).
