AFS Intercultural Link news magaizne, volume 3 issue 4 - global edition

AFS Intercultural Link | VOLUME 3 - ISSUE 4 - OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 | 1

VOLUME 3 - ISSUE 4 - OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

IN THIS ISSUE

Intercultural Learning: The Heart & Soul of AFSby Melissa Liles

AFS India’s Educators’ Workshopby Lucas Welter Page 2

Concepts & Theories: Hidden Curriculum: How Can AFS Work With it?by Tonya Muro Page 3

Book Review: Crossing Cultures: Insights from Master Teachersby Laura Schaack Page 4

AFS Academy: Spotlight on Intercultural Learningby Laura Kline-Taylor Page 5

Professor Tatsushi Arai at the AFS Academyby Eva Vítková Page 6

One-on-One with Dr. Geert Hofstedeby Damayonti Sengupta Page 7

AFS Brazil and School Relationsby Laura Schaack Page 8

News You Can Use: Kolb’s Experiential Learning Styles: The Basics Page 9

Beyond AFS ICL News: Interview with David Kolbby Anna Collier Page 10

AFS Peru’s ICL Trainings by Lisbeth Sanchez Page 12

Learning Session Outline (LSO): DIVEby Anna Collier Page 13

Looking at Mountains: (Intercultural) Learning from a Piagetian Perspectiveby Stephan Winiker Page 14

YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERCULTURAL LEARNING IN THE AFS NETWORK

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This issue explores how to take Intercultural Learning beyond the classroom...even when it takes place in a school setting.

As 2012 comes to an end, AFS faces 2013 with high expectations for an even greater focus on reenergizing its intercultural learning (ICL) and education efforts.

All across the AFS global network this year there was a clear sense of purpose and energy surrounding ICL. AFS member organizations big and small made significant commitments in their efforts to foster this critical aspect of AFS’s identity.

From our annual leadership gathering at the Bangkok World Congress this February, to the 2nd annual regional Intercultural Link Learning Program trainings in Asia-Pacific and Central America-the Carribean in October and November, every day more and more AFSers are enthusiastic about AFS’s reinvigorated approach to intercultural learning.

Intercultural Learning: The Heart & Soul of AFSMELISSA LILES, CHIEF EDUCATION OFFICER, AFS INTERNATIONAL

(IN)FORMAL LEARNINGWhat is the “Hidden Curriculum”?SEE PAGE 3

Experiential Learning BasicsSEE PAGE 9

continued on page 2


The inaugural AFS Academy took place in Istanbul, Turkey in September for 125 AFSers from 40 countries and provided yet another opportunity to highlight ICL as the heart and soul of AFS (page 5). Special treats were a keynote address by ICL-guru Geert Hofstede who also answered some of our questions (page 7), and a day-long training by Tatsushi Arai, of SIT, about intercultural conflict transformation (page 6).

Almost all of AFS’s educational efforts from our ICL exchange programs to internal training offerings rely on Experiential Learning (EL) methods. We believe that integrating learning approaches as EL does, creates deeper wisdom. Find out more about what EL is

(page 9) and why AFS believes in it (page 10), plus founding theorist David Kolb tells us more about how AFS can benefit from EL (page 10).

Finally, whether in India (below) or Brazil (page 8), AFS is dedicated to building partnerships with fellow educational institutions. Relationships established on the principles of mutual respect and benefit expand AFS’s reach far beyond the 13000 international exchange experiences we facilitate each year: In today’s rapidly diversifying world, we realize that intercultural learning skills are as useful in the everyday classroom setting as they are in a cross-cultural exchange program. We are proud to be able to share our

intercultural know-how in our local communities.

With these partnerships in mind, this issue of AFS Intercultural Link challenges all of us to consider just how AFS can help bridge across informal, nonformal and formal learning approaches. See our article on the Hidden Curriculum (page 3) for a provocative perspective on this.

We invite you to read, enjoy, and share your thoughts with us and the greater intercultural learning community by visiting our blog www.afs.org/blog/icl.

Warmly,

For its school-based exchange programs AFS traditionally places students in schools and, in the majority of cases, we currently offer little or no training for the teachers who are in contact with our participants. Therefore, teachers are not aware of the adaptation processes that students undergo and most often they don’t know how to take advantage of exchange students in daily school activities.

During the last weekend in July 2012, AFS India brought together 21 teachers from 10 different cities for a training workshop in experiential and intercultural learning, in order to change the way we do things: instead of

asking, we are giving something first. We hope, in developing partnerships with schools, to lead the way in providing educators and their students with the necessary skills and competencies to live productive and successful lives as citizens of our 21st century inter-connected world.

The teachers arrived on Friday morning and during Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and Sunday morning, they were exposed to experiential learning principles and activities, intercultural learning frameworks and applicability in the classroom setting, and they had the opportunity to better understand adaptation cycles and frameworks.

The educators also learned about formal AFS research and shared their own experiences. The last part of the workshop was dedicated to program design, where we explored together possibilities of engaging the schools and students in current and new

programs. The teachers were surprised by the competencies participants acquire during the AFS experience abroad and the program’s long lasting impact.

The workshop was facilitated by Lucas Welter, AFS Organizational Development Specialist and by Frances Baxter, AFS Australia Volunteer Manager - both of whom are active in the AFS Intercultural Link Learning Program.

Participants enjoyed learning from Fran’s multiple roles in AFS (sending and hosting parent, staff in charge of volunteer development and also AFS long term volunteer) and with the relaxed and playful learning environment that was created. After the workshop, AFS India had follow-up rounds with the participants in order to formally engage those who were interested. AFS India plans to conduct similar workshops every year.

For more information, you can contact [email protected] or visit the AFS Digital ICL Library.

