Developing intercultural competences of our students by Teacher Academy

ALINA POPA-ROMANIA

popalina21 — 2017-02-20 16:34:30 UTC

I think in nowworld in changing we need ...it is a must to be carefull with the others, to understand and to be open-minded to diversity...so this means empathy, respect, acceptation and again understanding and respect for the person near us. Collaboration and friendship must be a path to start for developing the 21st competences from the school preparing for the real-life truly-experience.

CHIARA P. - ITALY

possa_ — 2017-02-20 18:14:50 UTC

The two teachers have dealt with all the necessary points. It should certainly be done carefully to the parents of the students, the parents in fact influence and form the ideas of children.
In a globalized world, we must open ourselves to the other, without fear but rather with curiosity and respect. we must be careful and have respect, accepting different even and especially when we can not understand it. Celebrating diversity, see the other as a resource can support the development of individual skills aimed interculturalism.

Claudia. Italy

2017-02-20 18:38:06 UTC

today is very important the sharing in to classroom. for example in my classroom I created the intercultural laboratory for my student. in this laboratory they are developing your language, religion, cultur. I think that this didactic is very important to developing intercultural competetences for my students.

Toni Rome

2017-02-20 18:48:33 UTC

It is necessary to form opened classes with students of different countries where work with them and with a group of the italian students in the laboratorial activities. It is necessary to be able that it has to form new minds and new methodics of relationships between students, who have to create new approaches between theirs with or without the mediation of the teachers.

Antonio Hans

dilegami — 2017-02-20 20:36:47 UTC

You need to focus more attention on the families of our students. We must break down prejudices and cultural barriers to work in a peaceful and multicultural environment

Marina

2017-02-20 20:45:30 UTC

If we would develop intercultural competences in our students, first of all we should change our way of teaching and use modern approaches to motivate our students and stimulate their curiosity towards new cultures. Besides we should go out our established routine of topics and we should be willing to try new topics and to propose new activities (for ex group works, games) in order to explore cultural diversity.

Elena, Florence

2017-02-20 20:57:02 UTC

I think it's very important to create an intercultural laboratory for the students. The teachers have to be open minded in the new globalized school

Guido. I think it's very important to create an intercultural laboratory for the student. The teachers have to be open minded in the new globalized school.

2017-02-20 20:57:04 UTC

Angela, Italy

malgibra — 2017-02-20 21:10:33 UTC

I think that involving foreign kids' parents is important. School can be a way even to integrate not only kids but also adults. So teachers can organize laboratories to show and shared foreign traditions or costumes, in this way all students can acquire intercultural competences.

Ana, Portugal

acfilipe36 — 2017-02-20 23:19:19 UTC

Intercultural learning is not something that happens automatically or occurs in all situations where people of different cultural backgrounds come into contact with one another. As in other educational environments, support and guidance are indispensable pillars of the learning process.

Angela Maria Italy

2017-02-20 23:44:08 UTC

Alicia touches upon a tool that can aid us in diffusing some tension around our differences: a little humor. Open discussion of our differences, films, books and art exhibits, projects, all foster a greater knowledge of other cultures. However, the students also LIVE different experiences together, do not always agree, do not always get along and they need some practical help with that. If we have been able to talk about cultural differences, debated the pros and cons even in mock debates, then maybe we can laugh when we just can't agree. Maybe we can create some type of fun ritual to use when we "agree to disagree" - little Italian kids lock pinky fingers and chant "A pox on that little devil that made us fight". It is adorable to watch, because the disagreement is put "outside" of themselves - "the little devil" - and does not represent the entirety of the relationship. Maybe older children can invent other fun rituals. Maybe they can have shoes in the classroom that they can put on and walk around in as a symbol of "walking in another's shoes". Because we also need to accept the fact that there will be some tension or disagreements, and use those moments as an opportunity for growth.

Bento, Porto

2017-02-21 00:32:33 UTC

A way of creating multicultural ties is through the music, a universal language that we can use to bring cultures and points of view closer together.

Nalan,Turkey

eney — 2017-02-21 08:18:51 UTC

If there is difference between the approaches of the family and the school,there comes the biggest challenge.We have difficulty in teaching emphaty with these kind of students.However, learning with fun&love can be the solution to this matter.

