TEACHER TRAINING ‘Intercultural Learning at school’
In order to develop intercultural competencies, we have to understand how the other people think, feel and act. We need intercultural competences not only to understand people from different cultures, we also need them to overcome differences within our own culture.
The Intercultural Learning for Pupils and Teachers Project has developed a training course for teachers focused on intercultural competences. The course is complemented by classroom instructions, namely a toolbox, to include elements of the course into the school curriculum.
During the Erasmus+ “Intercultural Learning for Pupils and Teachers Pilot Project” all member organisations organised training courses for teachers between October 2017 and March 2018 : by the end of the project almost 300 European teachers had been trained in the countries of the partner organisations and over 4000 European students followed with great success some of the activities of the toolbox.
The training sessions are now published online for those teachers interested in running training sessions for their colleagues in their schools. The training aims to make participants:
- aware and able to present their own intercultural experiences and enhance their ICL competences
- able to link intercultural education theories to observed behaviours
- aware of mobility opportunities for their students and how to valorize them
- able to start assessing ICL competences of pupils
- empowered to implement the whole school approach linked to ICL in a systemic approach
- able to navigate online existing resources
- able to create modules on ICL linked to specific curricula and cross-curricular activities
In the following pages, there are three suggested agendas and eight training session outlines of activities to be developed in schools or educational community. Please feel free to contact the project partners if you need support or suggestions on how to organise the training in your school.
Description of the Sessions
The sessions can be assembled by the time available for the course. “Welcome and introduction” serves as an introduction and icebreaker, “My intercultural self” aims at having teachers reflect on themselves as intercultural beings and get to know some of the most basic concepts and theories related to intercultural learning. “Intercultural Learning in education” provides information about institutional guidelines on intercultural learning and intercultural competence and helps the participants to share experiences on how these topics are already tackles in their schools. “Hints for assessment of Intercultural Competence” gives evidence to the assessment of intercultural learning competences with reference to possible tools, resources, bibliography. “Introducing the toolbox for Intercultural Learning at school & D.I.V.E.” and “Opportunities offered by the toolbox activities” are aimed at getting to know the toolbox provided by the website and to practice some of the activities. “Planning implementation of the Intercultural Learning at School Toolbox” focuses on the organisation of a plan to be developed in the school of the participants. The “closing session” allows participants to reflect on what they have learned.
Before Starting
Pre-training tasks for teachers:
In order to make the most out of the training sessions, the participants should be asked to do the following task in advance:
- Reflections on intercultural learning:
- Reflect on what intercultural learning is.
- Reflect on if and how intercultural learning is present in their teaching practice.
- Questionnaire on intercultural dimensions of your School: complete the “Intercultural Dimension of Your School Questionnaire” (available here) together with their school principal in order to define needs and priorities for their school. A copy of the completed questionnaire should be taken to the training.
- “Critical Incident” reflection exercise: A critical incident is the resulting of intercultural misunderstanding or conflict that brought to some learning. It is due to an unexpected or casual interaction with a person or persons with background, belief or behaviour that is different from yours or from what you are most accustomed to. Participants should think of an intercultural encounter that they have been part of or witnessed, remembering their feelings and reactions in order to be prepared to share it with one or more people during the training course.
- Ideally, it would be advisable to ask participants to bring their own computers to explore the contents in the website and in the Toolbox of activities.
- Space and material requirements: Many of the activities suggested are interactive. Therefore the training sessions require a large room to accommodate all participants with appropriate space for them to move around for dynamic activities. The room should be set up with chairs in a semi-circle and should include :
- a computer with an internet connection
- a data-show projector and projection screen
- a printer with additional ink or toner cartridges
- a flipchart stand
- 50 sheets of flipchart paper
- walls or space to hang up posters with results of the work of the participants
Suggested Supply List
The following list is designed thinking of a Three-Day workshop for a group of 20 participants. Quantities should be adjusted by the number of participants or taking into consideration any adaptations in the agenda (changes or additional activities planned).
Please care about sustainability: REUSE, REDUCE and RECYCLE!
- 100 sheets of A4 or Letter white paper
- 50 sheets of A4 or Letter coloured paper (in different colours)
- 24 sheets of A5 coloured index cards (in different colours)
- 5 coloured pads of Post-it notes (of various sizes, styles)
- 3 black flip chart markers, good quality
- 8 coloured flip chart markers, good quality
- 12 coloured fine-point markers
- 3 individual rolls of masking tape, good quality
- 10 sheets of coloured dots
- 25 pens (black or blue)
- 1 stapler and lots of staples
- 2 tubes of glue
- 2 pairs of scissors
