Increasing intercultural competence among psychology students using experiential learning activities with international student partners.

Abstract

Intercultural competence, with its three domains (knowledge, skills, and awareness), is an important priority for international and domestic college students and the institutions they represent. However, most college students do not organically and purposefully openly engage with people from other cultural groups. The Crossing Borders program is a course-based, experiential learning approach that intentionally pairs international and domestic students for a series of shared cultural experiences and dialogues. Over an 8year span, we investigated the potential of Crossing Borders to influence intercultural competence score changes for U.S. American college students at a Midwestern campus over the course of an academic semester. With a total sample of 207 college students, we determined that student knowledge and identity scores were significantly higher after the semester-long program than before, with increases in complexity of knowing for White students and those who had never studied abroad and additional increases in social interactions for White students. Supplemental narrative analyses from a subsample of students indicated important themes of increased self-awareness, awareness of others, and breaking down barriers and comfort zones. We discuss practical implications for programs like ours, offering them as an essential component and complement for campus internationalization efforts, offering glocal options for students who cannot or will not choose immersive programs like study abroad and study away.

Facilitating Faculty Development for Training in Multicultural Competence in Health Service Psychology Graduate Programs Through an International Collaboration

“…US faculty members also sought to reexamine their teaching and training processes and discussed how they planned to redesign the practicums aligned with the cultural backgrounds and identities of the students. This is consistent with studies that demonstrate that intercultural interaction helps participants break down the barriers and move beyond their comfort zones (Wickline et al, 2021). Integrating cultural competence in teaching and clinical supervision is a substantial challenge in psychology training.…”

Course design for the psychology of migration: Intradisciplinary and experiential approach.

“…Knowledge integration, collaboration, and intercultural competence are key intended learning outcomes in psychology programs (APA, 2023; Wickline et al, 2021). This course exemplifies how an intradisciplinary and experiential approach to teaching psychology can potentially improve these outcomes among students (see Table 2, for students’ evaluation).…”

“…CEL also has the potential to effectively enhance students’ understanding of migrants’ experiences and reinforce students’ appreciation for education and career readiness (Costigan et al, 2022; Wickline et al, 2021). Research shows that service learning is positively linked to students’ interest, engagement, program attitudes, empathy, and intercultural competence (Cadenas et al, 2022; Celio et al, 2011; Compare & Albanesi, 2023; Crone, 2023).…”

Fostering Intercultural Competence in a Pre-Graduate Course at a Public University in Mexico

“…In this regard, there is a paucity of research that documents IaH efforts whilst studying abroad experiences are prominently explored in the literature (Baldassar & McKenzie, 2016); based on this understanding, this research aims to redress this gap by focusing on an IaH, at the teacher's level, strategy. Along the need for HE to become more international, it is necessary to increase in students their Intercultural Competence (ICC), mostly defined as "the ability" to "think"," act", "perform" "communicate" and "interact" in a proper and effective way in different intercultural contexts and it is mainly grounded on: cultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Deardorff, 2006;Echcharfy,2019;Fantini, 2007;López-Rocha, 2021;Mažeikienė & Virgailaitė-Mečkauskaitė, 2007;Sánchez Hernández & Alonso-Marks, 2018;Wickline et al, 2021) with a lesser emphasis on awareness; so that they are individuals not only able to meet the demands of the globalised workforce through effective communication, but they are able to understand and embrace different world perspectives. As a result of globalisation with individuals interconnected with much more ease, hence, experiencing more intercultural encounters; intercultural competence has become of utmost importance.…”