Schedule and Learning Outcomes

"The study of culture and the teaching of culture are acts of inquiry."

Contents
I Overview
Briefly talks about the objectives of MMCE
II Outline of The Semester
Gives a short description of each meeting and offers links to a more detailed description
III Each Meeting in Detail
Describes each meeting in detail and also links to the learning artifacts from each meeting.

IV Objectives and Reality
Discusses whether MMCE really met its objectives

I Overview

The first day members of MMCE were divided into 6 groups which later became 7 the second week as more people joined. Each group was assigned to concentrate on a particular region of the world. The regions were Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, North America, Oceania and South America. Eventually each group was to concentrate on a specific country in their region. The countries were Kenya, China, Guatemala, England, USA, Australia and New Zealand, and Colombia. In the eigth and ninth meetings, a member from each country of concentration came to MMCE to give presentations.

Throughout the meetings, two patterns of analysis emerged. One was looking at the country of concentration on the micro level by interviewing a member of its society and the other was the macro level by collecting general information about the country and examining its national values according to the model proposed by Hofstede (See meetings 5, 11, and 12).

Below is a list of the goals for MMCE. The link indicates the influence of the goal on the Creation of MMCE page.

  1. Build a cooperative learning community so we can learn from each other and teach each other. (Don Oliver , Kai Ming Cheng, Workshop Learning)
  2. Begin to understand the practice of multicultural education (Theory of Multicultural Education) (I realize now that I should have changed the word "practice"to "necessity".)
  3. Learn from our classmates about the cultures and countries they are studying (Don Oliver, Post-Modern Curriculum Theory)
  4. Understand the daily life, traditions, history, and culture of our countries of concentration. (Intercultural Communicative Competence, Multicultural Education )
  5. Develop the skills necessary skills to interact with people from other cultures (For example - the skills necessary to elicit information about a certain cultures without offending anyone) (Intercultural Communicative Competence , Post Modern Curriculum Theory)
  6. Learn about different ways to look at cultures. (Kai Ming Cheng)

II Outline of the Semester

Below is an outline of what we did for each week and the participants' evaluation of the activities. Participants ranked the unsefulness and interest level of each activity on a scale of 1 to 4: 1 = Very Useful or Interesting; 2= Useful or Interesting, 3 = Not Useful or Not Interesting; 4= Terribly Unuseful or Terribly Uninteresting. Below the frequency for each answer is listed. For example, 9 participants found Community Building which took place in meeting 1 to be very useful and 10 found it to be useful.

To view the learning artifacts, learning outcome, related resources, and particpant comments for a given meeting, please click on the respective meeting link.

Meeting #
Content
Evaluation
Useful?
Interesting?
1
2
3
4
 AVG
1
2
3
4
 AVG
   
9
10
0
0
 1.5
9
9
1
0
 1.6
Meeting 1

Community Building (Evaluated to the Right):
Ice Breaking and learners are divided into common learning groups.
Meeting 2

Initial Country Presentations (Evaluated to the Right): The purpose of this was to help groups become familiar with vocabulary they might have to learn in the future and help them become familiar with their areas of concentration. (Influx of new students)

8
11
0
0
 1.5
9
9
1
0
 1.6
Meeting 3

Deciding an Attendance Policy (Evaluated to the Right), Fishbowl and Investigating Families Across Cultures
An attendance policy is proposed, discussed and decided. Learners practice having discussions through a fishbowl activity. In the practice discussion, a group is shown a picture of a family and must discuss where they think the family is from and why in English. While this group has the discussion the other groups watch. Afterwards, each group has a similar discussion.
6
6
5
1
 2.06
4
11
2
1
 2.0
Meeting 4

Fishbowl (Evaluated to the Right): Learners practice doing group work again.
Group work: CLGs are presented with a picture of a family from a country in their region. Lastly, some co-learners of a group practice making inferences about a family's way of life through examining a picture of the family while other co-learners know the answers and inform the guessers (Peer Teaching Activity).

