In simple terms
A friendly intro before the formal notes — no formulas yet.
From Your Street to the World Stage
Learning Outcome 6 is about showing you understand how your local actions connect to bigger, worldwide problems. It's about thinking globally, even when you're acting locally, and reflecting on your role as a global citizen.
Think of it like zooming out on a map. You might be helping to run a recycling programme at your school (your 'street view'). To show global engagement, you 'zoom out' to see how this small action is part of the world's effort to combat plastic pollution and climate change (the 'satellite view'). Your reflection explains the connection between these two views.
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Identify the Global Issue: Clearly name the broad, global issue your CAS experience relates to (e.g., food insecurity, climate change, gender inequality). Using the UN SDGs is a great way to do this.
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Describe Your Local Action: Detail what you actually did. Be specific about your tasks, responsibilities, and the immediate, local impact.
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Explain the Connection: This is the most important step. Explicitly explain how your local action is a small-scale version or a response to the larger global issue. How does your bake sale for a food bank tackle a local manifestation of global poverty?
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Reflect on Your Growth: Discuss what you learned about the issue's complexity, different perspectives, and your own responsibilities. How has your understanding deepened? What new questions do you have?
Full topic notes
Formal explanation with the rigour you need for the exam.
Deconstructing 'Issues of Global Significance'
An 'issue of global significance' is any challenge that transcends national borders and affects a wide range of people, cultures, and environments. While major issues like climate action and poverty are clear examples, the term is intentionally broad. It could encompass digital literacy, mental health awareness, fast fashion's environmental impact, or the preservation of indigenous languages. The key is its 'significance' – it has broad, serious implications for human well-being or the health of the planet.
Framework for Identification: The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are your best resource. They provide a comprehensive list of globally recognised issues, from 'No Poverty' (SDG 1) and 'Gender Equality' (SDG 5) to 'Sustainable Cities and Communities' (SDG 11).
Find Your Passion: Choose an issue that genuinely interests you. Authentic engagement is far more powerful than choosing an issue you think 'looks good'.
Research is Key: Before you act, you must understand. Initial research into the causes, effects, and different perspectives surrounding an issue is a crucial part of 'engagement'.
Connecting Global Issues to Local Action
The most impactful demonstrations of LO6 often happen at the local level. You do not need to travel abroad to engage with global issues. Instead, look for the 'local manifestation' of a global problem. By addressing the issue in your own community, you gain a tangible, first-hand understanding that is impossible to achieve through abstract research alone. Your CAS portfolio should tell the story of how you identified a global issue and found a way to engage with it in a local, meaningful context.
From Awareness to Action and Advocacy
Meaningful engagement requires more than just being aware of a problem. CAS asks you to take action. For LO6, this action can take many forms. The goal is to show a progression in your portfolio, from initial awareness and research to tangible action that has an impact, however small. A sophisticated portfolio shows how your understanding and actions evolved over time.
Direct Service: Volunteering time to work directly with those affected by an issue (e.g., serving meals at a homeless shelter).
Indirect Service: Organising events or creating products where the primary purpose is to raise funds or collect goods for a cause (e.g., a charity concert, a clothing drive).
Advocacy: Raising awareness and educating others to inspire change. This is a powerful form of action (e.g., running a school campaign on the impact of fast fashion, presenting research on local water quality to a community group).
Research: Conducting and presenting research can itself be a form of action, especially when it informs a community or proposes a solution to a local problem.
Evidencing and Reflecting on Global Engagement
Your CAS portfolio is the sole means by which you demonstrate your achievement of the learning outcomes. For LO6, your evidence and reflections must work together to build a convincing narrative of your engagement. Avoid simple, descriptive journal entries. Instead, aim for analytical reflections that unpack your experiences, question your assumptions, and articulate your growth.
Worked examples
See the formulas applied — reveal one step at a time, like the exam.
A student starts a club to teach coding basics to younger students at their school, many of whom do not have computers at home. How can they reflect on this to demonstrate engagement with an issue of global significance (LO6)?
