EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT CULTURAL …



Education for Students of Different Cultural Backgrounds

Assoc. Professor MARGARET C. PERIVOLIOTIS,

Senior lecturer Harris Ioannou,

Barbara Toumazatou

Technological Educational Institution (TEI) of Athens,

Department of Graphic Arts and Design,

Technological Educational Institution (TEI) of Athens,

Agiou Spyridonos str. Egaleo, 12210 Athens,

GREECE

Abstract: - The paper presents our research that investigates the possibilities of developing a positive trans-cultural Education methodology that reveals the underlying values behind cultural exchange and cultural clash in the Greek and European reality. Inspiration and starting point of this work were the numerous multicultural foreign students that Greece received through the Socrates/Erasmus exchanges during the last two decades and also from the families of political and economical refugees. We will present the adapted pedagogical methodology in the Greek international classroom that succeeded in revealing the different cultural data of our multicultural students, along with the role of the supervisor and of modern technology in this process. Additionally we will examine the possible, conscious or subconscious, influences of the students’ cultural backgrounds, diversities and heritages on the educational process and the influence of globalization, via the communication technologies, on the students’ sensibility and creativity. Examples from our research and the teaching programs will be provided, including thoughts of participants from different countries and continents.

Key words: Education and cultural background, International students, Students from minorities, Educational systems, Design education.

Introduction

Internationalisation and interculturality go hand in hand and students and teachers from different cultures come and act together in the classroom. The European borders are open for more than fifteen years. A period of changes in the political circumstances resulted in changes in the cultural climate. Globalisation has increased the diversity of expression through the contact with other cultures.

Over the centuries, diverse local cultures have been spreading throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and all around the world, inspiring, founding and cultivating, in this way, the national cultural heritage of each area. The advancement of technology, the economic imperatives and the cultural developments have brought about dramatic transformations in the organization of education, its methods and results. In parallel, the cultural routes stimulate contemporary professional creativity, by providing a suitable forum for exchange of information and experiences, as well as insight in the diversity and the cultural development of people from other continents. The use of a particular designs is linked to tradition and

reflects unchanged believes, customs and hierarchies, often carrying spiritual meaning.

In certain parts of the world and during specific historical eras there used to be - and still is in many places - a complex relationship between designs and native identity, connected to aspects such as culture, heritage, religion, social status and caste. Political circumstances changed greatly during the last decade and affected the cultural climate. The question that arises is about the power of culture and heritage, as a generating source for innovative design, in relation to our technical, computerised and globalise world.

The paper examines pedagogical practices in the international classroom. We investigated how cultural differences can be made productive, and how we can develop pedagogical methods, which reveal the underlying values behind both cultural exchange and cultural clash. We also looked for examples of best practice in education from a new perspective. By answering questions such as ‘What is necessary to create a real meeting of cultures?’ and ‘What is the role of the supervisor in this process?’ we wanted to develop strategies for a trans-cultural education.

Furthermore, the results of globalisation and of the adaptation of technologically oriented education are also part of our research and examples are provided from our teaching programs. The thoughts and remarks of participants originating from different countries or continents and with different cultural identities are part of this work. The results of this research are intended to contribute to the practice of design as well as to the active design education field.

2 Teaching and learning

The rapid changes and increased complexity of today’s world present new challenges and put new demands on our education system. There has been generally a growing awareness of the necessity to improve the preparation of students for productive functioning in the continually changing and highly demanding environment. In confronting this challenge it is necessary to consider the complexity of the education system itself and the multitude of problems that must be addressed. The approaches to teaching can be categorized according to major educational goals that affect teaching/learning strategies. On one hand teachers view the goal of education as the transmission of knowledge. On the other hand the goal of education is viewed as facilitating students’ autonomous learning and self-expression.