7
11
1
0
 1.7
6
7
5
1
 2.05
Meeting 5

Presentation on Gert Hofstede’s Theories of National Cultures(Evaluated to the Right) (Symbols, Heroes, Rituals, and Values)
One way of looking at the invisible and visible nature of culture is introduced and explored.
Investigating Families across Cultures (Evaluated to the Right)
Learners practice making inferences about a families way of life through examining pictures

10
6
2
1
 1.68
6
9
3
1
 1.95
10
7
2
0
 1.58
11
6
2
0
 1.53
Meeting 6

The Anbura and Leba Cultural Simulation Activity(Meeting 6): (Evaluated to the Right)
A simulation activity where people with extremely different values meet.
9
8
0
2
 1.7
13
5
0
1
 1.4
Meeting 7

Conducting a survey and making country diagrams (Meeting 7) (Evaluated to the Right)
We conducted a survey and made diagrams to prepare for the Examining National Stereotypes Discussion
11
8
0
0
  
11
8
0
0
  

Meetings
8 + 9

Examining National Stereotypes Discussion (Evaluated to the Right)
Seven people from the seven countries that our CLGs were studying were invited to MMCE for a two week discussion
18
1
0
0
 1.15
16
3
0
0
 1.32
Meeting 10

Talk on Stereotypes (Evaluated to the Right)
We compared stereotypes that many Japanese have of foreign people to stereotypes that Americans have of Japanese
13
6
0
0
 1.32
10
7
2
0
 1.58

Meeting
11 + 12

National Values (Evaluated to the Right)
 Hofstede's Five Dimensions of National Cultures are examined and debated.
10
8
1
0
 1.79
6
11
2
0
 1.6
Meeting 13

Preparation for the Final Discussion
We prepare for the final discussion in which each group will present what they learned about their target countries and cultures through their experience and research.

 
Meeting 14

Final Discussion: Step 1(Evaluated top Right) and Step 2 (Evaluated lower Right)
CLGs are divided into sub-groups; each sub-group presents to another CLG's subgroup. The CLGs then reconvene and discuss the similarities and differences between their countries of concentrations and their own country, Japan.

11
4
2
1
 1.61
9
4
5
0
 1.8
11
2
4
1
 1.72
11
5
2
0
 1.5
Meeting 15

Reflection
Optional meeting. After reading member's MMCE evaluations the facilitator reflects on this year's MMCE. One last learning activity is also undertaken.

  

III Each Meeting in Detail

Quick links to the Meetings
Meeting Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8+9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Meeting 1 Building a Community (April 13, 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

1) Create an easy-going, stress-free atmosphere conducive to discussion
2) Get MMCE members interested in their regions.

In this meeting we make common learning groups (CLGs). Each CLG will focus on one of the following regions: Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America. MMCE members are divided into groups by lottery. After the CLGs are created, MMCE members will also write their own profiles and introduce themselves to their CLG. Each group will play a guessing game; after one member of a CLG introduces herself the other CLG members will try to guess what she wrote on her profile (For example, her favorite music etc.). Lastly, all members are handed a blank map of their region. They have to write in as many countries as they know. For the next meeting, each group has been asked to introduce a country that they did not know very well to the rest of the MMCE members.
Preparation for Meeting 1 None
Artifacts Plan (JH) Member Profile Form Maps

Resources

 

 

 

 World Geogpraphy Quiz
Has country geography quizes on all the regions we are studying.
吉田信一郎. (2000). 会議の技法. 中公新書.
Used for the idea of making a student profile.

Silberman, Mel. (1996). Active Learning 101 Strategies to Teach any Subject. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
The prediciting activity came from this book.

Outcome Member profiles

Evaluation (1 - 4)
Average

 Usefulness: 1.5; Interest: 1.6

Meeting 2 An Introduction to MMCE (April 20, 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

1) Orientation
Introduce the Syllabus and explain the goals of MMCE

2) Becoming familiar with important vocabulary (ex. population, ethnic groups etc.), first group project
Group Presentations about countries in their regions with which they were not familiar.
Preparation for Meeting 2 1) Send your profile
2) Group: Prepare to share with other MMCE members a country in your region you were not familiar with.
Artifacts Syllabus Meeting Plan Maps
Reflection JH
Learning Outcomes Below are countries that groups said they did not know well and the information they collected:
Oceania: Fiji New Zealand ; Europe: Belgium ; Asia: Thailand ; Central America:Puerto Rico, Mexico; South America: Bolivia
Evaluation (1-4)
Average 		Group Presentations about Countries in their Regions: Usefulness: 1.5; Interest: 1.6

Meeting 3 A Beginning to Human Understanding (April 27, 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

1) Approve an Attendance Policy
Members of Asia met with the facilitator before class and drafted two different attendance policies. MMCE members were supposed to choose the policy they felt would most encourage them to attend the meetings. Click here to find out the policies and which one was chosen.

