Teaching in Multicultural Classrooms

The steadily increasing number of international students at German universities means new talent and vast potential for the future, but also brings along a number of challenges with it. At the university, the teaching context is one of the most significant areas where these challenges are encountered, when different, deeply ingrained learning traditions and expectations come face-to-face with the German academic system. In this seminar, the participants will therefore, after first engaging with their own cultural backgrounds and values, take a closer look at different cultural characteristics and value systems, using various interactive methods. They will then analyse the influence of these systems on ways of thinking and learning. In this way, the participants will become aware of and sensitised to possible points of friction in intercultural encounters in the classroom. In addition, they will work in depth with the aspect of culture-based communication and communication styles. Working with university-specific practical examples and the participants' own experiences, they will then address new ways to act, react and interact. They will thus build up their ability to analyse such situations using their newly gained insights and to develop approaches for appropriate solutions. Since this seminar will be conducted over two days, with a break between the sessions, the participants will also use the time for observations and self-reflection.

Key points of contents

• Culture and Culture-dependent teaching and learning traditions, managing these effectively
• Intercultural communication, with a focus on the academic context
• Reflection, application and transfer: self-reflection tasks, discussions, case studies, critical incidents, role plays and communication activities

Participants work on the following competences during the seminar:

• The participants can expand their knowledge of different culture-related teaching and learning traditions and apply these in various academic settings
• Participants can identify and critically reflect on obstacles and blocks in classroom communication that may have a cultural background or explanation and develop workarounds.
• The participants can deepen and develop their competence in dealing with intercultural interaction and communication situations in the teaching context, thus engaging in an appropriate and effective manner.

Details about the workshop:
It would be ideal if the participants complete the introductory seminar “Culture and Intercultural Awareness” before attending this one. Also, a good command of the English language is essential (at least level B2 of the CEFR).
The current plan is to conduct this as a face-to-face seminar; however, it will also be possible to switch to a virtual or hybrid format, should this become necessary.

Self paced tasks:

• In addition to the f2f sessions, participants will need to complete a pre-seminar questionnaire, which includes a documentation of cultural critical incidents from their own daily life or professional settings.
• In addition, they will have to read two texts and reflect on their personal experiences on the basis of the information in the texts.
• Between the two sessions, they will be requested to observe interactions in their personal and professional surroundings, applying their newly won insights, and bring these into the second session for feedback and discussion.
• Finally, the participants will have to complete a closing written self-reflection (with feedback from me) including transfer of the workshop content to their classroom interactions.
• The average time needed for these activities is approximately 150 minutes.