AFS India’s Educators WorkshopLUCAS WELTER, ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AFS INTERNATIONAL


Understanding the Hidden Curriculum The term Hidden Curriculum is from sociology and means the culturally acceptable behaviors that are indirectly taught to society in formal education settings. The term was first used by Philip Jackson (USA) in his work called Life in Classrooms in the late 1960s and has been explored by many education theorists including Paulo Freire (Brazil) and Ivan Illich (Austria, Mexico, Germany).

Unlike a school’s announced educational goals, the Hidden Curriculum is the unstated norms, values and beliefs that are transmitted to students while they are at school in both the formal context (which subjects are studied and how), as well as in informal social relations and daily classroom life.

What makes up the Hidden Curriculum differs between cultures, but could include things such as

• Learning to wait: Is this done quietly, or is everyone allowed to be active?

• Completing work: Is an assignment turned in once and only once or is it

handed in multiple times for revisions before it is considered final?

• Cooperating: Are students encouraged to compete or to share resources?

• Showing respect for teachers and peers: Can students ask questions openly or are they expected to get clarifications elsewhere?

• Being punctual: Does class start exactly at an assigned time when a bell rings or when everyone is comfortably settled into their seats?

Hidden curriculum sees the influence of educational institutions on students in a more profound and comprehensive way, both through and beyond traditional subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics. This can have both positive and negative connotations in the school environment.

On one side, experiential learning is a major part of the Hidden Curriculum where many life-long lessons are gained outside of textbooks in everyday interactions that can help students succeed well beyond secondary school as active members of their communities.

On the other side, the Curriculum may work to reinforce ethnocentric views or structures of unequal economic power. For example, in many societies, it may be common that school rules meant for all are in fact often broken by those students with special connections or status. This practice quietly endorses that there are multiple

classes of people with differing levels of access even when the declared or stated value is equality. Which message do you think is the longer lasting one once school is over?

AFS and the Hidden CurriculumYou might be asking: What does the Hidden Curriculum mean for our participants? How can AFS help them to become successful in a complex school culture that is already often difficult to navigate simply because it is in a new culture?

For AFS, this informal and indirect pedagogy has strong relevance to our work within the diverse global education community. By becoming aware of the Hidden Curriculum and understanding its possible consequences on students who participate in our programs, we can work to reduce the possible polarizing aspects of it.

It is additionally relevant since one of the AFS Educational Goals is that of global concern: generating interest in and concern about world affairs and awareness of one’s choices on others.

What We Can DoAwareness of the socio-cultural lessons being taught silently through formal educational systems can both help AFS program participants more fully understand their host cultures and allow local students and teachers to approach these unconscious lessons in a more critical manner that emphasizes integration and empathy regarding diversity in the classroom and wider society.

AFS can draw attention to assumptions and values in a school’s organizational and larger national

CONCEPTS & THEORIESHidden Curriculum: How Can AFS Work with It?TONYA MURO, DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL OUTREACH & EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS, AFS USA

continued on page 4How would this action be seen in your classroom?


Increased student diversity in classrooms has become a reality over the last decade for teachers around the world. The new make-up of the student body means that traditional approaches to education may be outdated or even irrelevant. As a result, many teachers are searching for ways to adapt their lessons and teaching styles to today’s youth.

Crossing Cultures: Insights from Master Teachers is a collection of essays that addresses the need for a more culturally diverse approach to teaching. The book resulted from a 2003 teachers’ workshop at the University of California (Los Angeles, USA). Topics include: “Teaching cultural sense-making” and “Building multicultural teams: learning to manage the challenges of homogeneity and heterogeneity.”

Designed for practical use, each chapter presents a relevant educational theory and an example exercise to illustrate how the concept is applicable, followed by common challenges faced by educators and ways to overcome them.

For example, Chapter 6, “Context-Culture Interaction: Teaching Thick Descriptions of Culture” by Jill Kleinberg, approaches culture as a social construct. The author’s ideas are followed by an outline of an in-class exercise that can be easily implemented at any level of academia.

The experiential exercise is derived from James P. Spradley’s work, “Participant Observation” (1980) which attempts to make apparent the assumptions we form of what culture is, what it does, and how it comes into existence. Students are

instructed to observe a social setting outside of their own cultural norm and then consider what kind of cultural knowledge, behavior, and artifacts were involved. They report back to the class with a detailed assessment of all three considerations. The separation of the three elements (knowledge, behavior, artifacts) makes different cultural components more identifiable to the students. It is important that their cultural assessment demonstrates critical thinking, something Kleinberg calls a “thick” description of an intercultural situation.

The contributing authors in the book come from different backgrounds, ranging from business to psychiatry, and include intercultural experts—and friends of AFS—such as Dr. Stella Ting-Toomey and Dr. Janet Bennett.

The reading is both intellectually stimulating and accessible, and no matter where in the world they are, readers are invited to develop their own ideas about necessary adaptations to teaching practices and cross-cultural lessons in rapidly changing classrooms and beyond.

BOOK REVIEW

Crossing Cultures: Insights from Master TeachersLAURA SCHAACK, NEWSLETTER PROJECT MANAGER, AFS INTERNATIONAL

culture, while maintaining a respect for cultural sensitivity through experiential learning activities.

1. Teacher trainings:AFS can offer workshops for teachers and administrators to help them analyze the unspoken rules of their school culture, so that they can become more aware of the Hidden Curriculum and what effects it might have on empathy, respect for diversity and classroom dynamics.

2. Reflection with AFS participants: We can address this in our learning sessions and structured activities. For example, in AFS Mid-Stay Orientations, as a part of the cultural adjustment and

culture learning foci, we could incorporate an activity that asks students to observe how their host school practices such as those listed above (learning to wait, completing work, etc.) differ from their home school behaviors. Then, in groups, discuss 1) what values and assumptions might be beneath these, 2) what this might mean in terms of cultural norms or rules, and 3) how these mirror or not the student’s own values.

