Teaching Strategies for Face to Face & Remote Teaching
Working definitions of “intercultural class” and “intercultural students”:
An intercultural class is comprised of students who are “linguistically, culturally, socially and in other ways, different from the instructor or from each other” (Dimitrov, Dawson, Olsen, & Meadows, 2014). Coming from other countries, intercultural students have limited to no exposure to Canadian academia and are working on adjusting to the higher education system in Canada.
To facilitate faculty with intercultural remote teaching, you may find the answers to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) below to be helpful:
What are some strategies to engage intercultural learners in virtual (remote) teaching?
Key Considerations:
- Build a sense of community to extend your care and support for their well-being;
- Set up virtual office hours for learners who may need to meet with you one-on-one;
- Present course content in multiple means (video, text, infographic, etc.)
For more detailed information, please check out this resource on engagement:
https://www.algonquincollege.com/lts/engaging-students-in-an-intercultural-class/
Research skills are not a part of my course – how can I support learners to locate appropriate resources to prevent plagiarism?
Key Considerations:
- Encourage learners to check their knowledge of academic honesty by using online resources such as “How to Recognize Plagiarism: Tutorials and Tests” ;
- Give students the opportunity to submit draft-in-progress so feedback can be provided before the final draft is submitted and graded;
- Design online assessments to encourage original work. You can achieve this by asking students to interview people working in the field and write a reflection about the experience or inviting students to draw connections between their personal/professional experience to the assigned readings.
For more detailed information, please check out this resource:
https://www.algonquincollege.com/lts/preventing-and-addressing-plagiarism-in-an-intercultural-class/
How do I facilitate group work activities to include all learners during virtual (remote) teaching?
Key Considerations:
- Share resources to help learners gain skills to effectively work in a group setting, considering some of your intercultural learners may have never worked on group projects before;
- Articulate the benefits of intercultural group work to encourage domestic and international students’ participation. Articulate that intercultural group work can “create opportunities for peer learning and interaction among diverse learners” (Dimitrov, Dawson, Olsen, &Meadows, 2014);
- Allow sufficient time for groups assignments. Start group work early in the semester, if possible, so group members can have time to get to know each other and work on the assignments.
For more detailed information, please check out this resource:
https://www.algonquincollege.com/lts/making-group-work-work-in-an-intercultural-class
What should I consider when designing assessments for my intercultural class?
Key Considerations:
- Use frequent formative assessments to reflect on if instructional strategies should be modified;
- Allow different means for learners to demonstrate their knowledge acquisition, or how they engage in the assessment process;
- Include international/intercultural components to your assessments, where applicable (for example, assignments designed to ask for students’ self-evaluation on international perspective development, or make comparisons between two cultures, etc.) (Centre for Teaching Excellence, n.d.).
For more detailed information, please check out this resource:
https://www.algonquincollege.com/lts/designing-assessments-for-an-intercultural-class/
How do I provide effective feedback to diverse learners during virtual (remote) teaching?
Key considerations:
- Give feedback in a timely fashion so learners can more effectively reflect on what to do differently next time when the subject matter is still fresh in their minds;
- Accompany specific examples from learners’ work when offering constructive feedback and point to the next steps for learners to avoid making similar mistakes;
- Encourage learners to ask for clarifications after receiving feedback to avoid potential miscommunications or misinterpretations.
For more detailed information, please check out this resources:
https://www.algonquincollege.com/lts/giving-effective-feedback-in-an-intercultural-class/
Do you have some questions regarding intercultural teaching and learning? Please send them to zhangw2@algonquincollege.com
What strategies do you use when teaching an intercultural class? Click to find our practical recommendations and suggestions!
