Implementing Multicultural Team Work
Introduction
Team work can be one of the most difficult activities to facilitate within the classroom.
In this film students and staff share their practice and experiences and highlight the benefits of participants being able to bring their own cultural experiences and viewpoints to group projects.
Student Perspectives
Based on students’ feedback, here are some ways you could implement this idea within the classroom:
- Encourage students to not only work together, but to have healthy debates and discussion in their group (Robin T George)
- Support students who find it difficult to engage with people they don’t know (Leanne)
- Set up groups mixing students with different cultural background to learn about differences, and go beyond in order to find common grounds (Yanhui)
- Include activities that do not only have one right answer, but allow students to benefit from sharing ideas and perspectives from their own lived experiences (Kris Kewish)
Examples in Practice
Additional Resources
The Global Classroom: Learning without Borders (warwick.ac.uk)
A 2019 Monash-Warwick Alliance funded project, The Global Classroom: Learning without Borders , focused on developing a ‘Global Classroom’ which utilised a novel digital approach whereby students engaged in case-based learning (CBL) to solve a problem collaboratively using an off-the-shelf mobile technology.
Cultural Literacy and Empathy in Education Practice
This book explores a new approach to cultural literacy. Taking a pedagogical perspective, it looks at the skills, knowledge, and abilities involved in understanding and interpreting cultural differences, and proposes new ways of approaching such differences as sources of richness in intercultural and interdisciplinary collaborations. Cultural Literacy and Empathy in Education Practice balances theory with practice, providing practical examples for educators who wish to incorporate cultural literacy into their teaching. The book includes case studies, interviews with teachers and students, and examples of exercises and assessments, all backed by years of robust scholarly research.