Anita, Italy

2017-02-21 08:21:18 UTC

I agree with both , Alicia and Erika .Anyway I pay more attention on children/pupils right that can unify and share.I use often thematic storytelling to introduce my topic in my lesson/workshop.I like when they do their best to express their meaning , their habits .I think that 's important to learn and lead empathy recognising feelings and reactions .Children need to name feelings and express them.So there aren't prejudice or steriotype to express themselves

Cristina, Italia

2017-02-21 09:19:27 UTC

Listening to Alicia and Erika, I think it’s very important to encourage our students to accept differences and understand that it’s not necessary to convince the other if they have another way of thinking. I will icrease my efforts to teach students how to debate, encouraging the dialogue, and also how to resolve conflicts in the classroom, learning how to communicate. It’s also important to create intercultural laboratories, because students have to work together towards a common goal. I think another way for creating a multicultural environment could be using the language of music.

Antonina, Italy

antonellapusateri — 2017-02-21 09:50:13 UTC

The intercultural approach is transversal, multidisciplinary and matter of all the teachers in each subject and all classes. The arrival of a foreign child in the classroom is a "fact of life" that calls the teacher to a high level of responsibility, engaging him to renew his methods. It can be said that the various aspects of intercultural education as a unifying motif find an approach aimed at facilitating the relations starting from the recognition of differences, so that we can then encourage the promotion of dialogue and exchange. To prevent intercultural education is reduced to episodic and sporadic moments, I believe that the
cooperative teaching methods are designed to encourage in students greater availability of capacity to the other (meaning the ability to listen, to change opinion, active participation during activities), mutual listening, constructive interaction (helping each other, appreciate the 'contribution that each can give the group work). It is this greater openness and availability that should somehow influence a more general students' attitude towards diversity and thereby making it more "friendly".

Maarit, Sweden

2017-02-21 10:10:17 UTC

Excatly. There has to be zero tolerance for racism in the classroom. Boundaries made clear. But adults. Who is educating the adults and even parents to these children. This is a severe issue especially today. Finland is famous for education but few knows about the challenges teachers and other educators face in Finland daily. With intolerance and bullying. One teacher cannot be a miracle maker if the surrounding is against.

Monica, Italy

2017-02-21 10:30:49 UTC

The most important thing is to support students in their willing to share their personal experiences as a starting point of view. Then by this sharing students can explore what intercultural activities mean. That is they use their curiosity to learn other “realities” (refugee story, people living in a country oppressed by war) and to see, finally, these new ways of life as an important enrichment to get better. This synergistic way to study all togheter need respect, openmindedness to realize a full integration. As Erika highlights it is important that students understand the importance to respect different ideas although they cannot share all of them.

Alessia, Italy

ales_sia — 2017-02-21 11:24:33 UTC

The most challenging thing to realize in the classroom is encouraging students to accept differences and respect people who have different traditions or beliefs. This happens beacuse families very often don't want their chidren to keep in contact with students from different countries....working with somebody who has prejudges i very difficoult!

2017-02-21 11:36:10 UTC

My name is Danila Giardina, are specialized all'inserimente teacher of children with special needs, they are professed in Palermo a I.C.S. A. Caponnetto, my class and a second primary.

Annibale Italy

formeverlab — 2017-02-21 14:02:46 UTC

the most challenging to realize in the classroom is a team building activity based on different cultures

Francesco, Italy

2017-02-21 14:14:17 UTC

It’s very important helping our students to accept differences. I teach students how to debate, encouraging the dialogue, and also how to resolve conflicts in the our classroom, learning how to communicate.

Casian Marian, Romania

2017-02-21 14:32:26 UTC

Intercultural component in terms of students primarily involves communication followed correct tolerance and mutual respect.

Vincenzo, Italy

studioferrenti — 2017-02-21 15:19:24 UTC

Even for me communication followed proper tolerance and mutual respect.

Clara, Italy

2017-02-21 16:52:01 UTC

In my opinion the most challenging aspect to teach, especially to adolescent learners is how to solve conflicts. At that age they could have conflicts for many reasons, anyway a struggle born by cultural differences has to be stopped immediately. I think that there can be many ways to solve conflicts but communication is always the best way in human relationships. In my opinion, communication is something we take for granted. By using cooperative activities, from the very beginning of school years, we have to work in order to achieve team building and class building. When students learn to accept each other and to be enriched by the differences, our work will be more easy and efficient.

