Intercultural Education: A Code of Practice for the twenty-first century

In this paper we will argue for the adoption of a set of principles that will inform the construction of a Code of Practice for Intercultural Education in institutions of teacher education throughout Europe. These principles need to be based on a clear understanding of how inequalities operate and lead to oppression in society. Furthermore, we consider a Code of Practice to be essential in developing future teachers for a changing world that is increasingly global and international. The need for a Code of Practice arises from our conviction that teacher education must be located within higher education and, as such, should show a commitment to the pursuit of truth without losing sight of the need to be concerned with issues of social justice, equality and the empowerment of all groups involved in education. Dans cet article nous débattrons de la nécessitéd'adopter un ensemble de principes conduisant à l'élaboration d'un code déontologique pour l'éducation interculturelle dans les instituts formation des enseignants à travers l'Europe. Ces principes doivent être fondés sur une nette compréhension des effets des inégalités sociales et de l'oppression qui en résulte. Nous considérons par ailleurs que ce code déontologique est essentiel dans la formation des enseignants de demain dans une sociétéde plus en plus mondialisée et internationale. Le besoin d'un code déontologique provient de notre conviction que la formation d'enseignant doit faire partie de l'enseignement supérieur et qu' à ce titre elle doit s'impliquer dans la recherche de la véritésans perdre de vue les problèmes de justice sociale, d'égalitéet d'attribution du pouvoir d'agir à tous les groupes présents. En este documento, abogaremos por la adopción de una serie de principios a favor de la elaboración de un Código de Conducta para la Educación Intercultural en instituciones de formación del profesorado en toda Europa. Estos principios han de estar basados en un entendimiento claro de cómo operan las desigualdades y como llevan a la opresión en la sociedad. Asimismo, consideramos que tener un Código de Conducta es algo indispensable para la formación de profesores en un mundo que estácambiando y convirtiéndose cada vez més en un ambiente global e internacional. La necesidad de crear un Código de Conducta viene dada porque creemos que la formación de profesores se debe llevar a cabo a nivel universitario y como tal debe de estar prevalecida por una búsqueda de la verdad sin perder de vista la necesidad de considerar problemas como la justicia social, la igualdad y la participación activa de todos los grupos implicados en la educación. In unserem Vortrag plädieren wir für die Annahme einer Reihe von Prinzipien als Grundlage für die Entwicklung eines Verhaltenskodex für Interkulturelle Erziehung in Institutionen der Lehrerausbildung in ganz Europa. Diese Prinzipien sollten auf einem klaren Verständnis der Wirkung von Ungleichheiten und der daraus resultierenden gesellschaftlichen Unterdrückung führen. Darüber hinaus halten wir einen solchen Verhaltenskodex in der Ausbildung von LehrerInnen in einer sich wandelnden und zunehmend global und international geprägten Welt für unabdingbar. Diese Notwendigkeit eines Verhaltenskodex entspringt unserer Überzeugung, dass die Lehrerausbildung Hochschulangelegenheit und als solche den Prinzipien objektiver Erkenntnisgewinnung verpflichtet sein sollte, ohne dabei Fragen der sozialen Gerechtigkeit, Gleichheit und Emanzipation aller am Ausbildungsprozess beteiligten Gruppen aus den Augen zu verlieren.     

Self-esteem and school performance

Self-esteem was found to have a moderate relationship with, but not a strong independent effect on, school achievement and behavior for a sample of 530 twelve-year-olds. From multiple correlation coefficients predicting school outcomes from measures of socioeconomic status, IQ, and self-esteem, it was concluded that much of the relationship between self-esteem and school performance for the general school population can best be explained as reflecting common underlying factors such as ability and background.     

Children's Sensitivity to Lack of Understanding

Successful tutoring depends in part on child tutors’ ability to recognise and interpret accurately signals of misunderstanding by their tutees. Age- and gender-related differences were investigated in a study which exposed 80 children to a video-recorded episode involving a target child receiving ambiguous instructions in her attempts to move a model car along a designated route on a playmat roadway from one destination to another. The results showed that explicit, general and facial modes of displaying puzzlement by the target child were judged as equally powerful expressions of degree of puzzlement, but 8-10 year olds judged the target child as significantly more puzzled than did 7 year olds. Older children were also more likely to attribute the puzzlement of the target child to the ambiguous instructions than to her verbal or facial expression of puzzlement. Girls were generally more accurate than boys in judging facial expressions and less likely than boys to give wrong or alternatively ambiguous responses when given the opportunity to correct the video-recorded ambiguous instructions. The results throw some light on the developing sensitivities of boys and girls in recognising and attributing failures of understanding by other children.     