Learning cultures vary greatly. The usual way in the design field is the individual, studio-based culture, while design students are more accustomed to learning through teamwork, collaborative activities and peer assessment. Some disciplines, such as History of Art, offer a more traditional, academic approach to study, while in others, such as product design, learners prefer a more practical, visual, approach. Learning styles differ in line, since design learners are ‘visual thinkers’. They appreciate materials, which are well conceived visually, but they can be critical or dismissive of those, which may not meet their aesthetic preferences. They also respond well to materials or activities that provide them with the stimulus to create something. The occurrence of dyslexia in art and design does not affect their study. Many gifted students who use the new, visually oriented technologies are dyslexic or have other academic learning difficulties. Currently, art and design students are learning to use a range of tools, among which, the most popular are Web and e-mail services.

The first action of the research team was to interview students on their best ways of learning. The results lead towards four primary processes being involved in an overlapping way:

Wanting to learn,

Learning by doing,

Learning from feedback and

Digesting learning materials.

Further questions about the place and the time of learning, revealed that most people considered that they learn best:

-At their own pace;

-At times and places of their own choosing;

-Often with other people around, especially fellow-learners;

-When they feel in control of their learning.

Although it can be argued that in the design field most learning happens “independently”, this does not degrade the role of the instructor. On the contrary, instructors help learning to take place by:

On th -Providing learners with resource material,

-Providing learners with chances to test their learning,

-Giving learners feedback on their progress,

-Helping learners to make sense of what they have learned.

The greatest part of learning is independent learning. Some examples of independent students’ learning in action are the following:

-In the case that students learn from lectures, much of the actual learning takes place after the event.

-In the case that students learn through practical work, most of their learning is done in an individual pace.

-In the case that students learn from learning resource materials, most of their learning is done independently.

-In the case that students learn from open learning materials, they are essentially learning at their own pace and in their own ways.

-In the case that students learn from each other, the methods used have all the features of independent learning.

Another great part of learning is resource-based. Learning resources take many forms, including human resources (tutors, fellow-students) and information-type resources (books, databases, on-line databanks, learning packages, lecture notes, manuals). For successful learning to take place, it is important that students have sufficient motivation to learn. Additional parameters for successful learning are:

-Learning resource materials should be sufficiently attractive and interesting,

-Independent learning should rely on practice,

-Effective learning resource materials should provide students with carefully chosen tasks and exercises,

-Students need feedback on the progress of their independent learning,

-Students that learn independently need opportunities to reflect on what they have learned.

Traditionally, the most important types of learning resources used to be paper-based, particularly books, journal articles, handout materials and the student notes. These were the easiest ways to compile information, from which students could develop their knowledge. Paper-based media were also the primary means of getting students to learn by doing, from tasks, exercises and assignments. Nowadays, the range of media available to support student learning is extended due to many technological developments, and includes:

-Interactive computer-based packages that use a variety of formats,

-Interactive computer-based communication media that include computer conferencing, electronic mail, on-line databases, and the Internet,

-Media-based resource material, such as videotapes, audiotapes, and practical kits,

-Applications of communication media, such as telephone tutoring, teleconferencing, and video-conferencing.

In the context of learning from each other, with or without high-tech media, important learning outcomes can be achieved through games, simulations and role-play exercises.

E-learning and distance education courses need to be designed in such a way that learners with different backgrounds and preferred learning approaches will feel motivated and gain the best possible learning results from such courses. It is a challenge for instructional designers of online/distance education courses to determine learners’ preferred learning approaches and related social and cultural issues, and to design learning environments to meet these needs. Designers of such programs should consider cultural differences in their design as students of different cultural backgrounds may have different perspectives and interpretations of learning content (Driscoll, 2000; Gayeski, et al., 2002; Moshinskie, 2001).

Keeping in mind all the aforementioned factors, we designed our case study including processes and resources that assisted the multicultural participating students to undertake research and learn in an effective way, concentrating on the learning side of the teaching-learning equation.

3 The Case Study

The case study is an experiment that investigates the potential - conscious or subconscious - influence of the students’ cultural heritage on design development. In addition, it examines the influence of modern technology and of globalisation, via the communication technologies, on the designer’s sensibility and creativity. This phenomenon, novel to Greek reality but common to most European countries, remains problematic and research-worthy. We analysed how advanced students with different cultural backgrounds, but with education of a similar level, approached and completed a specific assignment. The study also examines to which extent the presented results were influenced by the students’ cultural identities and heritage.