3. Diversifying AFS programs: As a way of not reinforcing unequal economic structures, AFS can serve a larger percentage of students from underserved communities worldwide through innovative

programming that takes into account the school communities that our participants come from and will be entering into. For example, AFS can facilitate virtual group dialogues between classrooms in remote parts of the world with current AFS exchange students and returnees acting as guest moderators.

The Hidden Curriculum is an inherent presence in all school systems. AFS, through its work with intercultural learning, has the ability increase its audiences’ awareness of it -- leveraging positive aspects while reducing polarizing ones and, ultimately, facilitating more cross-cultural understanding.


The inaugural AFS Academy held in Istanbul from 17-24 September was full of Intercultural Learning (ICL) – but not just culture exchange: Attendees engaged in real conversations around education and our responsibilities as a mission-driven civil service organization to provide emerging global citizens (and ourselves) with more intercultural knowledge and new ways to apply it in our daily lives and work.

The following are some of the ICL features from the two-week event that had, by all accounts, many high points. Look for more to come at the 2013 AFS Academy next November in Italy!

Visit from an Icon: Geert HofstedeGeert Hofstede, a pioneer in the field of understanding intercultural issues, delivered a special keynote speech to kick-off the second week at the Academy. Dr. Hofstede has been a major influential thinker for the last 30 years. His research has resulted in a framework that enables people to articulate their intercultural experiences: The Theory of Cultural Dimensions. The Intercultural Link initiatives at AFS International and around the AFS global network feature Hofstede’s work on a regular basis. See an excerpt of an interview with Geert on page 7 or learn more about his work at www.geerthofstede.eu.

ICL LaboratoryAn interactive “ICL Lab” was constructed in one of the rooms overlooking the Black Sea. Academy attendees visited

this space on coffee breaks and at times, course facilitators moved their sessions into this inspiring learning environment for a change of scenery and boost of energy. The Lab was host to six different exhibits on how ICL is currently being used in AFS and how volunteers and staff can do more back home.

Workshop on Intercultural Conflict TransformationSpecial guest facilitator Dr. Professor Tatsushi (Tats) Arai delivered a full day session and an evening session on conflict transformation across cultures. A professor and practitioner of peace-building and conflict transformation, Professor Arai has published numerable articles on preventing conflict, alternative peace-building methods, and applying creativity in conflict resolution. For more on Professor Arai at the Academy see page 6 or review his research at works.bepress.com/tatsushi_arai.

Education PanelA number of attendees took advantage of a special off-site opportunity to visit a local Turkish school for a presentation and panel discussion titled Society in Motion: Turkish perspectives on the relevance of Intercultural Learning. The event began with opening remarks from Roberto Ruffino and was followed by an engaging debate on how non-profit organizations like AFS can foster curiosity, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking in emerging global citizens.

Questions & AnswersMelissa Liles, AFS’s Chief Education Officer, and Roberto Ruffino, ICL expert and member of many AFS ICL bodies, held a roundtable discussion to address the top 10 most frequently asked questions about ICL. The key message was: All of us are educators.

Starting with the BasicsWhat Every AFSer Should Know About ICL® is a basic introductory course that covers the minimal level of ICL exposure that every AFS volunteer and staff, regardless of role, should have. All AFS organizations will be required to deliver this one-day orientation to their volunteers and staff starting in 2013. At the Academy, thirty AFSers from around the world took part in this international edition, where they learned about fundamentals such as ICL in AFS, Concepts of Culture, Cultural Values & Dimensions, Communication Styles, and Cultural Adaptation.

Intercultural Link Learning Program: Special Leadership Edition (Level 1)15 established and aspiring AFS leaders took part in a four day course that included three days of Learning Program content infused with sessions on leadership styles, plus a fourth workshop-style day where attendees mapped out the varying levels of intercultural knowledge and specialization needed by members of their AFS organizations, then brainstormed and plotted how to incorporate the Learning Program into their National/Partner-level ICL strategies. By the end of October, all attendees will have completed a pre- and post-event Self-Assessment, as well as a post-event Cognitive Assessment.

Considering Organizational CulturesFeaturing a visit from Dr. Hofstede, this course combined ICL and Organizational Development topics. Attendees gained awareness of their own AFS organizational culture, reviewed strengths and weaknesses of different types of leaders and leadership styles, and discovered frameworks for managing changes within one’s organization from a cultural perspective.

Intercultural LearningLAURA KLINE-TAYLOR, INTERCULTURAL LINK LEARNING PROGRAM, AFS INTERNATIONAL

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The workshop by Tatsushi (Tats) Arai was one of many Intercultural Learning trainings offered at the 2012 AFSAcademy and the topic of Intercultural Conflict Transformation attracted a number of participants ready toembark on a day-long learningjourney together.

To start, Professor Arai introduced the approach of Conflict Transformation,which differs from the more commonlyused concepts of conflict resolution and conflict management. Instead, thisapproach assumes that thecontradictions present in every conflict cannot be simply eliminated – they canonly be transformed. A prerequisite of the transformation of a conflict is our willingness to understand each other’sperspective better and theacknowledgement that the underlyingsources of conflicts are deep-seatedassumptions, which affectour behaviour.

By telling his own family’s storyas an example of how ConflictTransformation can work in practice, Professor Arai demonstrated that thereare three practical skills crucial for transforming cultural differences intoopportunities for constructive relationship-building: storytelling,ritualizing and using metaphors and symbols. All of these methods carry feelings, perspectives and values that

help us connect with each other andbuild relationships. Conflict Transformation does notonly apply to interpersonal conflicts; the approach is applicable in social, political, and indeed, culturalconflicts. Sharing experiences from his work in conflict areas includingRwanda, Iraq and Pakistan,Professor Arai presented manyconcrete examples illustrating howcomplex the Conflict Transformation process can be, requiring thoroughknowledge of the local and regionalhistory, understanding of international power relations, and an appreciation of the interconnectedness of societies.

