Global Perspectives
Meeting government ministers, organising a local river clean-up project and writing to the United Nations about climate change, are just some of the activities that learners are pursuing through the Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives course.
IGCSE Syllabus
The course encourages awareness of global problems and offers a range of opportunities to explore solutions through cooperation and collaboration. The course is not about getting everybody to think identically; rather it is a matter of opening minds to the complexity of the world and of human thought, and encouraging empathy for the diversity of human experience and feeling.
As young individuals you face unprecedented challenges in an interconnected and information-heavy world, not least in how you will gain a sense of your own active place in the world and cope with changes that will impact on your life chances and life choices.
To support you through this, the course stretches across traditional subject boundaries and focuses on the importance of developing transferable skills. It aims to tap into the way you as learners of today enjoy learning, including team work, presentations, projects, and working with other learners around the world. The emphasis is on developing the ability to think critically about a range of global issues where there is always more than one point of view.
IGCSE Syllabus
The course encourages awareness of global problems and offers a range of opportunities to explore solutions through cooperation and collaboration. The course is not about getting everybody to think identically; rather it is a matter of opening minds to the complexity of the world and of human thought, and encouraging empathy for the diversity of human experience and feeling.
As young individuals you face unprecedented challenges in an interconnected and information-heavy world, not least in how you will gain a sense of your own active place in the world and cope with changes that will impact on your life chances and life choices.
To support you through this, the course stretches across traditional subject boundaries and focuses on the importance of developing transferable skills. It aims to tap into the way you as learners of today enjoy learning, including team work, presentations, projects, and working with other learners around the world. The emphasis is on developing the ability to think critically about a range of global issues where there is always more than one point of view.
Course Assessment
Students for Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives take three compulsory components – Component 1, Component 2 and Component 3. Component 1 is externally assessed. Component 2 is internally set and externally marked. Component 3 is internally assessed and externally moderated.
Component |
Topics |
Total Marks |
Weighting |
Component 1 Written Examination 1 hour 15 minutes Students answer four compulsory questions based on a range of sources provided with the paper. Sources will present a global issue from a range of perspectives, personal, local and/or national and global This component is externally assessed. |
• Demographic change • Education for all • Employment • Fuel and energy • Globalisation • Law and criminality • Migration • Transport systems |
70 |
35% |
Component 2 Individual Report Students research one topic area (from a choice of eight) of personal, local and/or national and global significance and submit one report based on their research. The title is devised by students themselves. The report must be 1500–2000 words and written in continuous prose. This component is internally set and externally marked. |
• Belief systems • Biodiversity and ecosystem loss • Changing communities • Digital world • Family • Humans and other species • Sustainable living • Trade and aid |
60 |
30% |
Component 3 Team Project Students devise and develop a collaborative project into an aspect of one topic (from a choice of eight). This choice of project must allow for the exploration of different cultural perspectives. The Team Project comprises two elements. Team Element Candidates produce as a team one Outcome and one Explanation as a Collaboration. The Explanation must be 200–300 words. (10 marks) Personal Element Candidates each write a Reflective Paper on their research, contribution and personal learning. The paper must be 750–1000 words. (60 marks) This component is internally assessed and externally moderated. |
• Conflict and peace • Disease and health • Human rights • Language and communication • Poverty and inequality • Sport and recreation • Tradition, culture and identity • Water, food and agriculture |
70 |
35% |