2) Learning how to have effective group discussions
Fishbowl: Practice how to have a group discussion. Group Asia demonstrated how to have a group discussion through the Fishbowl activity.

3) Looking at cultures on a micro level.
 Members are give a picture of a family from a country of their region and they must guess from where the family came.

A Post-Modern Perspective on Curriculum by William E. Doll jr. was very influential in the planning for MMCE. After listening to the country presentations on April 20, I realized that we would have to practice presenting and asking questions which led to the fishbowl exercise. Thus, I set some objectives for MMCE but decided that we as a group would decide the path to be followed to reach these objectives.
Preparation for Meeting 3 Finish Sending your Profile
Artifacts Fishbowl Materials
 Proposals for an Attendance Policy
Roles of Members in a Discussion Group and Useful Expressions

Practice Picture used in the Fishbowll
Reflection
 Asia: Fishbowl Reflection YO FishbowlRelfection MM Fishbowl Reflection KS
Outcomes South America ANSWER Africa ANSWER Oceania ANSWER North America ANSWER Europe ANSWER Asia ANSWER Central America ANSWER
Resources

Bejarano, Y. (1994) An Integrated Groupwork Model for the Second Language Classroom. in S. Sharan (ed.) Cooperative Learning Methods. Westport, CT: Praeger
(I referenced this article for the Fishbowl Idea. If you would like to know more about fishbowls ｐlease e-mail me)

『地球家族』　フォトランゲージ版. 国際理解教育センター・著/発行　1995年
(Used for the Pictures)
Evaluation (1 - 4)
Average		 Attendance Policy: Usefulness:2.06; Interest: 2.0
Question from by me: The implementation of the attendance policy was not very successful. Why not?

Meeting 4
Making Inferences about Other Cultures (May 11, 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

1) Practice being an active listener and asking questions when you do not understand.
Fishbowl: Practice on how to listen to a presentation and how to give feedback with presentations from North America: (Colorado, Montana) and Africa: Ghana

2) Groups continue to consider the different countries in their region and practive making inferences about families living in different cultures through looking at photos.
Investigating families across cultures: MMCE groups begin the following activity. Guessing and Reading
Preparation for Meeting 4
Investigating Families Across Cultures (Explanation of MMCE Members' Results from Meeting 3)
Reflections
Central America on the Fishbowl MI YI CT AT

Artifacts

 

 
Fishbowl
Presentations used in the fishbowl
Africa: Ghana
North America: Colorado Montana
Resources
Bejarano (1994)
『地球家族』　フォトランゲージ版. 国際理解教育センター・著/発行　1995年
(Used for the Pictures)
Evaluation (1 - 4)
Average

Fishbowl for Meetings 3 & 4: Usefulness: 1.7; Interest: 2.05
See the "Reflections" for meetings 3 and 4 for some comments from participants

Comment

  • Fishbowl was a little difficult, so it took a few minutes for me to understand. However after I understood the intent or purpose, every activity became useful.

Meeting 5 A Talk On National Cultures (May 18, 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

1) Learn a framework for looking at cultures.
Presentation on Gert Hofstede's Theory of National Cultures: Symbols, Heroes, Rituals and Values.

2) Continue to practice making inferences about people from other cultures and then double-checking your inferences.
For preparation., half of a CLG guesses the answers to questions about a family in the book Material World. The family comes from a country in the group's region of concentration. The other half of the CLG reads about the family and tells the guessing group how accurate their descriptions were. In this meeting the "Guessing" group and the "Reading" group compare answers. For a description click on the "Guessing and Reading" link below.

