Transcript Rasmussen & Bank-Mikkelsen 2000: 8

Learning in a new culture
and in an intercultural environment
Xiangyun Du & Lars Peter Jensen
Overview
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Confronting culture
Intercultural issues in teaching
and learning
Intercultural group discussion
Presentation
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What are the things
confronting when
entering a new
country?
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Things that have been taken for granted in
one culture might be unknown in another
• Parents
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Meeting cultures – Cultural shock
Please write 3 words
For foreign students:
What were your most impressive observations
on arrival of AAU/DK?
For Danish students:
What were your most impressive observations
on arrival of another country?
Intercultural communication
- values and meanings
A Danish kindergarten teacher worked at a kindergarten in
Greenland. A real story she experienced:
One day a boy’s mother was picking up him from
kindergarten. He did not want to go home with her and
behaved very badly. The mother pretended to leave
kindergarten without him. She might expected the boy to
go after her, however, he picked up a stone from the
ground and threw it at his mother and hit her on the back
of her head. Surprisingly, the mother turned round and
cried ‘oh, how clever you are that you can throw stone so
far and so precisely. Come on, we must hurry home to
tell Dad. He will be very proud of you.’
Rasmussen & Bank-Mikkelsen 2000: 8)
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Intercultural communication
- Power of language
Please work in pairs, talking to different
people using the script which follows…
The script:
A: ‘Hello’.
B: ‘Hello’.
A: ‘You are late’.
B: ‘I know’.
Try to do it completely differently each time.
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Intercultural communication
- non-verbal language
Symbolism
Manners and body language – eye contact,
distance, etc.
Rasmussen & Bank-Mikkelsen 2000: 8)
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Intercultural communication
- cultural understanding
How would you read this ad of pills?
(Herlitz 1989:38)
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Intercultural communication
- cultural understanding
‘The most important
thing in
communication is
to hear what isn't
being said.’
(Peter F. Drucker
American
Educator, b.1909)
Solution
(Herlitz 1989:60)
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Intercultural communication
in teaching and learning
Why is culture an issue?
• Development of intercultural competencies
for future engineers
• Establishment of international program
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Developing intercultural competencies for future engineers
Globalized context
Interdisciplinary
knowledge
Lifelong learning
Effective
communication
Analytical skills
Application of
mathematics and
science knowledge
Team work
Project
management
Diverse
capabilities
Designing and
conducting
experiments
Intercultural
competencies
Identity and solve
applied science
problems
Social,
environmental, and
ethical concerns
- National Academy of Engineering, The Engineer of 2020, 2004
- EUR-ACE (Accreditation of European Engineering Programmes and Graduates,
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http://www.feani.org/EUR_ACE/EUR_ACE_Main_Page.htm
- ABET: http://www.abet.org/
Intercultural environment in PBL
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Challenges and
identified problems 1
• Miscommunication arises due to
– Use of second language (English) as a means of
communication
– Learning and working styles
– Personality
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Challenges and identified problems 2
Different beliefs on/ways of learning
– different expectations
Opinions?
Educational background
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Challenges and identified problems 2
Different beliefs on/ ways of learning
 Nobody knows the exact
answers until the project is
finished
 Students are responsible for
managing their own learning
 Learners are creating new
knowledge
Studying in a PBL environment,
Denmark
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Challenges and identified problems 3
Can group work be an efficient way of learning?
Will they
believe me
because I am a
girl??
It is my turn to
talk?
If we don’t
follow the
supervisor’s
suggestion,
will he allow
us to pass?
He complains of
my garlic, but he
has coffee and
carrots all the
time!!!
YES, we can meet
at 8 tomorrow
morning
NO, I can’t get
up anyway
Listen to me,
I am very
experienced
They don’t
understand even
such easy things!!
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Challenges and identified problems 5
New student life
Housing?
Shopping?
Cooking?
New Life
in Denmark
Transportation?
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Group
meeting
Exam
Report
writing
Life
Brainstorm
Doing project
in groups
Subgroup
work
Discussion
Presentation
Compromise
Disagreement
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What on earth
I was a new
the supervisor wanted
student like you me to do?
7 years ago…
So difficult to do a
project in group work!
I am
Depressed!
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Study environment in some countries…
Big class, little room for individual ideas
’There is still one more seat in the wall’
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http://www.cnsphoto.com/
Same materials year after year…
(Karl Smith,
UMN)
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Memory is more important than
application skills for high scores…
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Transferred knowledge will be returned after exams
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Room for creativity?
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My story: being a student in China
6:30 Get up in dorm
6:30-7:00 Morning Exercise
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7:00
Breakfast in Canteen
7:30 – 8:00 Morning Reading
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8:00 – 9:50
Morning
Lectures
10:10 – 12:00
Morning
Lectures
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14:00-16:00 Afternoon Activities
Lectures
Laboratory
Supervision
Library
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16:00-18:00 Leisure time
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Evening Activities – study individually
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Exams
Written form
Textbook knowledge based
Hard tasks
Scores matter
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Good Good Study, Day Day Up!
Study hard - high marks - diploma - good student
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Student’s reflection
`I have never worked in a group in my educational
life… In group work, I preferred to listen when
some students discussed intensely, because I
could not understand why it was a question to
discuss. Sometimes I could not follow their ideas
or thinking. I need to change and actively work in
the group.´ (Chinese female master student)
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Is ethnicity the
only reason
that
makes us
different?
Muslim
Young girl
Philosopher
Animal
doctor
butcher
farmer
wolf
artist
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’I got culture from mom’s breast breeding’
Is culture
something
we are
born with?
(Jensen 2005:18)
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Learning from each other vs. cultural integration
Self vs. others
Acceptance vs. adaptation
You are so big.
You can not stay
here! Come back
when you become
smaller!
(Jensen 2005:72)
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Cultural reflections
PBL in International programs, AAU, Denmark
Doing PBL in ‘the right’ way!
Root of PBL in DK
- Tradition of group
work in Denmark
- Critical thinking
- Emphasis on
- Collaboration
and participation
- Lower power gap
- Close link between
industry and university
Different backgrounds
in educational culture
A new culture to be
established
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What can we benefit from international programs?
Group exercise
• Discussion in intercultural groups
• Products presented in posters
• Poster presentation around walls
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