Lock Haven Faculty Attend Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Meeting

 GERARD MARTORELL WITH GINAABERCROMBIE-WINSTALEY (RIGHT)  AT THE CIVIC LEARNING AND DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENT MEETING.

Commonwealth University-Lock Haven faculty Dr. Gerard Martorell, Business and Computer Science Department, and Dr. Steven Granich, Social Work and Counseling Department, recently presented the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Meeting in Minneapolis in June.

The conference was organized by the Center for Foreign Relations, American Association of State Colleges, the American Democracy Project, and National Association of Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA).

Based on The Council on Foreign Relations and National Geographic's 2016 survey, Martorell and Granich updated the survey instrument, which was used in a variety of courses across four U.S. universities, including freshmen to senior undergraduate students from various majors. The researchers compared the 2022 results with the 2016 results, as well as the results between the beginning and the end of the spring 2022 semester, and between the different universities participating in the project.

Students' global literacy at the beginning of the semester showed the need for improvement. However, instructor efforts in class and the materials provided to the students, which included the World101 webpage curriculum, proved their efficacy. End of semester global literacy had significantly increased among a large majority of the students.

"Improving global literacy of our college students is a key factor for the future of our nation," said Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, who attended the conference.

"Using the most updated information and methodologies is paramount to improving teaching efficacy," Martorell said, adding that doing so helps to place LHU among the top universities in the country for its teaching materials and techniques.

For more information, visit the AASCU Global Civic Literacy webpage at www.aascu.org/AcademicAffairs/ADP/Global-Civic-Literacy and the World101 webpage at https://world101.cfr.org/.