Preparation for Meeting 5 Guessing and Reading
Artifacts Powerpoint Presentation (JH)
- Worksheet
MMCE members fill out the above worksheet while listening to JH's lecture 
Learning Outcomes Brazil
Guessing +
Reading		 China
Guessing +
Reading		 Ethiopia
Guessing +
Reading		 Guatemala
Guessing +
Reading
+ Values		 Italy
Guessing +
Reading + Values		 Samoa
Guessing +
Reading		 USA
Guessing + Reading

Resources

 - 『地球家族』　フォトランゲージ版. 国際理解教育センター・著/発行　1995年
(Used by the Guessing Group)
- Menzel, P. (1994). Material World. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books
(Used by the Reading Group)
- Hofstede, G & G.J. Hofstede (2005). Cultures and Organizations Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw Hill
- G.ホフステード／岩井紀子･岩井八郎訳. 1995.『多文化世界』有麦閣　
- Dr. Kai Ming Cheng Cultural Perspectives in Educational Studies Class Home Page . Harvard Graduate School of Education
(The Above were Used for my Presentation on Culture)
- Silberman, M. (1996). Active Learning 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject.. Boston: Allyn and Bacon
(Has great ideas for making lectures more lively)
Evaluation(1 - 4)
Average

Hofstede's Theories of National Cultures: Usefulness: 1.68; Interest: 1.95
Making Inferences about People from Other Cultures: Usefulness: 1.58; Interest 1.53
See Learning Outcomes in Meetings 3 & 5


Comments from Co-Learners

  • Especially, my favorite meeting is Meeting 5 because thinking where the family was born and getting the answer are very interesting for me.

Meeting 6 What are Values? (May 25, 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

Last week my explanation on values was dififcult to understand. This was evident in the fact that many CLGs could not answer # 1on the worksheet when preparing for this meeting. In this meeting, we were to further consider what values are by doing the Anbura and Leba activity.

  1. Engaging in a Cultural Role Play where two cultures with different values must interact; ( The Anbura and Leba Cultural Simulation Activity)
  2. A Talk on Hofstede's Dimensions of Values (Only 2 are Covered)
Preparation for Meeting 6 Email Chart and Number 1 (Results are shown in Meeting 5))
Reflection JH Reflection
Artifacts Anbura and Leba MaterialsJapanese English Power Point Presentation of the Different Dimensions of Values
(Only two dimensions are covered)
Learning Outcomes Results of Anbura Leba Discussion
Resources Kai Ming Cheng, Hofstede & Hofstede (2005)
ウィリアム・フライドラ/ERIC国際理解教育編訳. (1994). 対立から学ぼう.
(The Leba and Anbura Activity was taken from this book)
Evaluation (1-4)
Average

Anbura and Leba: Usefulness: 1.7, Interest: 1.4
Comments:

  • In all of MMCE's class, the most interesting activity is 異なる２つの民族に分かれて、ロールプレイした授業。
  • Also, I liked The Anbura and Leba Cultural Simulation Activity. I felt the difficulty in communicating with people who have other culture.
  • The idea was good, but needed more time to warm up, and to have enough room to act. Then everybody could grasp the situation and enjoyed their play more.

Lessons learned: Make sure there is enough physical space for this activity! Be prepared for the shy participants to be hesitant to play the role of the outgoing culture.


Meeting 7 Preparing for the Discussion! (June 1, 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

Be Ready to Listen and Speak next Week
The previous week the CLGs conducted a survey asking 30 people what were the first 3 things they thought of when they heard the group's country of concentration. For example, the CLG studying Kenya, asked 30 people what were the first 3 images they had when they heard "Kenya". Each group then sent the answer to me in an excel spreadsheet. The formatting of the file was already prepared by me. Then, I transferred the excel data into Microsoft Access and printed out one card for each response. In this meeting, each CLG categorized their cards and made an "image map" of their country of concentration based on the categories. Groups made country diagrams based on the results of their survey about their guest's country.
Preparation for Meeting7 Conduct a Survey! (A Description of the students' task)
Artifacts Data Sheet
Learning Outcomes The Results of the Survey are Below
Colombia Kenya Guatemala Australia England USA China
 
Resources Hall, J. (2004). 多文化教育の視点を取り入れた授業の展望. Proceedings of the 58th Conference. The Tohoku Literary Scociety.
http://charles.sal.tohoku.ac.jp/Proceedings58.pdf

Hall, J. (2005)

Meetings 8 & 9"Examining National Stereotypes" Discussion (June 8 and June 15 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