To address the role that civil society can play in Conflict Transformation,Professor Arai asked participants toconsider how a cultural exchangeprogram focused on relationship-building might work. In the case study of the day, participants were asked to design a three week-long program for madrasa leaders from Pakistan visitingthe United States.

The exercise showed that even if wehave a lot of experience and skills gained through our work with AFS, there is still much more to learn. Thetask proved challenging; it was clear that planning activities for theseaudiences required very differentperspectives than those we typically

have when planning activities for AFS’s programs.

The workshop proved how beneficial external collaboration and fresh voicesare for AFS. Not only did we gain newideas to be implemented in our ownwork, we also got a little reminder of what our blind spots are, as well asinsights into another dimension of what “building a more just and peaceful world” looks like.

Originally from Japan, Tatsushi Arai, PhD,D, is Associate,Professor of Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation at the School for International Training (SIT) GraduateInstitute – World Learning, USA, and Visiting Scholar of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, USA. He is a mediator, dialogue facilitator, and trainer in diverse conflict-affected societies.Professor Arai joined us at the AFS Academy on his birthday!

Stay up-to-date on AFS’s take on ICL, including the latest about events and scholarships.

www.afs.org/blog/icl/

Transforming Conflict Across CulturesEVA VÍTKOVÁ, STRATEGY & EDUCATION RELATIONS INTERN, AFS INTERNATIONAL


Geert Hofstede is a Dutch researcher who specialises in organizational culture and management. His contributions to the field of intercultural studies include identifying cultural dimensions and are considered seminal. Dr. Hofstede was the keynote speaker at the AFS Academy for our volunteers and staff in September 2012. We had a chance to sit down with him for a short interview afterwards.

If you were speaking to a layperson, how would you explain intercultural education?

I would explain intercultural education as helping children certainly, from their secondary school onwards—but possibly even before that—to understand that people who come from a different place may have different feelings, emotions, and judgements and also act differently, but there is nothing wrong with that. It is just that we all react on the basis of the things we have learned, which depends on where we come from.

There’s a famous French saying, “Vérité en-deça des Pyrénées, erreur au-delá.” (Blaise Pascal). It means, “There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees which are falsehoods on the other.” This saying means that actually there is nothing wrong with people on the other side of the mountains, but it so happens that there are truths on one side which are not truths on the other side.

If you start dealing with people who come from the other side, it helps enormously if you have learned this at an early age. It doesn’t mean that our opinion about truth will have to change; it just means that that we

have to know that if we are dealing with other people, we have to accept that their opinion is different from ours. And that if we want to work together, we have to find a way of working which allows both of us to have our own opinion.

If we were all accepting of our peers’ viewpoint, wouldn’t we live in a more peaceful world?

Yes, yes. Not only a more peaceful world, but also probably a more productive world—of course that depends on what you consider productive. I don’t mean mass production, but it would produce probably more ideas, and more ways of preserving what you’ve produced. But, all of this has enhanced the operation between people who are born and raised in different places. They therefore have different...the word I use is “values,” but, they are emotions, judgements, and ways of acting.

Is there anything that you can share from your research that would help the citizens of [increasingly diverse nations] to think about their interactions with their fellow neighbours and colleagues?

One thing, I suppose, is to start finding out what the differences might be between the various [people within a given country]. I think that few people will be surprised that people from the city have sometimes

different judgements than people from the countryside. One of the suggestions I can give is to ask the question, “To what extent does the place people grow up affect their thinking?”

Our recent research has come from the [World Values Survey] data-base which is able to also look at internal differences of countries. We have an article which is about to be published that shows that different groups inside countries still have a common component. The differences within countries are nearly always smaller than the differences between

countries—even where you wouldn’t expect it.

What kind of impact do cultural differences

create in education? Are there any positive or negative outcomes that you would highlight?

May I re-propose [the question] and say: “What is the impact of education on cultural differences?” Because I think it is fairly important that teachers acquire insight into the origins of cultural differences and the effects. Teachers have a very important role in implanting or not implanting prejudices in their students. Sometimes we focus very much on the small differences we see around us, not being aware that there are much bigger differences around which we are very easily bridging by establishing the right type of context for institutions.

“Teachers have a very important role in implanting or not implanting prejudices

in their students.”

One-on-One with Dr. Geert HofstedeDAMAYONTI SENGUPTA, ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST, AFS INTERNATIONAL


AFS Brazil and School RelationsLAURA SCHAACK,

NEWSLETTER PROJECT MANAGER, AFS INTERNATIONAL

AFS Brazil has taken considerable steps toward meeting the 2010-2013 AFS Network Intercultural Learning (ICL) strategy, Ensuring our Expertise. Today, volunteers and staff are focusing on incorporating intercultural concepts into the daily vocabulary and processes of AFS Brazil. The aim is to help them and the audiences they serve take on a more global view. These are three initiatives the organization has undertaken to strengthen their educational standing.

ICL for Educators: On 1 September 2012, AFS Brazil conducted their first seminar for teachers dedicated exclusively to intercultural learning in Natal, Brazil. In addition to AFS know-how, the seminar incorporated insights

recently gained by AFSers from the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication (SIIC), in Portland, Oregon, USA and Cultural Detective© tools. The key topic was intercultural self-discovery. Based on teacher feedback, the seminar was considered a success and the new curriculum will be applied to other school trainings that AFS Brazil already conducts. These events have a significant potential impact: They not only give new skills to the educators who attend, but ultimately also help all of their students (including AFSers) since participating teachers and schools will be better prepared to work with cultural diversity in their classrooms.

