To tap into the practical side of what the participating teachers mean by global competence development, they were asked what they do in their lessons to develop the above-mentioned knowledge, skills, and attitudes in their students. Most of them mentioned discussing diverse, often controversial local and global issues. They reported on different ways of introducing such issues to their students; Áron, Béla and Leo use thought-provoking videos or readings to bring the issue into their class, Emma and Édua try to use materials that are otherwise close to the students’ heart (e.g., songs) to make them interested in the issues, and Hedvig asks them to read the news at home and then initiate a discussion about them. Some of them pointed out that it is not necessarily the teacher who brings up such issues in class, sometimes they just crop up due to their topicality or to the students’ interest in them. Áron, for instance, prefers dealing with topical issues that the students bring up in his classes:

 

In connection with the discussions, there were teachers who emphasised that even though they really like talking about anything with their students, creating the optimal environment where students can genuinely state their opinion about different matters, is of utmost importance. As Leó put it, he attempts to do so by seating the students “alcoholics anonymous style”, so sitting down “in a circle and talking about their plans for the future and whatever they are interested in” (T/L-7). Tilda also emphasised the usefulness of teaching students how to take a stand and described the speed dating technique (i.e., the students stand up/sit down in pairs and get some time to discuss a question, then, they switch partners and discuss the topic for the same amount of time) she uses to make the students state their opinion about different issues with a partner. Sometimes, she even lets the students express their opinion in Hungarian in her English classes when she believes that the students are not proficient enough to do so in English. Emma complained about the fact that in the secondary school where she teaches, the younger students struggle with stating their opinion and it is difficult to get them to do so. She uses different techniques to encourage them to express their own views and not to give her bookish answers only. She constantly asks them questions and makes them ask questions from each other.

As can be seen from this section, what all the above-mentioned teachers have in common is that they try to use techniques drawing on students’ active participation to make them think about different topics and state their opinion about them.