Making the School Environment Safe: Red Rose's Formula

The purpose of this study was to assess the school environment of an urban school to illuminate what teachers felt to be important factors in developing a safer school environment. Responses to the School Level Environmental Questionnaire (SLEQ) suggested that teachers wanted more student support, more resources and less work pressure. To decrease work pressure, teachers adopted the work conservation strategies of working without reserves of time and energy, processing curriculum, and working in isolation in order to survive. Yet, when work conservation strategies were used, especially safeguarding time, student aggression surfaced. A School Improvement Committee developed a three-step plan to decrease work pressure. Teachers were concerned with lack of resources and used personal income to buy supplies and shared materials with students, using three styles of sharing. While some teachers were reluctant to share, others shared freely and still other teachers developed responsible sharing systems. Those who shared reluctantly had more behavior problems. Teachers' gravest concerns were students' aggressive behaviors. Teachers thought that student aggression was coming from home and the community. Observations showed that students often came to school angry. Yet, interviews verified that students at Rose more frequently became angry once they were at school. Red Rose's school environment was in the midst of change, but no attention was given to how change affects teachers. Many teachers were not prepared for the amount of change that they were experiencing and they had mixed feelings and opinions and became resistant.     

Design for learning: Adapting the microscopic anatomy laboratory to adult learners

Medical school curricula are undergoing transformational change in response to calls for integrating content across courses and years to enable better retention and application and for individualizing learning to meet the diverse backgrounds and thus differing needs of students. To address the related teaching challenges, faculty can employ solid principles of adult learning and instructional design and use teaching strategies that stimulate different learning styles. We developed laboratory sessions that follow a learner‐centered instructional design model we refer to as “PLHET,” reflecting the steps of preparing, linking, hooking, engaging, and transferring learning, and also applied teaching strategies that reflect Kolb's four styles of learning (accommodative, divergent, assimilative, and convergent). We utilized a group learning format to promote active learning, teamwork, and self‐direction. Preliminary data based on student surveys of laboratory activity show positive responses. In the future, we will test the hypothesis that this design will improve medical students' performance. Anat Sci Educ © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Bridging eastern & western philosophies and models

In view of the increasing need formeaningful cross-cultural understanding, thefacilitation of dialogue about diverse modelsof human wellness will help promote greaterunderstanding for educational professionalsacross divergent cultural backgrounds. Such adiscussion will by necessity is comprehensiveand far-reaching. Topics of consideration willinclude the common concerns of counselors andeducators, cross-cultural trainingopportunities, and Eastern and Westernphilosophies of education, development, andemotional wellness. As a beginning step in thisprocess of understanding perspectives fromdifferent parts of the globe, a pilot studyusing a questionnaire was conducted withrespect to Chinese and U.S. Universityeducators. Findings regarding similaritiesand differences are described. Preliminaryfindings suggest that differing philosophiesmay underlay the perspectives of Chineseeducators, who are strongly influenced byConfucius, and American educators who arestrongly influenced by Western thinkers such asDewey. Yet, both Chinese and Americaneducators agreed that the top priority ofeducators was student academic achievement. The results of the study suggested that therole of counselor be construed differently inChina as compared to the U.S. for a complexityof reasons described in this article.     

The Sensitivity of Children and Adults as Tutors

In view of conflicting claims about children's sensitivity to the needs of other children in learning situations, the present study was designed to explore the sensitivity of child and adult tutors in one‐to‐one tutoring interactions. Sixteen adults and 31 11‐ and 9‐year‐olds tutored 47 9‐year‐old tutees on an animal classification task. Tutors were tested on their ability to apply the rules and knowledge they had obtained after training, and tutees were tested after being tutored. On all the verbal and nonverbal tutoring indices adult tutors showed greater sensitivity than child tutors: they were more likely to display behaviours which promoted efficient learning in their tutees. Results suggested that tutors operated on the basis of an implicit theory of teaching which involves three types of sensitivity: (1) sensitivity to the learner's need to have sufficient information for understanding the task, coupled with adequate checks on the learner's understanding; (2) sensitivity to the learner's need to participate actively in the learning process; and (3) sensitivity to differences in learning abilities among individual learners, and being able to accommodate to them.     

Promoting Peace in a Place Called School

The purpose of this study was to investigate subtle aspects of the school environment in a city school, where teachers and students had previously implemented activities to increase awareness of peace as a means of promoting a change in behavior. Responses to the School-Level Environmental Questionnaire (SLEQ) indicated that teachers wanted more student support, more resources, and less work pressure. Teachers chose the area of student support on which to focus in developing action plans. An interview with the assistant principal provided perspective on progress made after implementing the action plans.