Institutional Relations: In order to further improve school relations and encourage more teachers to learn about ICL, AFS Brazil is partnering with a federal educational body, the National Institute of Educational Studies and Investigations (Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas

Educacionais) on a larger-scale project. This partnership will extend AFS Brazil’s reach so that they will cooperate with one governmental organization that has the power to influence many schools across the country as well as national curricula.

Online Initiatives: In 2011, AFS Brazil launched its Portal de Edução(Education Portal), an online tool to teach intercultural theories and their application to volunteers and staff who may not be able to attend in-person training events. Given the size of the country, online ICL trainings are seen as critical to expanding the organization’s reach and message.

To get access to the portal, check outhttp://www.afs.org.br/

AFS Intercultural Programs is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world.

We pursue our mission by providing quality intercultural learning opportunities for a growing number of young people, families, other stakeholders and wider audiences, thus developing an inclusive community of global citizens determined to build bridges between cultures.

Real life experiential learning, supported by structured reflection, is the core of our programs. We endeavor to link our intercultural learning opportunities to the defining global issues facing humanity. We reach out to past, current and future participants, volunteers, and other stakeholders using the media and technology they use.

Volunteers and volunteerism are who we are. Our organization brings about changes in lives through and for our global community of volunteers.

We are recognized as an educational organization by schools and the appropriate authorities. We work to create a regulatory environment that supports our programs.

As a learning organization, we welcome change and critical thinking. We are innovative and entrepreneurial in advancing the strategic directions, working together with others whenever appropriate.

To learn more about our global network and get involved today, visit www.afs.org.

Our Mission & Vision


As members of an organization that facilitates learning – in our case learning how to successfully communicate across and within different cultures – AFSers have a responsibility to understand the fundamental principles of pedagogy, or how learning works.

A key theorist and expert on this subject is Dr. David Kolb (see our interview with him on page 10). In his work about Experiential Learning first published almost 30 years ago, Kolb identified four dominant learning styles that can be found all around the world.

The Kolb Learning Cycle describes four interlinked stages, or ways, in which people make meaning. Although most people and even certain cultures have a preference for one way over the others all four are important for thorough learning. They include:

Concrete ExperienceWe learn by being involved and by remembering or feeling this experience. This is the primary way

we learn and the basis of all other stages of learning.

Why is it important? Experiences build real-world knowledge and emphasize the relevance of the content. Experiencing surprises or feelings related to content helps connect learning to solving real-world problems.

Reflective ObservationWhen we think about or “watch” our experiences and get more information about them in context, we can deepen the understanding of our experiences.

Why is it important? To reflect and think about our experiences can make us aware of new and different aspects that are important to consider. It opens our eyes to details and helps us to suspend quick judgments.

Abstract ConceptualizationWe – consciously and subconsciously – theorize, or classify our experiences, then connect or compare them with other, similar things we have learned.

Why is it important? To organize our knowledge into general categories enables us to see the bigger picture and to identify rules and patterns. These generalizations can provide orientation. They can also help us to transfer our knowledge from one context to another.

Active ExperimentationWe try new things and learn by doing. This way, we test our hypotheses and

put our knowledge into practice.

Why is it important? When we apply theories and test our hypotheses, we can expand our world view and start to learn about new and unexpected aspects of the problems we are trying to solve. This offers a way of changing one’s perspective.

Certain instruction methods correspond to the different Learning Cycle stages and to maximize learning, facilitators should engage a mix of different styles appropriate to the topic and the audience. Find out more here in the next issue of this newsletter.

References• www.learningfromexperience.com• Experiential Learning…for Friends

of AFS (2012)• Joy, Simy & David A. Kolb, “Are

there cultural differences in learning style?” International Journal of Intercultural Relations, vol 33, pp 69-85 (2008)

DID YOU KNOW? Recent studies confirm that there are cultural preferences for learning styles.

For example, high-context cultures tend to prefer Concrete Experience, while low-context cultures are inclined towards Abstract Conceptualization learning.

graphic by Lucas Welter (2012)

NEWS YOU CAN USE

Kolb’s Experiential Learning Styles: The Basics


David Kolb is a U.S. American psychologist and educational theorist best known for his theories on learning styles and cycles focused on experiential learning. He has a PhD in social psychology from Harvard University, U.S.A., and is co-founder and chairman of Experienced Based Learning Systems Inc., which recently released the latest version of the Kolb Learning Style Inventory 4.0.

How did you get involved in

the intercultural field?

It was when I first became a professor

at MIT’s Sloan School of Management,

right after completing my PhD in social

psychology from Harvard. I was

teaching organizational psychology by

lecturing to graduate students on the

psychological topics I found fascinating

but they were getting bored. So, as they

say, necessity is the mother of invention.

At the same time, I was also working for

the Peace Corps (an international

volunteer organization based in the

United States) back when they first

started, running a self-assessment

workshop for volunteers. Back then, the

Peace Corps used psychologists to

study volunteers, to see if they were fit

to go overseas. The self-assessment we

proposed was based on experiential

learning. We ran training programs for

volunteers that gave them experiences

such as teaching and working in inner

city neighborhoods. The volunteers

were helped to reflect about how they

handled these experiences, and then

decide if they felt they would be

successful with work like this in their

prospective host country. The program

had a positive result and we were

successful in

reducing the

number of

volunteers who

returned early

because they

couldn’t handle

the experience. It

was then that I decided to apply the

experiential learning cycle in my lecture

courses. I developed exercises based on

the group dynamics theory of Kirk

Lewin and my work in the Peace Corps,

and then applied them to my classes.

Since the original study groups

were primarily U.S. Americans,

have you applied your model

and/or found it relevant in

other cultures?

Yes, in subsequent years I used it in a

number of different countries. If you go

to our website,

www.learningfromexperience.com,

there is a section called the Research

Library that has a bibliography of

research papers. There are over 3000

articles published by researchers from

all over the world. Many of the papers

are on intercultural topics that would be

of interest to many of your readers.

