These FREE online professional development modules and tools support CTE faculty in internationalizing their curriculum. Short, at 15–20 minutes, these modules are self-paced and available through ACTE’s CTELearn platform. Descriptions of each module are below together with related activity guides and resources featured in each module. All materials are free of charge due to generous support from ECMC Foundation. Institutions will also be able to place the modules on their own LMS system. Contact Heather Singmaster, Director of CTE for more information: hsingmaster@digitalpromise.org
This introductory module will welcome and provide a guide for faculty and administrators to understand the content and sequence of the modules. It will include the definition of global competence and will provide an overview of the 10 faculty training modules.
Today’s students will be graduating into a world that is ever more interconnected. One in ten Americans is foreign born, and local communities—urban, suburban, and rural—are growing more diverse. To take advantage of global market opportunities, companies want employees with the knowledge and skills to work across cultures. Therefore, faculty teaching in career and technical education (CTE) pathways need to prepare their students to compete, connect, and cooperate on an international scale in order to find jobs and move along a career trajectory. This module will establish a rationale for incorporating global competence in postsecondary CTE and introduces natural ways to make those connections.
This module will:
CTE is the most proactive approach to address the mismatch between the skills demanded by employers and the skills of our current workforce. To do so, CTE needs to evolve to better align to these shifting workforce demands and provide students with both specific occupational skills, as well as broader and transferable knowledge, skills, and dispositions that position them as adaptable workers and lifelong learners. This module provides an overview of learning needs of today’s diverse community college students, ACTE’s Quality CTE Framework, and tools to connect global competence to career fields.
Module Objectives
Building global competence into CTE begins with understanding your students’ diverse experiences through the lens of social justice. This module will utilize the Global Social Justice Framework for educators, provide tools to integrate student experience and learning, and address the foundation of global and technical competence within CTE programs.
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Now that you understand your students, the next step to internationalization is integration into your course. Today’s diverse workforce needs to be proficient in literacy and numeracy, together with strong interpersonal, technical, and problem-solving skills for a global economy. Course planning is a faculty role, yet most who teach in community colleges have received little, if any, training in how to construct mission statements and learning outcomes. This module will focus on how to systematically plan CTE learning goals and adapt to changing occupational requirements and global innovations. It will also focus on integrating academic education, technical training, and hands-on work experience to allow students, workers, and businesses to be competitive in the global economy.
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The role of faculty in learning is to serve as a facilitator, coach, and consultant to create an environment for all students to be successful. Teaching style should link instructional choices to students’ learning strategies. This module focuses on a variety of strategies for internationalizing curriculum and will provide some basic guidelines on how to select teaching strategies (work-based learning, PBL, cooperative learning, service learning, discussions, simulations, role playing, panel discussions, case studies, peer teaching, etc.) that match global learning outcomes for the success of all students.
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Educators need to know how the teaching and materials used for instruction are aligned with the assessments that measure students’ progress. This module will focus global career ready practices as a tool for assessing global readiness in CTE. Participants will develop their own assessment toolbox including rubrics, checklists, tests, portfolios, effective assignments, reflection activities, rating scales, etc.
Module Objectives:
Employers are essential partners in guiding programmatic content, maintaining technology for cutting edge CTE programs, offering work-based learning opportunities, and providing opportunities for faculty to stay up-to-date in their industries. Industry partnerships and advisory boards give form and structure to stakeholder engagement, and there is no alternative to understand the knowledge and skills employees need to be successful. This module will focus on key strategies and approaches for faculty to fully engage industry partners in programmatic improvement to ensure global workplace readiness of their program completers.
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International skills and expertise will be critical to assist students in not only getting jobs, but in being able to move up the career ladder to mid- and top-tier jobs – even if they do not wish to pursue an explicitly international career pathway. Engaging work-based learning (WBL) experiences that allow students to take part in the diverse workforce and to see the interdependence of the global marketplace is the best way to develop these skills. This module will provide an overview of how interconnected we are with the global economy, successful learning components and strategies to internationalize work-based learning, and how to align the learning goals of CTE programs and international workforce needs.
Module Objectives:
Educational technology is like any other element of good course design and using every educational tool at our disposal to give students a quality CTE experience is essential. Connecting students with international partners allows for authentic global career readiness. This module will provide faculty with “do it yourself” strategies to make international CTE program connections. Faculty will learn to utilize online resources and technology tools, how to find international partners, create lessons or projects together, and implement an international collaboration.
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Technology and social media influence every aspect of our lives from personal use to business, education, and training environments. This module will provide postsecondary educators with insight into how business leaders utilize social media for growth in a global society, explore social media business strategies, as well as tools to lead discussions with students on responsible global digital citizenship.
Module Objectives:
Global Education