Learning by Doing: Crossroads Foundation Hong Kong - Cultural Identity
Valerie Pritchard, the NET at Concordia Lutheran School - North Point, presented an experiential learning activity on Cultural Diversity that her S4 students took part in. The activity was organised by Crossroads Foundation Hong Kong. It coincided with an English unit called ‘The World Around Us’ and with the school's Mission Week.
The school has a diverse student population with 30% Non-Chinese speaking students and the idea of cultural diversity is highly relevant to all the members of the school. The main objectives of the activity are (i) to raise students’ intercultural awareness; (ii) to develop in students a positive attitude towards all nationalities to create a harmonious international school atmosphere; and (iii) to foster their personal development as world citizens.
The best way for students to understand cultural diversity and learn how to empathise with other people’s perspectives is to let them experience it through hands-on activities. In this experiential learning activity, the students were put into two very different cultural groups – the Alpha Culture and Beta Culture - and they had to learn about the cultural differences between the two groups and feel empathy for people who may have a completely different perspective and outlook on life.
In Valerie’s sharing session, the experiential learning activities clearly are oriented towards action and affect as the students learnt about positive values and attitudes through participating in the hands-on activities where they need to understand and experience other people’s feelings and points of view. Cognition also played a certain role when the students communicated ideas with each other in English, and towards the end of the learning activity, they were asked to reflect on the whole learning experience.
For more information, please click here to access the PPT slides.
Disclaimer
To enhance the teaching content, teachers can exercise their professional judgment and consult relevant scholarly work when adopting the learning and teaching resources prepared by educators and other teachers. In support of the implementation of the English Language Education KLA Curriculum, teachers can also select appropriate parts of the resources for classroom learning or extended learning based on pedagogical consideration and the learning needs of students.