Simona, Italy

simcardamone — 2017-02-21 17:03:27 UTC

It is important to make students accept diversity, to respect cultures, religions and ideas. The bases can be found in dialogue and love.

Sara Maria - Italy

2017-02-21 17:20:22 UTC

The areas Alicia and Erika mentioned are really important: I think that the respect for every culture is the background to develop the 4 C 21st century competences (communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking). It's important to keep the individual identity, I think that integration should be an exchange of information, integration should mean knowing, understanding, without changing who we are.
I think that parents and families too should be involved in this challenge.

Marco Italy

2017-02-21 17:46:14 UTC

Both the areas of Alicia and Erika are important. The most important is the respect for the other person and every idea and culture. I think that is important realize a challenging in the classromm to view the different relationship and create a discussion about it to focus the goal: there is a common view of the problem but different way to explain.

Cristina Italy

cristina_floriddia — 2017-02-21 17:46:26 UTC

Puppils learn by adults behaviour and by story that they hear and explain.
Teachers must be ready to see problems and speack about it .
Empathy and identification are good way to inspire love.

Sara - Italia

sara_ferraiuolo — 2017-02-21 20:05:07 UTC

Intercultural competences means understand and accept the differences. Starting in nursery school is important to teach kids to be curious, open minded, gentle, and generally speaking cancel the border from their mind. It is not very easy, especially as we are only teachers but parents are often of different opinions and they are still a very large part of the education that kids receive.

Livia Micaela Centonze, Italy

liviacentonze_lc — 2017-02-21 20:13:12 UTC

The most motivating learning activities consider learners as whole persons and address their intellectual, emotional

and physical potential. For example, cooperative learning embodies principles which are central to intercultural competence: learners work together to achieve a common goal in a respectful, appropriate and effective way, using their plurilingual competence.

Katia Italy

2017-02-21 20:17:51 UTC

The areas Alicia and Erika mentioned are really important: I think that the respect for every culture , religion and ideas is the only thing that will save our world. The main thing to do is starting respecting our students and their cultural knowledge, because the first way to teach is through the example. If we create a strong bond with our kids, they will trust us and our job becomes simpler

Rosa, Italy

2017-02-21 20:53:46 UTC

I agree with both of them and I think a teacher has to work on two levels: the foreign students and the local students, because acceptance, respect and empathy has to come from the two parts. All the students in a class have to overcome their social, religious background and accept the others. I agree with Alicia about the importance of the use of technology and modern teaching approaches in class to develop communication and curiosity. I'm an eTwinner and I've experienced that to be in contact with other countries and do it through technology, using their daily tools, has created among my students a high degree of awareness of being part of something bigger and has improved acceptance, respect and a willingness to know people from abroad.

Venditti Giovanni, Italy

2017-02-21 22:32:49 UTC

I agree with Alicia that teachers must work on respect in the beginning. Then he or she has to know them thoroughly, personally and familiarly in order to develope empathy and cooperativeness. I think that it is also important to make pupils aware of their own origins so that they can bocome resources in the destination country and grow a sense of transmission of cultural richness across boundaries. I also believe in metacognitive approach in cultural diversity, especially when religious and ideological diversities emerge. Empathy can be developed through story-telling, movie analysis, cathartic activities and collaboration and dialogue/debate,

Francesco Coppola, Italy

fscocoppola — 2017-02-22 07:12:41 UTC

In a intercultural classroom the dialog is important, that is the aptitude to speeking and listening by respecting the ideas of other people. This is a challenge because, I think, a student, being a young man, believes it is always correct what he thinks. When a young student listen to ideas that das not know, that das not understand, sometimes, he defends himself or attacks or despises the ideas or the person in front of him. We have to promote the aptitude to tolerance, to accepting the diversity. Inclusion is not identification but acceptation of what we don’t like or we don’t understand.

Andreea-Sweden

2017-02-22 10:09:55 UTC

I think that it is very important for our students to learn to think about the others, to look at the others needs and to develop empathy. We leave in societies where people became very individualists and I can see this to our pupils too. They don’t like to play with each other anymore, they rather stay alone with their eyes in their phones than to socialize with the other colleagues.