 The purpose of this discussion is for MMCE members to think about the difference between some of the popular images of the countries that they are studying and the reality of the citizens who live in these countries.
In the first meeting we will have ice breaking and then each guest will speak about the image maps the CLGs made of their countries. In the second meeting, the CLGs and their respective guests will review what the guest said last week and prepare questions of their own. Time permitting, they will aslo discuss a worksheet questioning participants' values. A detailed plan of the discussion is below under Preparation for Meetings 8 and 9.
Preparation for Meetings 8 & 9 Discussion Plan
Be ready to talk!
Reflections
Discuss Reflections on the Discussion 		JH Reflection
Learning Outcomes Predictions about what the guests will say:
Colombia AUS Guatemala Kenya China USA England
Content of the Guests' Speech and Group Conversation
Colombia Aus/NZ Guatemala Kenya China USA England
Resources ウィリアム・フライドラ. (1994)
(Used for Ice Breaking Activity on June 8)

ロバート　チェンバース. 野田直人（監訳）. ワークショップ入門。明治書店
(In this book there are ideas I could have used to make the icebreaking activities on June 8 better.　
太　久夫　（2001). 表現あそび. 全国児童館連合会.
( Used for the ice breaking activity on June 15.)
エリザベス・キャリスター、ノエル・デイブィス、バーバラ・ポープ（共著）ERIC国際理解教育・資料情報センター訳 (1988). 私、あなた、そしてみんな.
(This book had great discussion activities about Values)
Artifacts Discussion Plan Given to All Participants Discussion on Values
Evaluation(1 - 4)
Average

Examining National Stereotypes Discussion: Usefulness: 1.15; Interest:1.32
See Reflection Section for this meeting; Good reviews!

My lessons learned are written here.


Meeting 10 Talk About Stereotypes, Cultural Relativisim and National Cultures (June 22, 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

 The main goal of the meeting was to learn about stereotypes and realize how difficult (and sometimes dangerous) it can be to make generalizations about different cultures. We discussed the following topics:
1) Our guest's images of Japan before they came
2) Stereotypes that other countries might have of Japan
3) Popular stereotypes of other countries
4) The stereotypes of Japanese evident in the video of an American parody of a Japanese game show parody (Somewhat shocking)
5) The stereotypes of foreigners apparent in the television show in which Japanese comedians dressed as foreigners acting foolishly.
6) Different levels of culture
7) Macro cultures and Microcultures

In the next meeting we will be examining national cultures but before we do this, I thought it is important to consider the dangers of cultural relativisim and stereotypes.
Preparation for Meeting 10 Do the Reflections for Meeting 9 and write a summary of your conversation with your guest.
Reflections What did you think of Meeting 10? Please write your reflections here:

Discuss Reflections on Meeting 10
Artifacts
Powerpoint Presentation
 Worksheet
Resources 明治大学商学部　山脇啓造研究室
http://www.kisc.meiji.ac.jp/~yamawaki/gmj/immigrants.htm
(Information about immigrants in Japan)

Video of a "Japanese Game Show" from Saturday Night Live

A Comedy Show I Recorded off of Japanese Television on a Saturday night
Evaluation(1 - 4)
Average

Talk about Stereotypes: Usefulness:1.32 ; Interest:1.58

See the Reflections Section for Some Interesting Comments!


Meeting 11 Stereotypes and National Cultures and the Dimensions of Values (June 29, 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

Go over the 5 dimensions of National Cultures: Power Disitance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long-term Orientation.
1) I speak about the 5 dimensions and then participants fill out the worksheet on the dimensions.
Preparation for Meeting 11 Please go to Gert Hofstede's home page and look up your CLG's dimension scores. The link is here.
The abbreviations for the dimensions are as follows:
PDI: Power Distance; IDV: Individualism; MAS: Masculinity; Uncertainty Avoidence: UAI; Long-Term Orientation: LTO
Please find out what your country's dimensional scores are. Also please consider whether your country's score is high or low compared to the scores of other countries. It is not necessary to e-mail me your answers.
Reflections QuickTopic free message boards
Discuss Reflections on Meeting 11
Artifacts PowerPoint Presentation　 Worksheet on the dimensions

"How do you feel?" and "What would you do?"
MSWord Version of Powerpoint Presentation
(For those of you who don't have Microsoft Powerpoint)
Resources Hoftsede (2005)