This research experiment began in the 90s. The evidence presented in this work come from a number of sources that have been collected during this period and are based on exchanges between students and staff (through the Socrates, Erasmus and Tempus educational programmes), as well as on projects by Greek and foreign students from families of economical refuges. Interviews were conducted and experimental assignments were undertaken by a number of students. Thirty students, from different countries and cultures, participated in this work. The use of a large diversity of regional and cultural participants, form the basis to develop future model examples, based on the possibilities of teaching students of different cultural heritage. The research presented here, can potentially be used for future design education, associated with local regions, using ethnic cultures and identities as a possible resource.

3.1 Research Approach

The research study took place in the Department of Graphic Arts and Design of TEI of Athens, Greece. The experiment was arranged in groups of one, two or three participants, according to their wish and cultural background. All students were asked to propose a product design, for household or professional use inspired by their present cultural inputs. They all had to follow a similar work procedure that lasted the same period of time but not within the same academic semester. International students from “Socrates”, “Erasmus” and “Tempus” programs participated in the research together with students from political/economical refugees’ families living in Greece. All were encouraged to participate in the experimental projects together with their Greek fellow students. An important issue was the involvement of every individual in activities that would allow them to approach the requested information and gain access to data. A prompt, virtual access to the places and people of their choice was offered to the students through a combination of activities and visits, as a part of their education programme. The activities were categorised as follows:

-Mental or scientific activities: access to historical and contemporary sources and interviews with experts of their present region.

-Physical activities: visits and informal walks to cultural, architectural and scenic monuments, natural and cultural sites, collections, workshops and businesses, all around Greece, in order to achieve the maximum information input of their present environment.

3.2 Methodology

The first step was to employ a data selection method by asking all participants to photograph or sketch and analyse all forms and items that inspired them to visualize and create a new product. The second step was to encourage participants to come up with ideas and design elements based on the selected photo-sketching work. Written notes, remarks, specifications of ideas and statements accompanied the sketches and representations, visualizing in this way, the emotional inputs of each particular participant and defining the differences as well as the similarities of their mental processes.

3.3 Teaching methodology

The adapted teaching methodology was composed of the following main parts:

- Collection of photographic data and personal sketches, selected by the participants during the first investigating part of their assignment and accompanied by written reports of the students’ impressions, feelings and ideas

- Student Presentation and Analysis of the selected data, within the scope of our teaching projects,

- Evaluation of the data by the research team,

- New product design proposals based on the adaptation of modern technology, from the previously developed data, with a wide range of possibilities, as well as examples of multiple potential applications. The designs used in our projects, in most cases, are developed via computer programmes, thus offering work interest, versatility and variety of possibilities and applications.

- Parallel market research, conducted in order to decide upon the projects’ parameters.

-Final selections, made upon the originality of the designs, their production and their commercial acceptability.

-Experimental samples, created by the participants or by collaborating manufacturers.

-Verbal and written reports of the participants’ research and ideas presented and discussed with staff members and participants.

Figure 1. The structure of research methodology

The most important educational parameters, as defined by the research team, were:

-Emphasis on teaching/learning inputs/outcomes,

-Emphasis on attitudinally based "deep" learning,

-Wide variety of learning tools and assessment instruments,

-Lecturer/student relationships,

-Individual and examination-based assessments.

A major area of concern, during all steps of the case study, was the adaptation of strategies for participating students from minorities. We ensured that cultural issues were addressed in our curriculum. Also, suggested approaches were hands-on cooperative learning experiences that promote mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well being in each student.

3.4 Product Development

Over the past decades product design processing has emerged as an extremely expressive and powerful paradigm of the way designers should model, solve and reason about many complex problems. Advances in both the fundamental aspects of product design processing and the practical applications of products have contributed in making product designing a highly depending process on Artificial Intelligence technologies.

In product development and designing, constraints arise in many forms. The production processes that will be used to manufacture the artefact can constrain the materials and dimensions that the designer has selected. Preferences are constraints and in many situations constraints emerge during designing the product.

Techniques for supporting the acquisition and discovery of constraints are important. Design students wish to know why some design option is not possible, while others are. Therefore techniques and approaches to product visualisation and constraints explanation are critical, thus science has developed sophisticated tools for supporting design process, such as the human-computer interaction.

