Helping Students Develop Intercultural Intelligence In Tertiary Education

Abstract

Many students never develop good intercultural competencies during their years at college or university. These students are often unaware of how important cultural attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are in their daily and academic lives. Students are also unaware of their own cultural boundaries that may be impacting their communication and engagement with others. Assignments that teach intercultural competencies can help students in a variety of ways: to gain confidence in their own cultural identity and acquire a set of skills to communicate and lead in a global world. In this paper, the researcher discusses some effective activities that can be used to teach students intercultural competencies and increase students' intercultural intelligence. Activities are based on experiential and blended learning approaches and integrate technology tools to engage learners. These activities are based on Knowledge Workx intercultural intelligence training that introduces three key theories of culture: Hofstede's cultural dimensions, World View theory, and Knowledge Workx of 12 Dimensions. These theories follow the layers of culture found in an iceberg metaphor that includes the top of the iceberg and observable culture, next is attitudes, the third layer is norms and values, and finally the most hidden layer is one's beliefs. Based on these theories, three blended and experiential projects were developed to include cultural object presentations, a research project on current intercultural conflict, and a cross cultural communication research and application of cultural maps. Three psychometric tests were also used to increase intercultural awareness: culture learner/critic, worldview, and 12 Dimensions tests.