Comparing Chinese undergraduate students’ level of intercultural communication competence: does studying in the USA make a difference?

This article presents the results of a study conducted in order to determine whether Chinese students who study in the USA for a portion of their internationalised undergraduate degree programme report differences in intercultural communication competence (ICC) compared to their classmates who remain in China. The results showed no significant differences in reported intercultural communication competence between students studying in Beijing and those studying in Denver. Frequency of multicultural group work was not associated with higher intercultural communication competence for students in Beijing, but it was positively associated with higher intercultural communication competence for students in Denver. The strongest relationship observed in the data was between intercultural communication competence and reciprocity, that is, the equal exchange of information and ideas among students. These results have implications for alternatives to study abroad, as well as classroom interventions designed to improve students’ intercultural communication competence.     

Impact of short-term study abroad program: Inservice teachers' development of intercultural competence and pedagogical beliefs

A comprehensive study abroad program is one of the most effective ways to prepare multicultural and global teachers. However, in teacher education, most of the study abroad programs are designed for preservice teachers. In this study, we detailed the design of a short-term study abroad program for inservice teachers and reported on the impact of the program not only on teachers’ intercultural competence development, but also their teaching beliefs and practices. Discussions and implications were provided for educators designing study abroad programs for teachers.     

Teacher interpersonal competence for Dutch secondary multicultural classrooms

In the Netherlands, as in many European countries, classrooms display a growing cultural diversity. There are only very limited empirically supported data on the interpersonal competence teachers need in Dutch classrooms and studies from other countries cannot be generalized because of differences in the composition of the student population. This paper reports on an exploratory study in two schools on teachers' experiences in multicultural classes followed by an in‐depth case study of one expert teacher. We use this study to answer the question to what degree this teacher displays interpersonal competence (teaching behaviours, knowledge and attitudes) specific for teaching in multicultural classrooms by comparing this teacher's competence with generic interpersonal teaching competence. The teacher studied seems to be aware of special needs of students from different cultures and to use this knowledge to apply specific teaching strategies and interpersonal cues to create a positive classroom atmosphere and to cater for needs of diverse students. Further, the results indicate that many elements of this teacher's interpersonal competence in teaching a multicultural class can be considered aspects of generic teaching competence. It seems that the multicultural classroom puts heavier demands on this competence than a less diverse classroom.     

Promoting moral reasoning and multicultural competence during internship

This paper reports a study designed to increase the moral reasoning and multicultural competence of White students in a counselling internship. An intervention was conducted to determine the effectiveness of using a deliberate psychological education (DPE) approach that incorporated issues of cultural competence, oppression and diversity. This study attempted to discern if the DPE model could make a difference in the promotion of moral reasoning and multicultural competence of counsellor interns. The Intervention Group showed significant gains compared to Comparison Group 1 and 2 in moral reasoning as measured by the Defining Issues Test‐2, as well as significant gains on the Knowledge subscale of the Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale.     

What bilingual poets can do: Re‐visioning English education for biliteracy

This paper describes a bilingual‐bidialectal poetry writing programme set up in a community library in the southeastern United States for multi‐age learners. The authors explore the use of poetry as a vehicle for biliteracy development. The analysis draws on observations of the students’ engagement with poetry both in terms of their writing and the teachers’ responses. The paper discusses how poetry can inform a critical, multicultural approach to developing biliteracy in students of all ages and degrees of competence in written English. The authors theorise the role that poetry can play in creating positive learning environments for such students.     

Racism Attitudes,White Racial Identity Attitudes,and Multicultural Counseling Competence in School Counselor Trainees

The author investigated the relative contributions of prior multicultural training, racism attitudes, and White racial identity attitudes to self‐reported multicultural counseling competence in 99 school counselor trainees. After accounting for the number of previous multicultural counseling courses taken, results revealed that racism attitudes and White racial identity attitudes together contributed to significant variance in self‐perceived multicultural counseling competence. In particular, higher levels of racism were correlated with lower levels of self‐reported multicultural counseling competence. Moreover, higher Disintegration racial identity attitudes held by Whites were associated with their lower levels of self‐perceived multicultural counseling competence. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Evaluating the impact of the Erasmus programme: skills and European identity

The primary purpose of this study lies in the evaluation of what students acquire from studies abroad in the context of credit mobility, in terms of competence development and personal growth, compared with that gained by students completing their study or internship in their home country. A pre-post test design, with both an experimental group and a control group, was employed for students participating in the Erasmus programme and those continuing their regular course of study at their home university. The findings obtained suggest that study abroad programmes have a positive impact on the perception of university students. The highest values among Erasmus students in terms of outcomes were attributed to cultural enhancement, personal development and foreign language proficiency. Study abroad has, furthermore, a Europeanising impact inasmuch as it affects the self-identity of students.     

Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills Among American Counselor Trainees: Group Differences in Self-Perceived Competence Based on Dispositional and Programmatic Variables

Multiculturalism has been a topic of scholarly discourse and inquiry for the last three decades. As the philosophical commitment to multiculturalism continues to be endorsed by the counseling field, it is becoming increasingly imperative that we integrate theory, research, and practice in an applied and compelling manner. This article provides the results from a quantitative study exploring the dispositional and programmatic variables that influence the level of self-perceived multicultural competence among a sample of counselor trainees in the United States of America. The research contributes to a foundation for discussing the current status of multicultural counseling competence as well as generating creative strategies for enhancing future competence in counselors.     

Promoting and Celebrating Multicultural Competence in Counselor Trainees

The author discusses the rationale for counselor education programs' promotion of the development of multicultural counseling competence in counselor trainees. The current status of multicultural counseling competence is discussed, and recommendations are made regarding how counselor education programs and faculty can enhance multicultural competence. An Appendix provides specific action‐based recommendations.     

Development of a competency mapping tool for undergraduate professional degree programmes,using mechanical engineering as a case study

Mapping the curriculum of a professional degree to the associated competency standard ensures graduates have the competence to perform as professionals. Existing approaches to competence mapping vary greatly in depth, complexity, and effectiveness, and a standardised approach remains elusive. This paper describes a new mapping software tool that streamlines and standardises the competency mapping process. The available analytics facilitate ongoing programme review, management, and accreditation. The complete mapping and analysis of an Australian mechanical engineering degree programme is described as a case study. Each subject is mapped by evaluating the amount and depth of competence development present. Combining subject results then enables highly detailed programme level analysis. The mapping process is designed to be administratively light, with aspects of professional development embedded in the software. The effective competence mapping described in this paper enables quantification of learning within a professional degree programme, and provides a mechanism for holistic programme improvement.     

Predictors of Broaching: Multicultural Competence,Racial Color Blindness,and Interpersonal Communication

Predictors of broaching race for trainees and professionals (N = 85) seeing clients were examined in a correlational design. Results showed multicultural competence was a strong positive predictor of broaching, color blindness was a moderate negative predictor, and interpersonal communication as a predictor was mediated by multicultural competence. Demographics and experience were also studied to guide recommendations for broaching.     

Preservice elementary science teachers’ argumentation competence: impact of a training programme

The recent literature has shown the importance of preservice elementary science teachers (PESTs) having a deep understanding of argumentation, as this factor may affect the nature of the class activities that are taught and what students learn. A lack of understanding of this factor may represent an obstacle in the development of science education programmes in line with the development of scientific competences. This paper presents the results of the design and implementation of a training programme of 6 sessions (12 h of class participation plus 8 h of personal homework) on argumentation. The programme was carried out by 57 Spanish PESTs from Malaga, Spain. The training programme incorporates the innovative use of certain strategies to improve competence in argumentation, such as teaching PESTs to identify the elements of arguments in order to design assessment rubrics or by including peer assessment during evaluation with and without rubrics. The results obtained on implementing the training programme were evaluated based on the development of PESTs’ argumentation competence using Toulmin’s argumentative model. Data collection methods involved two tasks carried out at the beginning and the end of the programme, i.e., pre- and post-test, respectively. The conclusion of the study is that students made significant progress in their argumentation competence on completing the course. In addition, PESTs who followed the training programme achieved statistically better results at the end than those in the control group (n = 41), who followed a traditional teaching programme. A 6-month transfer task showed a slight improvement for the PESTs of the experimental group in relation to the control group in their ability to transfer argumentation to practice.     

A Synergistic Model to Enhance Multicultural Competence in Supervision

The Synergistic Model of Multicultural Supervision is an integration of 3 existing models to provide concrete and practical guidance for supervisors wishing to enhance supervisee multicultural competence in personally meaningful and developmentally appropriate ways. The model attends to both content and process within the supervisory session and promotes multicultural counselor competence through increasing cognitive complexity, self‐reflection, and structured interventions.     

No Child Misunderstood: Enhancing Early Childhood Teachers’ Multicultural Responsiveness to the Social Competence of Diverse Children

As a result of rapid demographic changes in our society, more children from diverse racial/cultural backgrounds join our early childhood classrooms. The majority of early childhood teachers, on the other hand, are middle-class and of European-decent. This paper provides early childhood teachers with both theoretical and practical understandings about multicultural responsiveness, in order to understand and promote social competence of young children from diverse backgrounds. To accomplish this end, readers will be guided to consider actual classroom based examples and questions throughout the paper. First, the concept of social competence will be revisited from sociocultural perspectives. Next, we discuss advocacy for social competence of diverse children through the main themes of multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Finally, we recommend several strategies to support teachers’ professional growth and development for multicultural responsiveness.     

