Cross Cultural Learning

Embedding cross cultural learning:

1. Content should:

1. Include specific reference to contemporary international and local content;
2. Avoid monolithic descriptions of other countries or cultures;
3. Address issues such as social justice, equity, human rights and related social and economic issues;
4. Address critical global environmental issues;
5. Include topics on ethical issues in globalisation;
6. Include international case studies;
7. Include accounts of the historical background to current international practices;
8. Include investigation of professional practices in other cultures; and
9. Include an exploration of how knowledge may be constructed differently from culture to culture.

2. Delivery should:

1. Focus on learning outcomes
2. Be sensitive to context and culture;
3. Be sensitive to the constraints of all learners;
4. Recognise international students as a resource;
5. Accommodate students' various learning styles and preferences;
6. Encourage students to use examples from their own experiences;
7. Utilise international contacts and networks in the discipline/professional area;
8. Include presentations or input from guest lecturers with international experience who address specific topics in the course;
9. Require students to consider issues and problems from a variety of cultural perspectives;
10. Utilise electronic links and networks, such as email chat groups, with students of the discipline in other countries;
11. Require students to locate, discuss, analyse and evaluate information from a range of international sources;
12. Require placement with local organisations working on international projects or national projects with an intercultural focus;
13. Involve reflective writing activities/tasks focusing on international or intercultural matters;
14. Include simulations of international or intercultural interactions;
15. Explicitly outline the thinking processes used in the discipline and discuss and analyse any cultural aspects of these;
16. Examine ways in which particular cultural interpretations of social, scientific or technological applications of knowledge may include or exclude, advantage or disadvantage people from different cultural groups;

3. Assessment should:

1. Include tasks requiring students to compare local and international standards in the professional area/discipline;
2. Be conducted in simulated international professional environments;
3. Require students to present information to, and get feedback from, an 'international' or cross-cultural audience;
4. Include a range of group and individual projects so that students are assessed for their ability to work with others, consider the perspectives of others and compare them with their own perspectives;
5. Require students to reflect on their own culture as well as engage with other cultures;
6. Make assessment criteria related to cross-cultural communication skills explicit to students;
7. Explain the relationship of assessment criteria to international standards;
8. Involve students in setting their own assessment criteria in assessment activities with international objectives;
9. Include the use of peer evaluation.

References

Oxford Brookes University. Internationalising the curriculum resource kit
Viewed 31 May 2011 http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/ioc/resourcekit.html

Loon, T. T., & Dawson, J. (2003). Teaching and learning an internationalised curriculum: Curtin University

Woodley, C., & Pearce, A. (2007). A Toolkit for Internationalising the Curriculum at VU: Victoria University

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