After a summer: Pedagogical developments in cross cultural settings

Abstract

This paper presents approaches and evaluations based on a summer of volunteer work in faculty development in China that led to years of cross cultural shared study, mentoring, and faculty training. Successful teaching or learning in a foreign culture emerged through attitudes and actions based on welcoming, accommodating, invigorating, valuing, and evaluating (WAIVE). Cross cultural shared learning between presenter and local faculty, during summers working in five provinces of China, showed participants gained confidence and skill in pedagogy inclusive of observation, stories, flexibility, cultural appreciation, societal awareness, and mutually shared knowledge in adaptable presentations, actions, modeling, practice, projects, and assessment options. Effective faculty development experiences, just as classroom teaching, needed a foundation of relational communication, flexibility, and interactive learning. © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.