Tool Objectives:

1. To improve intercultural competence through experiential learning

Tool Description:

Based on experiential or hands-on learning, these intercultural teaching activities engage students in various collaborative exercises to stimulate communication in small groups. This tool provides multiple activities based on the experiential learning cycle framework (Kolb, 1976). Each activity prompts the participant to explore their intercultural competency in an innovative manner and can be implemented in a stand alone session or together in a series as an all day experience. This tool can be used either within a university classroom setting to improve ICC of students or with university instructors as a professional development workshop before participating in their first study abroad teaching experience.

To be interculturally competent when confronted with an intercultural situation, participants must consider the following questions:

• How do I perceive this intercultural situation?
• What do I wish to achieve in this situation?
• Which strategy must I adopt to achieve my personal goals or objectives?
• Will I show a lack of respect if I pursue these personal objectives?
• Must I perhaps politely negotiate an outcome and consider the other person’s objectives?

Participants will undergo a conscious (then subconscious) process of critical, reflective thinking and acting that enables them to navigate through intercultural environments. In personal and professional contexts, negotiating outcomes is a significant lifelong transferable skill especially from one cultural context to another. The above questions also provide insight into interpersonal skills and in particular, the nature and respect of the other person’s perspective. This creates an opportunity for an individual to learn, share, teach and exchange while promoting intercultural communication. This process also helps to dismantle cultural barriers, while obliging students to reflect by looking inwards and learning from personal experience.

The hope is that once university instructors are participants in these exercises when preparing to lead a study abroad trip or to teach a course with an ICC objective, they will be able to use one or more of these activities with their students.

Tool Procedures:

Ask participants to form groups of four. Provide encouragement to create a learning environment that offers them the best possible learning experience. Each activity could be completed in a face-to-face or online synchronous setting. The activities are numbered in the order they should be conducted if you are doing a series of lessons over multiple days or in a workshop experience. I have also indicated the activities in phases in case you only have time for 1-2 hour sessions and are unable to complete all activities.

Phase 1:

1. Share an intercultural experience: Ask each group of four participants to reflect on and each share an intercultural experience or situation that they previously encountered on vacation or in daily life. While taking turns, the other three students in the group should listen and try to reinterpret the experience, whilst attempting to provide a different perspective of that experience. Perhaps the intercultural experience has something to do with a situation based on new foods, customs, traditions, rituals or clothing.
2. Reflective observation through improvisation and examination: To better illustrate the situation, an anecdote can be brought to life through improvisation. Each group of four will develop a skit to role-play an intercultural interaction and then perform for the other groups.
   1. Through reflective observation, the opinions of the students on the various cultural experiences will likely converge or diverge. The divergence is of particular importance and significant value, since the inconsistencies between experience, perception and understanding will lead to further reflection, discussion and debate. They should, however, refrain from judging or expressing opinions when the anecdote is being told. 
   2. Allow time for the audience to ask several questions after listening to clearly understand the situation. 
   3. Separate back into groups for a reflection discussion. Reviewing and reflecting on the experience and these differing perspectives will engage the students in the understanding that sometimes, the logic behind a cultural situation is not clearly defined, but rather negotiated. 

Phase 2:

3. Research the Behavior: Assign each group of four an intercultural behavior found in the host culture to research. Participants will conduct research while fact-checking. This will also assist in pushing previously acquired stereotypes or clichés aside. When in doubt, investigative practice is a very important method to adopt in our 21st century which is plagued by fake news, misinformation and disinformation. Consider all of the logical perspectives and have them weigh the solutions and eventual outcomes.
4. Polling and Consulting the Other Groups: Ask the participants to create a poll to give to the other groups to see if this particular situation from their earlier activity discussions has been experienced by a different participant in a different context. The reflection on the case study gives rise to an investigative activity to study if this behavior has already been witnessed (in daily life or perhaps on vacation while traveling). Note-taking is important to assimilate the facts and information.
   1. Assessing reactions: While polling the other groups, ask the participants to note down non-verbal or verbal feedback (positive or negative) to evaluate and assess their reactions. The participants who are doing the polling are involved in attentive observation and analysis, while the other participants are consciously engrossed in reflection, communication and discourse.
   2. Concluding discussion: What has this group learned from the experience, before, during and after in the polling stage?

Phase 3:

5. Active Experimentation (Co-operative Student Projects) – Simulation and Teamwork through Interaction: With this strategy, the objective is to encourage participants to immediately apply the knowledge they have acquired to adopt different cultural behaviors: the more unexpected, the better. This is done to test their classmates and see what happens around them. This strategy is based on the idea that participants must show how culture can influence people’s expectations and behavior.
   1. Ask each group to find two or more similar non-verbal or verbal acts which reflect cultural behavior codes and prepare a brief presentation of the act to share with the whole group.
   2. One participant in each group of four will assume the role of observer, noting down the (verbal and non-verbal) reactions from the other participants in the class. This role is very important, since it is often human nature to make unilateral judgments, and act or react upon these judgments. 
   3. After this activity, return to groups of four and ask the observer to report observations back to their own group.
   4. The group of four discuss what they learned.
6. Coaching and Feedback: Thus far, the proposed strategies reflect a flipped classroom setting, an environment where the classroom time is used to deepen understanding through discussion with peers and problem-solving activities. In this environment, the students are actively searching for and developing their knowledge and skills, while the teacher/facilitator adopts a secondary role of mediator, consultant or coach. In requesting assistance, the group must prioritize their issues, use their judgment and apply critical analysis skills for troubleshooting in order to request or find alternative solutions.
   1. Ask each group of four to develop questions to ask the facilitator.
   2. The facilitator meets with each group individually, but responds to all questions by asking a question in return (think scientific inquiry method) Participants then critically think and discuss with each other.
   3. Each group prepares an overview of what they learned and what guidance they offer to other participants to improve their intercultural competence.

Tool Evaluation:

Each participant should write a 500 word reflection essay answering one or more of the following prompts:

• What did I learn about my perception of different intercultural situations?
• Which strategy can I adopt to achieve my personal goals or objectives in an intercultural context?
• How can I show respect as I pursue personal outcomes during an intercultural interaction?
• How do I politely negotiate an outcome and consider the other person’s perspective or culture?

Tool Time Requirement:

Total time for all 6 activities plus assessment = 6 hours

Each activity takes approximately 45 minutes.

Assessment takes approximately 30 minutes.

Tool Author:

Dr. Allison J. Bailey

Adapted from Kolb, D.A. (1976). The Learning Style Inventory: Technical Manual. Boston, MA: McBer.