Therefore, we need to stimulate our students to work together, to collaborate and to help each other no matter if they have in their team girls, children with other religions or other nationalities. I also think that a key competence to combat not only extreme right views but the extremism in general is to encourage our pupils to create an open dialog there they have to come with arguments, arguments that are built after they critically read different sources.

Aurora - Italy

aurorpagano — 2017-02-22 10:36:45 UTC

I am agree with the words of Alicia and Erika. If we create a strong bond with our kids, they will trust us and our job becomes simpler. Empathy and identification are good way to inspire love. It's really important the respect for every culture.

2017-02-22 11:14:11 UTC

Francesca. Italy

2017-02-22 13:03:16 UTC

I work in a kindergarten where there are foreign Bambii. Sometimes it is not easy for teachers converse with children and their families, especially when cultural differences and language are far away. The important thing is to create a peaceful, friendly and respectful to others. The children are integrated into the classroom through group play activities, reading fairy tales and sharing life experiences.

Stanislava Petrova, Bulgaria

sto_ati — 2017-02-22 13:14:09 UTC

Children are much more rational and adaptive than adults and for them is much easier to find and understand intercultural.

Pietro- Italy

pierolauro — 2017-02-22 14:08:43 UTC

I do agree with Alicia and Erica, first of all a teacher who works on inclusiveness must work on self respect and acceptance of the other, secondarily cooperation and good practices among students coming from different countries is another important step which will lead at the awareness that all students are equal and deserve a bright future.

Serena A. - Italy

dolcefollia79 — 2017-02-22 15:33:50 UTC

I think it's important to work on the concept of inclusion in a context of collaboration and listening to demonstrate to our students how all this is essential to today's world. We live in a world where the barriers no longer exist, and our kids will be well aware.

Merja, Finland

2017-02-22 15:57:00 UTC

In my opinion, the key words in the videos were respect, empathy, humour and action.
You don´t need to understand everything about other people, but you do need to accept and respect them. It is all about accepting others and thinking about what others are going through. Empathy is an important skill, and we teachers need to learn our students how to develop it. One way to make a difficult agenda easier is to add some humor, because a smile always comes back to you :-)
To give and get feedback in a positive atmosphere, to talk about feelings, to work together towards a common goal are all abot encouraging dialogue. And I think that dialougue is one of the most difficult tasks both in the classroom and in the outside world - the new technology drives us to the opposite direction. It is so easy to communicate online instead of doing it live, face to face. When we loose the live contact, we loose something in the dialogue...

Paola Arduini, Italy- Spain

2017-02-22 17:40:00 UTC

And what if teachers cannot feel empathy?

Rosa,Italy

rosa_mazza — 2017-02-22 18:06:53 UTC

In my opinion every intercultural competence starts from respect, acceptance and above all empathy, but these competences are very difficult to develop, especially if we think that there are some teachers who can't feel empathy!

Valentina - italy

valebell80 — 2017-02-22 18:39:37 UTC

I'm completely agree with Alicia about the main competences about an inclusive teaching: communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. We Should Teach respect and emphaty to educate citizen of the world.
I believe that cooperative learning could be a good method where students work together in small, heterogeneous groups to solve a problem, complete a project or create a product.
This method is used to create a positive relationship within the class group and also becouse students are aware That they work will be usefull for the success of the group.
The help each other and they fell responsible for the reciprocal path.
This method Allows a perception of the self as a competent person in relation with other to Achieve common goals.

Elena,

2017-02-22 19:16:56 UTC

Elena, Italy

2017-02-22 19:16:56 UTC

I think that it is very important to look at the others needs and to develop empathy. The diversity is a resource for all us.