G.ホフステード／岩井紀子･岩井八郎訳. 1995

Dr. Gert Hofstede's Home Page

Hofstede, G.J, Pedersen, P.B & G. Hofstede. (2002). Exploring Culture Exercises, Stories, and Synthetic Cultures. Boston: Intercultural Press
(The "How do you feel?"and "What would you do?" exercises were taken from this book.)
Evaluated Together with Meeting 12

Meeting 12 Dimensions of Values - National Values of Japan (July 6, 2005)

Objectives
and Procedures

Continue talking about the dimensions of national values and increasing our understanding.
1)Watch a scene from Talk Gun where Tom Cruise talks to a woman in a bare and discuss the different dimensions evident in the scene.
2) Go over the answers on the dimensions worksheet.
3) Discuss are answers for the cultural simulations written by Hofstede, G.J, Pedersen, P.B & G. Hofstede. (2002)
4) Read and discuss the "Japanese Students in Holland Story"

Preparation for Meeting 12 I would like you to do the following 3 tasks:

Task 1
Please finish the worksheet on the dimensions . You can also refer to my powerpoint presentation to learn about the other dimensions we did not talk about (Uncertainty Avoidance and Long-Term Orientation) for help. If your computer does not have microsoft powerpoint, you can look at the slides on this link.

Task 2
Please write the options you chose for
  • How would you feel? : "A Shabby Guitar Player", "A Welcome at the Airport"
  • What would you do?: "The Returning Athlete" and "A Virtual Contact". (Click here for a copy of these stories)
Also please answer the following two questions:
a) Why did you choose your particular answers?
b) Do you think that your own orientation on any of the five dimensions (Power Distance, Individualist, Masculine, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long Term Orientation) influenced your answers? Why or why not?
Please e-mail me your answers to Task 2 by Tuesday, July 5.

Task 3 (Optional)
Please write your reflections about Meeting 11. You can write such topics as "What did you learn?" "What was difficult for you to understand?" "What would you like to do the next meeting?" "What questions do you have about meeting 11?"
Reflections QuickTopic free message boards
Discuss Reflection on Meeting 12
Artifacts Japanese Students in Holland Story (Hofstede, Pederson, & Hofstede, 2000)
Analysis of "How do you Feel?" and "What would you do?" (Hofstede, Pederson, & Hofstede, 2000)
Misunderstandings that occur between people with different orientations of the different dimensions. (Hofstede, Pederson, & Hofstede, 2000) Powerpoint Presentation
Learning Outcomes
Frequencies of MMCE members' answers to "How do you Feel?" and "What would you do?"
Statistics
Below are responses that each member of each CLG wrote for "How do you feel?" and "What would you do?"
Oceania Colombia Guatemala England USA China Kenya
Resources Hofstede, G.J, Pedersen, P.B & G. Hofstede. (2002)

Hofstede, G. (2001) Culture's Consequences. London: Sage Publications

Top Gun
Evaluation (1 - 4)
Average

Hofstede's Theories of National Values: Usefulness: 1.79 Interest:1.6

Please see the Reflection Section for some comments.


Meeting 13
Preparing for the Closing Discussion! (July 13)

Objectives
and Procedures
We will meet in room G22 and each CLG will begin preparing for the final disucssion.
Preparation for Meeting 13
  1. Begin your preparation for the final discussion! Click here for details on the content of the discussion and the format of the discussion.
  2. Write your reflections of meeting 12 in the meeting 12 "Reflections"section. Here are some possible topics
    • Do you disagree with any of the analyses of the 4 stories from "How do you feel?" or "What would you do?"
    • What do you think are some of the benefits and dangers of examining countries' national culture?
    • Top Gun
    • Thoughts about the aspects of different national cultures.
    • Thoughts about the Japanese/Dutch story.
Learning Outcomes
Outlines of Presentations

Kenya
( Encylopedia Entry andKenyan Table Manners )

Colombia
Artifacts and Resources

Meeting 14 A Closing Discussion (July 20)

Objectives
and Procedures

Although there has been a lot of opportunity for group work, there has not been much opportunity for CLGs to interact with other CLGs. In other words, CLGs have had little chance to share what they learned with other CLGs. In this last meeting CLGs will finally get the opportunity and everyone will speak!
Step 1: CLGs will break into 2 subgroups and each subgroup will be matched with a subgroup from another CLG. The subgroups will meet and present what they have learned about their countries and cultures of concentration.
Step 2: The 2 subgroups of a CLGs will reconvene and share what they learned from the other CLGs. They will then write down the similarities and differences between their country of concentration and the two countries they learned about from the other CLGs. I was hoping that they might find some universal similarities between the countries but, save for one group, it did not quite go as planned.
Reflection: Each participant writes about what their group created in step 2 and also what they have learned about their countries of concentration and themselves.

