Abstract:

In response to the Japanese Ministry of Education’s initiative to produce future “global human resources,” Japanese universities have been creating new programs with a strong focus on English and critical thinking skills while many companies have started promoting an “English-only” policy in the workplace. However, these skills are only a part of what makes a person a global citizen who can function in the globalizing society by solving problems in various intercultural situations. First, in order to capture most of the competencies and skills required for a global citizen, a list of as many as 100 important factors was compiled after a thorough study of various sources including European pluricultural frameworks, Michael Byram’s ICC Model and North American critical thinking theories as well as OECD’s core competencies and 21st Century skills. Then, through a questionnaire survey for over 400 workers who are considered internationally successful in various sectors coupled with selective interviews, the original list was condensed or reduced to ascertain 40 descriptors which represent the competencies and skills deemed indispensable to global citizenship. They are divided into four parts; knowledge of language and culture, intercultural competence, critical thinking skills, and generic competencies. Secondly, an assessment rubric for these 40 descriptors was developed, which will serve as a metric for assessing young people’s readiness for global citizenship. Finally, depending on the different nature of skills and competencies, a portfolio-type assessment tool consisting of an essay-type test battery and a Can-do checklist for self-evaluation was constructed, the validation results of which, will be presented. So far, considerably high inter-rater reliabilities for the essay-type tests as well as fairly good correlations between objective rater evaluation and self-assessment have been obtained. Our future aim, after accumulating sufficient volume of data, is to construct a diagnostic system for global citizenship using artificial intelligence, which can inform young people of their present tendencies and weaknesses in terms of global citizenship proactively.

Keywords:

Global citizenship, intercultural competence, assessment tool, diagnostic system.