Which aspect of intercultural

learning or communication

has your work primarily

focused on?

In my work with experiential learning,

I noticed that people seemed to prefer

and be most comfortable with different

stages of the learning cycle. I coined the

term “learning style” to describe these

differences and developed the Learning

Style Inventory, which has become a

very popular tool for individuals to

understand how they

learn best. From my

point of view,

however, the most

important idea is the

learning cycle and the

idea that it’s a

process--That you

become more effective at learning by

managing your own learning process.

This is the most powerful idea.

What do you wish more people

would understand about

intercultural learning?

For me, it is the idea of experiencing. I

guess the big idea about experiential

learning is that you have to experience

to learn. Many times people don’t learn

because they don’t allow themselves to

experience. They have distractions and

preoccupations and expectations that

cause them to be trapped in their head

telling themselves their own narrative.

In addition they can actually create a

social world that preserves their

narrative. Expatriate managers, for

example, often withdraw into a group

of their countrymen that limits

experiencing and learning about the

host culture. Experiencing is a key part

of the cycle of learning that has been

overlooked. Some theorists have left out

Experience altogether, while others

confuse it with Action.

It is also important to realize the central

role educators can take to help people

go through the stages of the learning

cycle. When transitioning from

Experience to Reflection, an educator

plays the role of Facilitator, for

BEYOND AFS ICL NEWSInterview with David KolbBASED ON AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNA COLLIER, MANAGER OF INTERCULTURAL LEARNING SERVICES, AFS INTERNATIONAL

“...you become more effective at learning by managing your own

learning process.”

continued on page 11


example. In the move from the Concrete

realm to Reflexive, one needs to be

facilitated. You need to draw people out,

understand them and develop a

relationship so that they feel comfortable

saying and revealing their innermost

thoughts and feelings. Abstraction

requires a teaching and

expert role, so that you

can guide learners

forward. The Action

phase requires standards-

setting and evaluating

from the educator, so that

you can say ‘you need to

know this, and this, and

this…’ The transition from

Action back to Experience needs

coaching. These four educator roles are

all necessary to take people through the

learning cycle.

What inspired the updating to

the Learning Style Inventory

4.0 this year?

It stemmed from feedback from users.

Four styles didn’t adequately describe

people’s styles. Some scored in the

middle, so some styles were in between.

It’s a result from years of experience

with the instrument; we’ve given it a

sharper resolution. In addition we have

added a measure of learning flexibility to

emphasize that learning styles are not

fixed traits but dynamic states of

learning that we all go through. We also

changed the wording to be more

understandable and user-friendly.

What would you suggest for

people new to the ICL field to

read as they get started?

A great article would be “Using

Experiential Learning Theory to

Promote Student Learning and

Development in Programs of Education

Abroad,” which I co-authored with

Angela M. Passarelli. It was published in

a brand new book that came out in June

2012 by Michael Vande Berg, along with

Michael Paige and Kris Hemming Lou:

Student Learning Abroad: What Our Students Are Learning, What They're Not, and What We Can Do About It. Another

interesting focus is “Deliberate

Experiential Learning” that involves

mindful management of one’s learning

identity, learning relationships and

deliberate practice. There is a paper on

this on our website

www.learningfromexperience.com, as

well as papers on mindfulness and

experiential learning. You can

deliberately choose to learn,

and educators can help by

making you aware of that.

What are the hot topics

in ICL these days? And

who do you consider to

be producing the more

intriguing thoughts that in turn

advance your own

contributions?

Great new theories have been produced

by James Zull in his books The Art of Changing the Brain (2002) and From Brain to Mind (2011). He says concrete

experiences come from sensory

receptors in the brain, to the pre-

temporal lobe, to the frontal lobe, then

into the action region of the brain as the

learning cycle progresses. The Student Learning Abroad book that I mentioned

also has a lot of great articles in it that I

would recommend.

“Many times people don’t learn because they don’t allow themselves to experience.

They have distractions and preoccupations and expectations that

cause them to be trapped in their head...”

“I started to work for AFS Hungary five years ago. Being the ICL Responsible of my organization, I work to incorporate Intercultural Learning (ICL) into our materials and trainings, and am involved in the development of AFS Hungary’s ICL strategy. As a national AFS Hungary trainer, European Pool of Trainers (EPOT) member, and soon-to-be an AFS Intercultural Link Learning Program International Qualified Trainer, I regularly conduct trainings related to leadership, communication, conflict management, and school relations and intercultural theory. I am also currently studying at a coaching academy and will be integrating the knowledge and skills I gain from the Learning Program into our new national mentor program.“

*ICL Responsibles are AFS volunteers or staff members who are responsible for staying up-to-date on issues related to education and intercultural learning for their AFS organizations.

MEET AN ICL RESPONSIBLE*

Csilla FodorFROM AFS HUNGARY


From 30 August to 2 September 2012, 23 key volunteers from eight local chapters plus staff members of AFS Peru met in Huanchaco Beach, Trujillo to participate in an Intercultural Learning (ICL) induction and strategy workshop.

Participants became familiar with ICL projects happening at the international level in AFS and had the chance to review basic policy standards such as the AFS Educational Goals, the results of different AFS learning impact studies, and intercultural theories such as Hofstede´s Cultural Dimensions. They also worked on envisioning

images of AFS Peru’s future that can emerge as a result of increased focus on ICL projects within the organization.

AFS Peru added an interesting dynamic to the event: an “Intercultural Dialogue” session where participants were invited to speak on behalf of different subcultures within Peruvian society and discuss the country’s internal diversity.

Beginning to learn from one another by expressing and dispelling stereotypes

and assumptions among people from the capital area, the jungle, the Andes, and from small coastal cities. This exercise was a first step towards better understanding and improving interaction with other cultures.