For our experiment we had to omit all constrains, though we were pointing them out to all participants. The reason was that we were focusing on an educational research and not a product design one.

3.5 Teaching project

The participants were asked to categorize the differed visual inputs in a folio, in order to begin filtering the flood of information. In all cases, the participants’ interests and inspiration focused on antiquity and on certain selections from tradition. There were only few participants, who, in contrast to the majority, were inspired by nature, thus transforming natural objects into abstract productions. The collected sketches and photos for each student exceeded fifty, but the final product was based on much less, and was produced after many experimental approaches to the subject. The final products were selected among hundreds of sketches. The means of production, the techniques and the colour combinations were left to the students’ personal choice, since the freedom of expression in all the above aspects was of major importance, counting highly in our evaluation. All details and steps of work were included in the submitted written participants’ reports and then evaluated.

4. Evaluation criteria

The development process of designing the product was analysed, distinguishing the phase of sketching as a first decision-making phase on design ideas. The development of sketches into final products progressed gradually during the course of the experiment. An independent sample was taken from the preliminary works, in order to test the influences of the participants’ present environment and hereditary cultural identities. While developing the designs and specifically from the preliminary phases to the more detailed ones, the participants were influenced mainly by their personal cultural heritage, and less by their present environment.

The design development and the final products presented were a conscious or subconscious product of each person’s educational, technological, regional (past or present) and cultural inputs, in a percentage that varied highly among them. All participants works displayed a higher degree of influence from their cultural heritage, a phenomenon that was even more clearly illustrated on their final works and colour selections, written statements and presentations. It is noteworthy that in total, there was no cross influence among students, and only minor regional influences from their present environment, mainly in the field of inspiration. Thus, we evaluated the above parameters as follows:

-Education influenced our experiment in all steps of the participants work procedure, differentiating accordingly all phases of decision-making.

-Technology assisted the participants’ work, directly or indirectly, in a much lesser degree, often subconsciously.

-Region was a strong inspiration motive, especially the participant’s present region, but this influence declined in each step of the process, and was eventually minimized in the final presentation.

-Culture, together with education, is the dominating and confining aspect, mainly on colour selections and presentation.

As with all group case studies, the works varied in size, impact and message. The analysis revealed that there were considerable individual differences in the final work constructed by the participants. The most considerable differences were related to the various paths they followed through research and designing, how quickly they proceeded, what they aimed their remarks at, and how many different designs, and examples they produced. We identified the work by classifying the outcomes and outlining the different tools and activities used during the stages that led to the completion of the assignment. In the initial stages of this experiment an empirical approach was adopted to gain understanding about the participants’ sources, selections and interests. Thus, we categorized:

- Sources: Sources of research, interest and inspiration. Most of the Erasmus and Socrates participants, with few exceptions, visited Museums, Archaeological and Traditional sites, seeking inspiration there. The other students were highly attracted by nature and Tradition, and by natural or traditional sources of inspiration.

- Selection: Selection of interests, objects, colours, material and media of work. All the participants of Erasmus and Socrates photographed and provided

sketches from Museums, and Archaeological and Traditional sites. All the above participants, with one exception, photographed, collected and sketched the same theme: prehistoric abstract statuettes, forms that are closely related to their modern understanding of art and design. For the rest of them, these were of minor interest, as they focused mainly on combinations of nature/tradition.

- Style: Style of presentation. All participants presented their selections, sketches, product proposals and final designs in a diverse and very personalised manner, not only from the product-colour approach, but also as a general product design development. The style of the final presentation of their project experience was our final evaluation parameter concerning the actual influence of their cultures.

- Colour: Colour is a media of communication, a power of creation, an expression of feeling, very important for life, since it influences our personality and moods. It has also been a powerful tool for humans from the prehistoric age to nowadays, its perception being one of the first triumphs of the human intellect. With design and colour humans express their thoughts and feelings, artistic anxieties and visions, culture and heritage, in other words, their cultural identity. The presence and importance of colour was the focal point, the key element and the strongest evidence of the influence, on the presented works, of the different cultural identities involved in our experiment. The evaluation presented us with the highest percentage of presence of the different individual cultures, plus with a phenomenon worth mentioning: The colour scale used by all northern European and non-European participants included the brightest possible hues, in total contrast to the pastel or over-pastel tones of European-Mediterranean students.

a b c

Figure. 2. The influence of cultural identity: a on design development, b on final presentation, c on color selections.

