Global student mobility has become a dynamic force in American higher education. Integrating international students into diverse campus environments provides domestic as well as foreign students with enriched learning opportunities. However, a diverse campus climate itself will not make college students interculturally competent. Intentional curricular design is critical for overcoming issues such as resistance and reinforcement of stereotypes, but the research literature is extremely limited on effective pedagogical strategies for cultivating college students' intercultural sensitivity.
This paper explicates a research study to investigate college students' development of intercultural sensitivity through an intentional course design utilizing Kolb's (1984) learning styles cycle and Hammer's (2009) Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to explore domestic and international students' intercultural learning experiences and to potentially identify pedagogical approaches that facilitate students' intercultural competence. These findings show that the four pedagogical strategies associated with Kolb's learning cycle were effective and crucial when designing an intercultural course in order to develop college students' intercultural competence. This study also revealed a gap in intercultural development through the intentional intercultural course between American students and Japanese exchange students due to their vastly different intercultural experiences.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-2642 |
| Date | 07 March 2014 |
| Creators | Sakurauchi, Yoko Hwang |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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