Practice Reports

Interdependent intercultural task as a tool for developing intercultural awareness through Collaborative Online International Learning in Global Leadership

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21827/jve.3.35803

Keywords:

online international learning, intercultural awareness, global leadership

Abstract

This paper discusses a teaching approach that can be used in Collaborative Online International Learning – Interdependent Intercultural Tasks (IIT). IIT are characterized by the following features: (1) they include culture-specific information that creates cognitive dissonance and motivates students to analyze information about another culture; (2) they provide instructions aimed at learning subjective information about individuals from another culture; and (3) they can only be performed through interaction between students from different countries. We expect two learning outcomes of implementing IIT in a Global Leadership course; an increase in (1) intercultural interaction when working on a collaborative project; and (2) awareness of general cultural differences and those related to a specific global problem. Preliminary findings suggest that employing IIT (i.e. having students discuss native and non-native country media articles describing culture-specific perspectives on a global problem) increases the frequency of student interactions outside the classroom and improves coordination between teammates.

Author Biographies

Lori M. Curtindale, Department of Psychology, Lycoming College

Lori Curtindale holds bachelor's (Otterbein University, 2004), master's (Bowling Green State University, 2007), and doctoral (University of Kansas, 2013) degrees in Psychology.  She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at East Carolina University (Greenville, North Carolina, USA), her research interests include: cognitive development in infancy and childhood; international leadership from a psychological perspective, and intercultural interaction.

Svetlana G. Krylova, Psychological Department, Ural State Pedagogical University

Svetlana Krylova graduated from Moscow State Lomonosov University (1988, Physics); Novosibirsk State University (1997, Psychology). She received her Ph.D. in 2007, with the thesis topic "Dialogical attitude in interpersonal cognition". She is currently an Associate Professor in Psychological Department of Ural State Pedagogical University (Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation) and a member of the Russian Psychological Society. Research interests include: interpersonal perception, intercultural interaction, communication, social influence.

Svetlana A. Minyurova, Psychological Department, Ural State Pedagogical University

Svetlana Minyurova graduated from the Ural State University (1985) and received the degree of Ph.D. in 1995 (thesis topic “Psychological features of the visual form of self-consciousness at childhood”) in 2009 (doctoral thesis on the topic “Psychological foundations for choosing self-development strategies in the profession”). She is currently a Full Professor and Rector of the Ural State Pedagogical University, as well as Chairman of the Sverdlovsk Regional Branch of the Russian Federation of Professional Education. Research Interests: Psychology of Self-Consciousness; personal and professional development and self-development.

Published

2020-12-17

Issue

Vol. 3 (2020): Special Issue IVEC 2019

Section

Practice Reports

Copyright (c) 2020 Lori Marie Curtindale, Svetlana G Krylova, Svetlana Minyurova

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