Intercultural Competence Workshops for Research Postgraduate Students

Overview:

As a postgraduate student at UST, communicating effectively with individuals who come from different cultural backgrounds is essential for your academic success and future career development. Teaching cross-cultural students in your classroom gives you ideal opportunities to interact with culturally diverse individuals, but it also requires you to build up foundation in intercultural concepts and identify ways to communicate effectively with cross-cultural audiences.

This series of workshops provided the practical strategies to facilitate and support learners from diverse cultural background in your classroom, and techniques to organize and articulate your research to multicultural audience. Participants obtained the essentials intercultural communication skills for a career in academia and industry from the workshops.

Workshop 1: Facilitating Learning in the Intercultural Classroom (22 May, 10:00 – 12:00)

Active learning in today’s classrooms engages students in communication and collaboration across cultures and disciplines. In this session, we will explore strategies for facilitating discussion and support learners from diverse cultural and disciplinary backgrounds in the same classroom.

Through case studies and short experiential learning activities, participants will become familiar with (1) strategies for facilitating discussion among students using across diverse communication styles, (2) help students navigate the interpersonal challenges of cross-cultural collaboration during group work (3) give feedback effectively across cultures and (4) design active learning activities that promote interaction among students.

PowerPoint Presentation Video

Workshop 2: Presenting your Research to Diverse Audience (25 May, 10:00 – 11:30)

The ability to successfully communicate your research to an interdisciplinary audience is an essential component of preparing for a career in academia or industry. In this session, we will identify concrete approaches to organize and deliver your speech effectively and to articulate the significance of your thesis to diverse audiences. We will also explore important differences in cultural norms and expectations around body language and audience engagement. During the session, participants will analyze sample presentations and have brief opportunities to practice introducing their research topics to each other in order to get feedback.

PowerPoint Presentation Video

About the Speakers:

Dr. Nanda Dimitrov is the Acting Director of the Teaching Support Centre and adjunct research scholar in the Centre for Research on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education at Western University. Her work as an educational developer focuses on graduate education, mentorship across cultures, and intercultural education. Her recent publications have explored disciplinary communication competence, the impact of International TA training programs, and intercultural teaching competence.

Aisha Haque is the Language and Communication Instructor at Western University’s Teaching Support Centre and an associated researcher at the Centre for Research on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (Faculty of Education). Drawing on her background in equity pedagogies, she supports the development of intercultural teaching competence among graduate students. Her recent research has explored the benefits of discipline-specific approaches to TA training and the application of intercultural teaching competence across the disciplines.

All Research Postgraduate Students are welcome