Educating Consultants for Multicultural Practice of Consultee-Centered Consultation

ABSTRACT

Literature about educating consultants with knowledge, skills, and dispositions to work effectively within culturally and linguistically diverse schools is scarce. Research suggests that additional attention is needed on the preparation of consultants to practice with multicultural competence. This article reviews theories and research and presents four educational strategies for preparing consultants for multicultural practice of consultee-centered consultation (CCC). Specific attention is given to ways that educators can teach and supervise learners of CCC by integrating issues of worldview, culture, and different perspectives, thereby scaffolding learning toward the development of multicultural competence in consultation.     

“Us and them”: towards intercultural competence among Jewish and Arab graduate students at Israeli colleges of education

The present study aims to examine the impact of encounter between two different ethnic groups, Jews and Arabs, of Israeli first-year graduate students who study in four colleges of education, on the development of their intercultural competence: (1) knowledge regarding the “other,” (2) change in attitudes and behavior towards the other, and (3) multicultural educational practice. The findings point to two clear factors affecting the development of intercultural competence: the formal and informal college experience as reported by respondents, particularly the contents and tools that both Jews and Arabs acquired at the college in addition to personal characteristics and off-campus encounters. The second factor is the difference between the experiences of Jewish and Arab students: while Arab students are more knowledgeable regarding the Jewish culture and are more willing to change attitudes and educational practices in light of multiculturalism, Jewish students are less prone to make such changes. Thus, according to our findings, intercultural encounters among educators during their graduate studies could create a unique opportunity to turn the college experience transformational in terms of intercultural competence, particularly in the segregated structure of Israeli society.     

The Influence of Supervisor Multicultural Competence on the Supervisory Working Alliance,Supervisee Counseling Self‐Efficacy,and Supervisee Satisfaction With Supervision: A Mediation Model

We developed and tested a mediation model depicting relationships among supervisor multicultural competence, the supervisory working alliance, supervisee counseling self‐efficacy, and supervisee satisfaction with supervision. Results of structural equation modeling showed that supervisor multicultural competence was related to the supervisory working alliance and that alliance, in turn, was related to supervisee satisfaction with supervision.     

Promoting Ego Development and Multicultural Competence During Internship

This research involved an exploratory intervention to determine the effectiveness of using a deliberate psychological education (DPE) approach that incorporated issues of ethics, multicultural competence, oppression and diversity. The study attempted to discern if the DPE model used could make a difference in the promotion of ego development (which subsumes moral development) and multicultural knowledge and awareness of counselor interns. The intervention group showed significant gains compared to comparison groups in ego development as measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WSCT) (Loevinger 1985) as well as significant gains on the Knowledge subscale of the Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale (MCKAS, Ponterotto et al. 2002).     

Promoting intercultural competence in study abroad students

Universities have been promoting study abroad programmes for a long time to improve intercultural competence. However, the mere exposure to cultural differences while studying abroad does not ensure intercultural competence, unless study abroad students’ reflective processes are explicitly targeted. The article presents the results of a short intervention grounded in the problem-based approach aimed at improving intercultural competence in study abroad students. Students were assigned to three conditions: a video-log condition (in which they have to narrate a critical incident occurred to them), a reflection-induced video-logs (in which they were prompted to reflect on the video-logs produced), and an active control condition. The reflection-induced video-log intervention improved students’ perceived proficiency in Italian and perceived opportunities for cultural reflection, but it did not contribute to improve students’ applicable and conceptual knowledge of intercultural competence.

     

国内外语用能力研究特点与趋势对比分析

本文借助Cite Space,对2006—2015年国内外核心期刊中的语用能力论文进行梳理与分析。结果显示:1)从增幅看,十年间国外的语用能力研究增长了4倍多,而我国的语用能力研究增幅不大;2)从主题看,国内外研究对语用能力发展的影响因素和言语行为能力的发展均比较关注,但国内研究对语用能力测试和语用能力教学的关注程度高于国外,国外研究对儿童语用能力发展、语篇语用能力、语用能力障碍等议题的关注程度则高于我国;3)从被引看,国内外语用能力研究主要参考语际语用学、普通语用学和二语习得等领域的文献,但国内对测试类文献的引用高于国外,对儿童语用能力发展和跨文化语用学的引用则低于国外。最后,本文结合数据发现对我国的语用能力研究提出了建议。