1. PBL in Engineering and Science – Development of Supervisor Skills Session 4: Intercultural competences Lars Peter Jensen Associated Professor at Automation and Control Department of Electronic Systems URL: http://es.aau.dk/staff/lpj

2. Session 4: Learning outcomes After this session you should be able to Identify and discuss learned cultural differences in your students’ behaviour in the learning situation Adapt your teaching style to accomodate a multicultural group of students with culturally learned learning styles, enabling all students to achieve the learning outcomes 2

3. Agenda for session 4 1)Culture and cultural differences (group discussions, 20 min) 2)A break (15 min) 3)From cultural differences to intercultural understanding (personal experiences,15 min) 4)Culture and cultural understanding (lecture, 30 min) 3

4. 1. Culture and cultural differences Group discussions on culture

5. Main Topics to be Discussed 1)Face-to face Communication 2)Timing & Meetings 3)Learning Environment 4)Teacher-student Relations 5

6. Tasks in this activity: In the multicultural group, your tasks are to discuss all topics (20 min) present your results in plenum (5 min) Each participant in the group contributes information about her/his own cultural background In the “all danish” group, your tasks are to discuss your experiences (danish/other cultures) with all topics (20 min) present your results in plenum (5 min) 6

7. Bear in mind in the discussion: What is Core Value behind such behaviour? What is Core Distinction between different cultures? Language, Non-verbal communication, Stereotypes 7

8. Groups for discussing Multicultural GroupAll danish Group Thomas Jacobsen Lishuai Jing Nima Nonejad Maksym Kotenko Ane Katharina Paarup Meyer Louise Krog Jensen Peter Sorknæs Carsten Skovmose Kallesøe

9. Summing up from the group discussions on culture: Be aware of your own cultural background Be aware of cultural differences Do not use ‘culture’ as a straight jacket – individual personality may overrule culturally learned characteristics 9

10. Is culture an issue ? How would you read this ad for pills? (Herlitz 1989:38) A 15 minutes break! 10

11. 2. From cultural differences to intercultural understanding Personal experiences

12. Tasks in this activity 1)Reflect on your own personal experiences with meeting people from another cultural background, whether meeting foreigners in your own country or travelling to other countries 2)Write down a few key words describing the most memorable experience you have had, whether surprising, positive, negative, embarrasing or in any other way memorable (5 min) 3)Share this experience with one of the other participants (5 min) 4)Please be prepared to tell your story in plenary (15 min) 12

13. Summing up on personal experiences Re-interpret behaviour of other persons from their cultural perspective Accept the ambiguity of cross-cultural situations 13

14. 3. Culture and cultural understanding Lecture on 1)Culture – What? 2)Cultural understanding – Why? How?

15. Culture – What is it? Definitions ”..that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Tylor 1871) ”Culture is the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from others” (Hofsted 1986) ”… the world view and the values, moral norms and observed behaviour … that people take over from a previous generation, that they … seek to pass on to the next generation; and that in one or another way distinguishes them from people belonging to other cultures” (Gullestrup 1992; own translation) 15

16. Culture – What is it? 16 You see only the tip of the iceberg!

17. Hofstede’s Theory on Culture What? Hofstede made a comprehensive study of how cultural values influence behaviour in the workplace His model of culture includes 5 dimensions 17 Ref: http://geert-hofstede.comhttp://geert-hofstede.com

18. The 5-D model of culture Low versus high Power distance (PDI) Individualism versus collectivism (IDV) Masculinity versus femininity (MAS) Low versus high uncertainty avoidance) (UAI) Long term versus short term orientation (LTO) 18

19. The 5-D model of culture Denmark versus the BRIC countries Ref: Brændgaard, 2010 19

20. The 5-D model of culture Denmark versus other ‘selected’ countries 20

21. Cultural understanding – Why? From a student/graduate perspective: One of the required competences in most large engineering companies Ex: Global Project Managers in Grundfos: Communication: Presentation and language skills – cultural understanding, that makes you able to operate in different cultures and at different levels of the organisation (Ref: Brændgaard, 2010) 21

22. Other required competences Ability to think ‘outside the box’ – open to new ideas Minded for working in global networks Ability to understand customers at different levels of the organisation and across cultural and geographical borders Empathy and ability to manage/lead people with very different backgrounds – culturally and professionally (Ref: Brændgaard, 2010) 22

23. Cultural understanding – Why? From a teacher perspective the challenges are: Use of english as second language Culturally learned – and therefore different – perceptions of what is appropriate behaviour in the teaching/learning situation 23

24. Shared perceptions? ‘I once asked them direct questions, but I gradually stopped, because I could see that they were embarrassed. I could see that they felt uncomfortable when I asked them, and they were not used to it. ‘You need to make it clear to Danish students that they may benefit from the high theoretical level of Polish and Spanish students.’ ‘The instructions about what to focus on in the project is not clear. He seems to be more interested in process but not in outcomes’. ‘I never could speak to a professor like my Danish classmates did as pals. It was too much for me. I would not get used to that attitude.’ ‘It is nice that professors are informal, but there might be a limit’. 24

25. Shared perceptions? ’It is hard to work with them since they are often passive and it is difficult to understand their English…’ ’It was fun to work with students from different countries, you really learn lots of culture stuff, but I tend to use too much time on teaching them what PBL is and how to do project in a correct way…’ ’Danish students…they don’t like us, or they behave in a way not so good. I felt, they don’t want to speak to us and that we are complete strangers. In my country usually we are very welcome and warm and we look after our guests’. ’It is the way to communicate with Danish students - if I don’t start a conversation, I can easily be quiet the whole day. People are cold…they see you, but they don’t want to acknowledge you.’ 25

26. From different to shared perceptions Shared perceptions on: Learning outcomes Teacher’s role Learners’ role Communication methods TeachingLearning 26

27. What can you (the teacher) do to achieve shared perceptions? Write clear and explicit learning outcomes for all study activities, describing in detail what students are expected to be able to do by the end of the activity, at what level of competence and with which support (See Cowan, App. A for more details) Clear and explicit contracts of cooperation with your students, whether in a project group or in a course – mutual, clearly explicited expectations help prevent misunderstandings Use the 3 E’s: (More) Explanations; Examples; Exercises Use the 3 S’s: Short sentences; Simple words; Speak slowly 27

28. Thank you for your attention – any comments or questions ? 28

29. 29 Experimenting/sharing experiences with supervision/facilitation. The Peer Group needs to find a colleague that are supervising a student group in this semester and ask if they could get permission to observe one of the supervisors meetings with the student group. The supervisor selects a planned meeting soon and ask the students permission. BEFORE the meeting the Peer Group gets together and discusses how they will do their observations

30. 30 DURING the meeting the Peer Group acts as observers (this is legalized by the student group beforehand) and notes down what happens. AFTER the meeting the Peer Group gets together and share their observations and experiences and reflect upon how to improve their own supervision. The experiment/discussions are documented in a small report (3-5 pages) telling what was planned, what actual happened and what is to be learned. The report is handed in to LPJ in electronic form no later than December 11 th. Prepare a short presentation (10 min) of the outcome of the experiment to be presented during the morning of the last day of the course.