Preparation for Meeting 14 Be ready to speak!
Format of the Disucussion (A little different from the format in Meeting 13)

Artifacts

 Format of the Disucussion; Worksheet A ; Worksheet B; Worksheet C
Learning Outcomes

China
Step2:Similarities, Differences
Reflection

Colombia
Reflection

England
Step 2:Similarities, Differences
Reflection

Guatemala
Step 2: Similarities, Differences
Reflection

 Kenya
Reflection		 New Zealand
Reflection 		US
Reflection
Reflections
Evaluation (1 - 4)
Average

Step 1: Usefulness: 1.61; Interest: 1.8

Step 2: Usefulness: 1.72; Interest: 1.5

Comments:

  • In addition, I was able to discover that I compared three countries in Meeting14 and was common to. We learned the most important thing that it is very important for human beings is keeping manner. I went to China this year, but I have dropped chopsticks many times. This accidents are understood For all Chinese that it is very misfortune for them to drop chopsticks in China. Therefore I thought that it was very important that I learned culture of a different country.

  • It was interesting, but too much things to do.Step 1 was very fun, but Step 2 was a little dull work. Each group presented different content (quiz, history, and so on ), so I think it was impossible to category. I felt it was a little meaningless.

Meeting 15 MMCE Recreation and Reflection (August 3) (Optional)
Description:

Talk about some of the themes that I wanted to cover but that I was not able to and the philosophy benhind MMCE.
1) Tell the story of Don Oliver.
2) Discuss Meeting 14.
3) Discuss whether Japan is a homogeneous society.
4) Do the "Who would you choose?" activity?
Preparation for Meeting 15 SELF and MMCE EVALUATION
Please e-mail me your self-evaluation and your MMCE evaluation for a grade. To do so, please download the file here, fill out the self and MMCE evaluation, and e-mail it to me as an attached file. If you do not know how to send an attached file or are confused, please contact me and I will gladly help you.
Although your grade for MMCE is subject to negotiation, I will honor most self evaluations if they are reasonable.Furthermore, your evaluation of MMCE will not affect your grade at all, I promise. The reason why I am asking you to evaluate MMCE is that I made dramatic changes to the MMCE curriculum this year and I am always looking for ways to improve it. I do not mind constructive criticism nor do I mind compliments!
If you could e-mail me your self and MMCE evaluation by August 3 (or earlier), I would appreciate it.
Reflections
Artifacts Who would you choose? I translated this activity into English and we had an interesting discussion about foreigners in Japan.
Resources

Great Website for Multicultural Education and Global Learning Activities (In Japanese)

http://www.joca.or.jp/ob-kai/krk/Activities.htm

Objectives and Reality

Click on the objective to see whether it was met or not.

Objective 1
Build a cooperative learning community so we can learn from each other and teach each other. (I, II)
Objective 2
 Begin to understand the practice of multicultural education (V) (I realize now that I should have changed the word "practice"to "necessity".)
Objective 3: Learn from our classmates about the cultures and countries they are studying ( I, IV )
Objective 4: Understand the daily life, traditions, history, and culture of our countries of concentration. (III)
Objective 5: Develop
  • a) the skills necessary skills to interact with people from other cultures (For example - the skills necessary to elicit information about a certain cultures without offending anyone) (III),
  • b) (IV) the ability to share your learned information with other people.
  • c) (VI) the ability to investigate generalizations about other cultures and form your own opinions about them.
  • d) (III) the ability to lead discussions and cooperative learning activities. (VI)

Objective 6:

Learn about different ways to look at cultures. (II)

Overall

Although MMCE has a lot of flaws, this whole experience has been personally very rewarding for me. I have nothing but good memories of this last semester and it was personally very gratifying to read the positive and construcive feedback I received from the MMCE members. With their cooperation, I endeavored to make MMCE an even better learning experience. and thanks to them I think I succeeded.