Here is how the intercultural dialogue exercise was conducted:

1. The entire group was divided into four smaller groups.

2. Each group was invited to think and name at least four existing subcultures in Peruvian society and choose one to represent. In this case, the following subcultures were chosen: "Limeños" (people living in Lima, the capital city), selváticos (people from the jungle), the Andean peasants, and people from coastal cities.

3. Once every group had chosen its subculture, they were told about the other three and invited to prepare at least four questions or assumptions about these that usually are not openly expressed in face-to-face interactions.

4. For every round of 15 minutes, two of the subcultures participated in a dialogue based on the prepared questions. The other two subcultures observed and listened and then

created questions for a final sequence in which they shared their feelings, opening the dialogue to everybody.

Through intense dialogue, active listening and reflection, the participants realized that their assumptions about other Peruvian populations were not always accurately founded. As a result of the exercise, they found they could develop open attitudes and be more tolerant and appreciative of those who are different – something that can apply more broadly, including to AFS students from foreign national cultures.

The exercise was very revealing in terms of how stereotypes and assumptions lead to miscommunications and unsatisfactory interactions. It also was a good opportunity to discover vibrant aspects of our own culture that otherwise can remain covered by frozen mental images about each other. All participants expressed their satisfaction at the end of the exercise and that it helped them feel less ethnocentric.

AFS Peru is committed to move forward and is preparing new ICL activities, now with the support of our key volunteers fully engaged in these efforts.

AFS Peru’s ICL TrainingsLISBETH SÁNCHEZ, NATIONAL DIRECTOR, AFS PERU

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”

- Confucius

AFS Peru volunteers and staff


For most of us, everyday life and work present us with situations that involve an intercultural component. When deciding what kinds of responses or behaviors are the most appropriate for these interactions, it is helpful to have models to guide us. Several intercultural theorists have outlined practical steps to use when analyzing intercultural interactions, all with the elements of active listening, observation and delayed reaction in common.

This Learning Session Outline (LSO) from our education department is adapted from Janet Bennett and Milton Bennett’s activity: Description, Interpretation, Evaluation (D.I.E.). Our version of the activity described has an additional step, verify. In the AFS context, we often do have the ability to verify with a cultural “insider” (host family, colleague, etc.) if we have correctly interpreted an interaction.

SESSION GOALThis session aims to develop one’s ability to describe, understand and verify what is occurring in an intercultural interaction, before evaluating what an appropriate response will be.

LEARNING OBJECTIVESAfter this session, participants will be able to: • Distinguish between descriptions,

interpretations, and evaluations.• Produce neutral descriptions of

situations and/or images.• Better respond (effectively and

appropriately) within an intercultural interaction.

• Explain the importance of the D I V E model to AFS work.

SPACE REQUIREMENTSAny room arrangement, with a flipchart or white board visible to all participants.

PARTICIPANTSThis session can be conducted with any size group; however, smaller groups (4-10) allow for more conversation and interaction.

NECESSARY MATERIALS Flipchart & paper or whiteboard

Colored pens/markers

STEP-BY-STEP DESCRIPTIONInteractive Session (30 minutes or more, depending on number of participants and time available)

1. INTRODUCTION (5 min)

a. The facilitator introduces the session by explaining to participants that, since we are regularly presented with situations that involve an intercultural (not only international, but also intra-national) component, it is important that we have strategies for when we are confronted with unclear circumstances or when something feels “strange.” One such strategy is called D I V E, which stands for: Describe, Interpret, Verify, Evaluate.

b. The facilitator writes the letters D I V E on the flipchart and draws lines, dividing each letter into its own column.

D I V E

c. The facilitator explains that this strategy reminds us of the order that we should process events, situations, and even images when in an ambiguous situation in order to not react based on our culturally-conditioned assumptions, but instead consider alternative explanations. This order is:1) DESCRIBE = What I see (only

observed facts)2) INTERPRET = What I think (about

what I see)3) VERIFY = What others think (about

what I see)4) EVALUATE = What I feel (about what I

think – positive or negative) and what my response should be

2. ACTIVITY: D I V E (20-60 min)a. The facilitator asks participants for one

example of an intercultural interaction that involves a misunderstanding

and/or confusion. S/he may wish to prepare a personal story ahead of time, in case participants either do not feel comfortable sharing or cannot think of an example. *Remember that intercultural misunderstandings are not always obvious as such, so many scenarios fall into this category.*

b. As the participant describes his/her incident to the group, the facilitator writes the responses into the corresponding columns. For example, if the participant says that s/he received a phone call, this would be written under “describe”. Then, if s/he states that the woman on the phone was angry, this would go under “interpretation” because it is no longer a neutral fact.

c. After the participant finishes sharing his/her example, the facilitator helps the others walk through the model to see if the steps were done in the correct order and if each was done appropriately.

d. If the example was not analyzed in the correct order according to the D I V E (as it often is not, without significant practice), the facilitator leads a discussion of what should have been done instead and how this might have affected the outcome of the interaction. This discussion is very important.

e. If time permits, other real-life incidents can be analyzed.

3. CLOSING (10 min)a. All participants should be encouraged to

think of an applicable recent example—and encouraged to apply it moving forward in their AFS work or otherwise. To conclude the session, the facilitator leads a group discussion on:• In what situations could it be applied?• Who would benefit from using this

model in AFS? How?

REFERENCES Description, Interpretation, Evaluation (D.I.E.) www.intercultural.org/die.php

Learning Session Outline (LSO)Describe (D), Interpret (I), Verify (V), Evaluate (E)ANNA COLLIER,

MANAGER OF INTERCULTURAL LEARNING SERVICES,

AFS INTERNATIONAL


Stephan Winiker studied Pedagogical Science and Anthropology at the University of Zurich and recently completed his thesis on intercultural learning as a part of volunteering with AFS. In this article, Stephan shares his views on how Piaget’s developmental theories and building intercultural competence are interrelated.