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This reflection demonstrates excellence by explicitly linking a local project to multiple global issues, considering ethical dimensions, and showing a deepened understanding.
A student creates a series of posters for their school's 'Diversity Week' celebrating different cultural festivals. Write a portfolio reflection that effectively demonstrates LO6.
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This model reflection excels by moving beyond a description of the activity to analyse its connection to complex global issues and reflect on the student's own perspective shift.
How it all connects
The big idea sits in the middle — tap a linked idea to explore the link.
Tap a linked idea to see how it connects back to the main topic — that connection is what examiners reward.
Glossary
Key terms for this topic — skim now; the Check step will test them.
- Global Engagement (LO6)
Demonstrating in your CAS portfolio that you have engaged with issues of global significance, through your experiences and reflections.
- Issue of Global Significance
A problem or topic that affects communities on a regional or worldwide scale. Examples include poverty, climate change, human rights, and access to education.
- Local Manifestation
The way a global issue appears or is experienced within your local community. For example, a local food bank is a local manifestation of the global issue of food insecurity.
- UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
A set of 17 interconnected global goals designed to be a 'blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all'. They are an excellent framework for identifying issues of global significance.
- Advocacy
A form of CAS action that involves public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy. This can include awareness campaigns, presentations, or writing letters.
- Ethical Implications
The moral questions and dilemmas associated with an issue or action. Reflecting on these shows a deep level of engagement (e.g., the ethics of 'voluntourism').
- Cultural Sensitivity
Being aware that cultural differences and similarities between people exist without assigning them a value. Crucial when engaging with global issues that cross cultural boundaries.
- Perspective
A particular attitude towards or way of regarding something; a point of view. Strong reflections consider multiple perspectives on a global issue (e.g., economic, social, political).
- Interconnectedness
The state of being connected with each other. A key concept for LO6 is understanding how local and global issues, as well as different global issues, are linked.
- CAS Portfolio Evidence for LO6
Can include photos, videos, research summaries, campaign posters, or written reflections that explicitly connect an activity to a global issue.
- Descriptive vs. Reflective Writing
Descriptive writing states what happened ('We sold cakes'). Reflective writing explores the meaning and impact ('Selling cakes made me confront the reality of food poverty in my own affluent town, a microcosm of global wealth disparity...').
- Global Citizenship
The idea that one's identity transcends geographical or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader class: 'humanity'. CAS aims to develop this.
Name it
Read the meaning, then pick which of this lesson’s terms it describes. Miss one and you see what your choice really means.
Demonstrating in your CAS portfolio that you have engaged with issues of global significance, through your experiences and reflections.
Quick check
Write your answer first, then compare it with the model one — the gap is what you would have lost.
Teach it back
If you can explain it simply, you own it — gaps here are marks you’d lose.
Teach it back
Explain this topic as if teaching a friend. We name the gaps an examiner would still dock.
Revision flashcards
Guess first, then flip — retrieval beats re-reading.
Key takeaways
Review these before you close the topic — retrieval beats re-reading.
Framework for Identification: The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are your best resource. They provide a comprehensive list of globally recognised issues, from 'No Poverty' (SDG 1) and 'Gender Equality' (SDG 5) to 'Sustainable Cities and Communities' (SDG 11).
Find Your Passion: Choose an issue that genuinely interests you. Authentic engagement is far more powerful than choosing an issue you think 'looks good'.
Research is Key: Before you act, you must understand. Initial research into the causes, effects, and different perspectives surrounding an issue is a crucial part of 'engagement'.
Practice — then mark it
The whole point: a real Cambridge question, marked mark-by-mark.
Test Your Understanding of Global Engagement
Test Your Understanding of Global Engagement
Extra simulations & links
PhET, GeoGebra and other curated tools — open in a new tab.
Frequently asked
Checkpoint
One marked question is worth ten re-reads — close the loop before you move on.
Reading it isn’t knowing it — prove it.
Before you move on: do Test Your Understanding of Global Engagement on paper, snap a photo, and get examiner-style feedback on exactly where you win and lose marks.
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