The additional criteria employed were the influence of globalisation and communication technologies on their sensibility and creativity and on their feeling of total freedom in creation. Letting the participants free to select the media of their work, proved that only few of them wished or required the use of multimedia, even for their written protocols. The participants’ choice was of major critical value, as it establishes the fact that technical processes, which dominate today’s world and aesthetics, can be challenged, at least in the field of art and design.

4.1 Evaluation Outcomes

The final presented works of this exploratory case study - individual and group ones - were 20 in total, from participants with a variety of cultural/ethnic backgrounds. The completed projects with obvious cultural influences were evaluated and the research team analysed the data (figure 2, 3).

The final projects with obvious cultural influence were: on product design development 21.4 % of the total, on colour selections 92.8 %, and on final presentation 57 %.

Figure 3. The percentage of cultural influence on the participants’ colour/design selections

Evidently, elements such as personality and cultural identity still play a very important, almost ethical, role in our contemporary aesthetics, generating powers with or without the use of technical processes. Human beings - users and creators - differ from each other, reflecting in their products and choices their personalities and cultural identities. The human mind is not a “tabula rasa” and does not react like one to educational inputs; neither is human perception culturally preconditioned. The same stands for our understanding of beauty, functionality, and aesthetics.

A database was attached to our site for a two years period with information and links on our project. This database was a valuable tool for research, especially between the students of the Socrates/Erasmus programmes and was therefore seen as an experimental first step to distance learning.

5. Conclusions

The conclusions are many; the most important ones for the future pathways of our teaching work are the following:

A. The increasing diversity of the population in universities around the world creates new demands and complexities, but it also provides new opportunities. It demands changes in how we deliver the curriculum and how we manage our institutions. Students from various cultural backgrounds often make suggestions about ways lecturers might make the climate of their classes more comfortable. They are particularly impressed when lecturers take the time to get to know them and encourage them to get to know each other. Furthermore, students from different cultural backgrounds do appreciate their cultural group being recognised and valued.

The concept of national culture, and the indicator of cultural background should be ethnicity rather than nationality. This means that educators must demonstrate in their own behaviour that all students in the group are valued, and take a firm stand to ensure that students behave in a similar way. So if we succeed in making students from different cultural backgrounds feel welcome and comfortable in our institutions of higher education, then we are more likely to keep them in the system and increase their chances of success. On the other hand students from minorities should be able to express their identity, culture and traditions. Moreover, this is the only way by which Europe will be able to preserve its rich cultural diversity.

B. Computer-mediated communication can successfully serve as a learning medium for students with different ethnic/cultural backgrounds. However, as learning patterns are developed, the factor of ethnic/cultural backgrounds noticeably influences learners’ perceptions. Cultural backgrounds of learners should be considered in the delivery of both computer-mediated communication and face-to-face instruction by improving the presentation and developing richer learning in a transcendent multicultural context. An important limitation can be that learner’ perceptions and expectations may change after being exposed to another cultural environment for a certain period of time. And such a change could possibly affect the identification of a learner’s ethic/cultural background.

C. What inspires is an individual matter. In general, one is motivated by the desire to create something new and challenging, but often inspiration is derived from one’s inner world and consists of many different inputs. Family, childhood environment, home traditions, cultural, ethical and aesthetical inputs from the first years of life are of top importance, since they form the roots of the individual’s aesthetic and ethic attitude. A person’s vision of the world, his aesthetic processes and views on today’s and tomorrow’s world are based, to a great extent, on those first influences, formulated or even transformed via adapted and educated cultural paths, but always existing in the hidden or obvious background. They are always present when the individual is set free to dream and create, always influencing - consciously or subconsciously, directly or indirectly - the paths of mental and artistic procedures and creation. Nevertheless, in the process of globalisation, the question remains: how strong and for how long?

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