If you show a child a relief or model of three mountains with different heights from one position, let us say “Pos. 1” on the graphic below, and then ask them to choose among three pictures showing the relief from different perspectives (Pos. 1, Pos. 2, and Pos. 3) to select the one corresponding to her current view, the child will choose the correct one.

If you then have the child move to a second position (Pos. 2) and ask her to again choose the picture showing the relief the way it looked when she was standing at Pos. 1, they will instead choose the picture corresponding to their current view on the relief: Pos. 2, not the correct one (Pos. 1).

This and many other similar experiments conducted by Jean Piaget at the beginning of the 20th century led him to believe that children are inherently egocentric and that it takes time and a lot of social interaction to make it possible for them to see the world from different angles or – to now get closer to intercultural learning – points of view.

Piaget himself applied this principle not only to perceptions and concepts of the physical world, but also to moral development.

I believe that this claim offers a fundamental truth for our understanding of intercultural learning and communication: It takes a lot of effort to look at the

world from a different perspective! To learn to do this, it is not enough to tell people what the world would look like, if they were looking from “over there.” Rather, it is necessary for them to actually go there and look at it directly from that perspective.

Now you could say that you knew this already and that Piaget might have been an interesting guy and a good psychologist for his time, but that it has since been proven that children are far more capable then he assumed. But this, I believe, would be shortsighted. In his experiments as well as in those of his followers and even his critics, Piaget articulated a very important insight: To learn something, to overcome their current limitations – one of those being egocentricity – children need to interact with concrete objects!

Only in a second step, and most probably only when older, are they able to do things “just in their heads,” And even when individuals begin to be able to operate in an abstract sense, they still start by imagining concrete objects or concrete situations. It is only afterwards that they can create more abstract representations.

The room for this article is too limited to get into the many ramifications this has for learning and intercultural learning, so please allow me to take a little shortcut and be a bit imprecise in my conclusion, which is: As learning starts from concrete situations and as it is an effort to form abstractions from them, knowledge always keeps some aspects directly linked to the situation in which it was learned.

These aspects are cognitive and behavioral, as well as affective. In turn, I believe this means that learning about intercultural learning has little to do with intercultural learning. They are two very different practical objects or constructs – they feel different and they are different types of knowledge.

This means, there is no easy way from intercultural learning theory to intercultural sensitivity, there is no shortcut from the classroom to the field. To obtain intercultural competence, there is only experience combined with thorough (very thorough) reflection and repeated practice!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Looking at Mountains: (Intercultural) Learning from a Piagetian PerspectiveSTEPHAN WINIKER, DIRECTOR OF ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT & SERVICES,

AFS SWITZERLAND


YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERCULTURAL LEARNING IN THE AFS NETWORK Intercultural Learning Work Group Irid Agoes (AFS Indonesia)Annette Gisevius (AFS Germany) Rosario Gutierrez (AFS Colombia)Melissa Liles, Chair (AFS International)Johanna Nemeth (AFS Austria)Roberto Ruffino (AFS Italy)Lucas Welter (AFS International)

Newsletter Editor: Melissa LilesNewsletter Manager: Laura SchaackDesign & Graphics: AFS Branding & Marketing TeamContributing Writers: Anna Collier, Charlotte Steinke

AFS members are invited to submit proposals for articles, news items and intercultural activities with accompanying graphics or photos for consideration in future issues of AFS Intercultural Link. Submissions can be AFS-specific or part of the larger Intercultural Learning (ICL) field. Simply send your submissions to us at AFS International: [email protected]

Call for Submissions

Questions or [email protected]

© 2012 AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICL Field Conferences & Event Updates

December 2012

Januarry / February / Marrch 2013

WERA Focal Meeting: Research on Education and Learning Through a Worldwide Lens. 2-6 December; Sydney, Australiahttp://www.weraonline.org/

The Forum on Education Abroad: First European Conference. 5-7 December; Dublin, Irelandhttp://www.forumea.org/Dublin2012.cfm

International Conference of Intercultural Education in Indigenous Contexts (ICIECI). 10-13 December; Temuco, Chilehttp://www.observatorio.cl/node/6206

The Seventh Annual Learning & Teaching Conference: "Embracing Diversity". 9 January; Sheffield, UK http://www.shef.ac.uk/lets/cpd/conf/2013

3rd Conference of Indian Ocean Comparative Education Society (IOCES). Theme: Challenging education for future change. 21-23 January; Khon Kaen University, Thailandhttp://www.pgis.lk/ioces/conference.html

3rd International Conference on the Development & Assessment of Intercultural Competence. 26-29 January; Tucson, AZ, USA http://aaal.org/cde.cfm?event=352185

SIETAR India's 5th Annual Conference: “From Internationalization to Intercultural Competence”. 2-3 February; Mumbai, India http://www.sietarindia.org/conferences.html

The Intercultural Communication Institute’s The Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) Workshop. 8 February; Portland, OR, USA http://www.intercultural.org/gci-seminars.php

Interuniversity Centre for International Educational Programmes (ICIEP)- Twentry-third International Education Fair. 16-17 February; Moscow & Saint Petersburg, Russiahttp://www.iciep.ru/www/about.cfm?lang=eng

Conference on Intercultural Relations. 14-15 March; Washington D.C., USA http://www.american.edu/sis/imi/conference/

Families in Global Transition. 22-23 March; Silver Spring, Maryland, USA http://www.figt.org/2013_conference

East Asia Regional Council of Schools Annual Teacher Conference. 28-30 March; Shanghai, China http://www.earcos.org/etc2013/

If you are aware of upcoming conferences in the intercultural area, please advise us at [email protected]

AFS Intercultural Link news magaizne, volume 3 issue 4 - global edition

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