Teaching culturally diverse
groups
Jude Carroll
January 2014
Presentation at the University of Sheffield
Here’s what I was told about aims for
the session
hands-on
 primarily for teaching staff
 Faculty of Science
 focus on ‘international students’
 integrating multi-cultural cohorts

‘.... cross-cultural communication and
cultures of learning’
My big question for teachers
How do their students’

educational mobility

cultural diversity
 skill at learning in English

global perspectives
impact on classroom practice?
What are the links? What are the influences?
‘Teaching culturally diverse groups’
‘Introducing an international and
intercultural perspective into how you
teach & what you teach .....’
‘Thinking about what you are trying to
achieve / produce.....’
‘International students’: who
are they?
Foreign…. overseas …. offshore ….
‘The students who don’t pay home fees’
capability
students who are not
from
[here]’
fees
and
money
with‘The
English
‘cultural’
distance
travelled
‘Students who speak a
language other than [national language] at home’
Students who travelled by a plane to study’
Anyone who calls themselves-unfamiliar
‘international’
from support
‘We are all international’
far
far from family
far from
There’shelp
no such thing:
with ‘how it
works here’
-’strange’
expectations
students
are students.
-inappropriate skills
‘Diverse students’: many factors you might
include
I suggest a focus on
1. Educational mobility
Students moving across [national] boundaries
Programmes moving to students (Transnational Education)
Students returning ‘back home’
2. Pedagogic variation [academic cultural differences]
‘Same words, different meaning’
3. Learning and teaching in English
Students: variable levels of competence and confidence
[some teachers, too]
Not the same as ‘learning English’
These factors inter-relate
educational
mobility
pedagogic
variation
learning in
English
Students’ key learning issues:

Language [learning in English]

Transition to new learning culture

Having appropriate academic skills

Engagement and participation. ‘Taking part’’

Collaboration, mixing. Intercultural communication

Relevance. ‘A useful piece of paper’
Issues for students
Your role?
Adaptation …. adjustment ...... accommodation

developing language
capability


New academic
culture



building necessary skills.

participation [‘Getting
the most from ……’]

collaboration &
mixing
checking (where are they so far?);
enhancing students’ language learning
Mediating between pedagogic
cultures
Coaching, providing practice, giving
feedback
Choreographing. Structure. prepare
and plan.
 Designing & supporting tasks
and group work

Focus on students’ transition to [this place] ways,
[this place] assumptions, [this place] expectations
From what to what?
Where are the predictable ‘sites of conflict’?
How can teachers help students recognise ‘new game,
new rules’ …. then ensure they have the skills to play
that new game?
Transition: from what to what?
‘Students expected a different culture …. but not a
different culture of teaching and learning. They
didn’t expect a different meaning for the word
‘examination’.
Poulton, 2009
.... ‘the challenges of adapting to a different
academic culture appeared to be more acute
than adapting to a different cultural and social
environment’.
Gu et al 2010
‘I call my teacher Dr. X’
I say, ‘Call me Jude’

I call my teacher Dr. xxx

A good teacher notices I need help and
offers it.

When students ask, I help with studybased issues.

A good teacher tells me good answers
to good questions.

I select the issues but the students must
find their own answers

To learn, I must listen to the teacher.
Really listen.

I want students to discuss, argue, solve
problems.What’s their conclusion?

I want students to read around, to
choose good bits ….and to weave them
together to make an answer. I want their
answer …. not the answer

I read the textbook many many many
times. Exam questions and answers are
from the textbook.
‘previous educational experiences’
1.
Teaching methods
2.
Relationships between
teachers & students
3.
Assessment
4.
Writing
5.
Reading
Discussion of the
rationale
Experience and reflection
Explicit guidance
Practice and feedback
‘The cultural onion’
1.
Artifacts

2.
Rules and
norms

(Schein 1990)
The outer signs and
signals of differences
1
2
3
3.
Beliefs,
values,
attitudes
‘How we do things’
‘How we communicate’
‘How things should be done’
Rationale for why things are
as they are
How we see and experience
the world and each other
Teachers as academic cultural mediators:
same words, different meanings
Teacher
Student
Read
Write
Examination
Dissertation
Supervisor
Help
Good work
9:00 AM
‘my own work’
‘logical case’
the artifact
First names for teachers
Reading list
Word limit on essays
Specific times to see teachers
group work
70% as a top mark
the rationale
Language
auditor /
enhancer
Cultural
mediator
Teacher-supported skill development
What generic skills?
Learning from lectures
Skills coach
Choreographer
of participation
Self-management
Making
students
interact
Criticality ‘taking an evaluative,
Curriculum
designer
evidence-based, personal stance…..’
Academic reading
Academic writing
Teacher support?
information
tools and
equipment
examples
motivating
reasons
Practice of the ‘subskills’
feedback
Putting sub-skills
together. Practice
time
working with an expert to
aim high
feedback
practice
Teacher-supported skill development
Programme-level planning and delivery
Early checking [‘Where do I stand against the
standards?’]
Design in practice and feedback
Practice, practice, practice ….. over time
Skills learned as an integral part of content learning
Language auditor /
enhancer
Cultural mediator
Participation: taking part
Skills coach
Choreographer of
participation
Making students
interact
Curriculum designer
In lectures: listening, thinking,
making notes, making
connections, making sense ....
In interactive sessions and
labs:
talking, working with ideas,
making meaning, solving problems,
practical work
In supervision and one-toone:
dialogue, planning, agreeing and
disagreeing, asking / providing
information
What can teachers do?
1.Lighten the language load
2.Make structure obvious and
explicit; use structure to
organise contributions
3.Require preparation and
require planning
4.Use techniques to value and
welcome contributions
5.Ask questions to check
understanding
Language auditor /
enhancer
Making groupwork work: How?
Cultural mediator
Skills coach
Choreographer of
participation
Making students interact
1. Prepare students
2. Plan a collaborative task
Curriculum designer
3. Project manage: observe and monitor
the process; intervene carefully to
manage conflict(s)
4. Process the experience: force students
to reflect on their experiences; Think
about assessing the process as well as
the product
What more could
you
do?
INTEGRATION
COLLABORATIO
Which
N change(s)
would
make a
INCLUSION
difference?
social interaction, social ‘glue’
Organised ‘getting to know’
Teaching cross-cultural communication
In-class discussion to practice cross-cultural
communication
Group tasks which
bring students together
Assessing process
and product (sometimes)
Help students manage
conflicts
Summing up