Teaching and Learning in Multicultural Contexts (POK)

This MOOC is composed of six weeks. It is addressed mainly to university’s teachers, with the aim to enhance their intercultural and global citizens skills and practices, thus that they can consciously foster their students’ same skills. This MOOC is also open to anyone who is willing to understand cultural diversity, thus to better co-live together and collaborate in multicultural contexts.

The course is structured in 6 Weeks:

Week 1 – Teaching and Learning in Multicultural Contexts

Week 2 – The need for Intercultural and Global Citizens Skills Development

Week 3 – Developing Intercultural and Global Citizens Skills: Teachers first

Week 4 – Understanding Cultural Diversity

Week 5 – Valorise Classrooms' Cultural Diversity

Week 6 – Practices and Tools for an Intercultural Pedagogy

By actively participating in this MOOC, you will achieve different intended learning outcomes (ILOs).

Week 1

Define what a multicultural teaching and learning context is

Recognise some of the main challenges that a teacher can face in multicultural classroom

Describe how layers of cultural identity can influence interactions in multicultural contexts

Recognise how the use of English as lingua franca can impact on classroom interactions and on reciprocal perception in multicultural contexts and deal with them

Identify and deal with conflicts and challenges caused by stereotyping and discrimination in multicultural classroom

Week 2

Explain what global citizens skills are and why they are needed

Engage with intercultural and global skills development

Explain what intercultural competence is and what are its components

Analyze your intercultural competence development, through a practical exercise

Develop intercultural and global skills

Week 3

Recognize the value of international exposure and explain how it can help teachers to develop the competence useful to teach in multicultural classroom

Explain the most common reasons for teacher’s lack of international exposure

Indicate possible solutions for teachers to internationalize their own career

Explain how you, as a teacher, can go out from your comfort zone and search for diverse contexts even at home, thus to exercise and develop your intercultural and global skills

Week 4

Describe the impact culture can have on your and other people’s perceptions, feelings and behaviors

Explain how to use the DIE model to suspend judgements about diverse people and to take in consideration different cultural perspectives

Describe the differences between your and other people’s diversity experience

Indicate possible ways to become more interculturally sensitive and therefore interculturally competent

Week 5

Recognise and describe how cultural value differences can impact on teaching and learning style

Develop a positive attitude towards these differences in order to accept and value them without condemning or penalizing them

Describe cross-cultural dimensions frameworks with their strength and weaknesses and their applications in education contexts across cultures

Identify and approach ethical dilemmas that can arise in multicultural teaching environments

Week 6

Select and implement intercultural pedagogical practices and tools (including ethical game design, content, and dynamics) into classroom’s didactic

Explain how these can support the students’ learning process and the development of their intercultural and global citizens’ skills

Describe how to leverage classroom diversity for developing intercultural competences

Use activities aimed at helping students to learn from each other how our culture influences our worldviews and how we can bridge those differences through intercultural dialogue