Rossella, Italy

2017-02-22 19:18:35 UTC

it is important to develop respect for diversity in the classroom and understand that diversity is an asset

Anna Naddeo

2017-02-22 19:19:50 UTC

Every teacher should teach respect for each other
An intercultural path can help us teachers to pass on to our students the principles of respect and acceptance.
Education is a right of every child - so even than what
It does not have the Italian citizenship

The classroom is a place of intercultural exchange with the outside, a construction area of identity of all students, and especially those immigrants.
The teacher's task is to encourage listening, dialogue, understanding

Valbona, Albania

valbona_mata2 — 2017-02-22 19:36:56 UTC

we discuss on class on these questions:
who am i?
how is the story of my family?
the meaning of my name?
on all of this we find common things and respect each other.We agrees about a lot of things ecactly by the moto:"Think,Feel,Make"
what is difficult are religions disscusions and we respect each other religion becouse we dont talk about it

Jenny-Italy

jennydurso — 2017-02-22 20:04:23 UTC

Alicia and Erika have well explained the different approaches of developing intercultural competences in our students.An aspect is to mention: every classroom is different and it is the main task of a teacher is to find with creativity the best classroom climate.

Seppe Hermans

sendtoseppe — 2017-02-22 20:06:01 UTC

Communication, respect differences and tolerance. Not the easiest things to teach to a teenager, regardless of their cultural background. We can only lead by example and uphold these values in our classroom.

Cristina

2017-02-22 20:54:24 UTC

Cristina Petre, Italy

2017-02-22 20:54:26 UTC

I agree what Alicia and Erika said. I agree using technology in schools. It could be an idea that native students do tutoring to foreign students? Cooperative learning is a valid method for working in class, I think.

Mariangela Testa, Catania

2017-02-22 21:18:55 UTC

Only a clear and regulated meeting can stimulate curiosity and relationship: I help everyday my students to work together, to collaborate and to help each other, respecting- of course- personal benchmarks. Individualism and extremism can be fight by open dialogue, common aims, cooperative learning.

Obviously, especially in a intercultural classroom, speaking and listening are the basis of respect, open minded inclusion and intercomprehension.

Giorgia, Romania

giorgiagroza — 2017-02-22 21:50:38 UTC

I think is very important for them to see that htey are precious for the others. We have to encpurage them to talk about their culture, habbits and religion, to find out which things are important for them, to try to understand them and to help them to integrate and to becaome a nwy member of our society

CHRISTOS GREECE

christos_chachoudis — 2017-02-22 22:01:30 UTC

THE KEY IS TO HAVE RULES IN THE CLASS, DISCUSS AND WORK WITH OUR DIFFERENCES AND THE STUDENTS SHOULD LEARN THA DIFFERENCES ARE PART OF OUR INTERESTING WORLD. THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IS A CRUCIAL PART OF COLLABORATION, COMMUNICATION AND CREATIVITY, IN ORDER TO DEVELOP CRITICAL THINKING.

Daniele - Italy

danvir — 2017-02-22 22:18:26 UTC

Which are the most important areas to address students to develop their intercultural compentence?

One of the most important thing is respect, but before creating an environment based on respect and tolerance we should help students to know more each other. First of all we should know students and then offer occasions in which they can know more about themselves and their culture. So organizing cooperative learning works, based on cooperation and discussions, and proposing lessons about different cultures can empower this competence and empathy. I liked one thing mentioned by Erika "They do not need to convince the other, neither to understand all other's ideas.

Linda Carlos Ruiz, Finland

lindacarlosruiz — 2017-02-23 06:05:07 UTC

I loved the points made by Erika and Alicia in the video. I think Erika nailed it when she said that " we can't understand everything and we can't always understand or change the way someone thinks and we have to accept that". This is very important. Even if we can't understand we can still respect. That is something we have to teach the students. I think Alicia gave some very valuable practical advice. We have to set the culture in our classroom from the beginning. Making the rules clear. And like Alicia I also believe that empathy can be taught. It is not easy, but with projects where the students have to work together and with dialogue it can be done

Sonia, Spain

2017-02-23 08:15:47 UTC

working the cooperative work in class help a lot to integrate students depending on their abilities to learn and if they are immigrants. With cooperative work we reinforce and integrate them better within the school and society. At the same time, they show respect towards opinions and points of view different to the ones the majority has. We have to reinforce also discussions and socio-cultural issues in group work

Jenny (Evgenia) Karoumpali Greece

2017-02-23 08:16:51 UTC

The intercultural dialogue and the intercultural understanding are very important and these should be taught at school.
There is an issue in case that these values contradict the families of the students' values (those families cultivate racism and far right ideas). In the school I work this school term there are such cases. I would be grateful if Erika and Alicia could give us a piece of advice, how to manage kids from families which support racism and far right ideas.
Another issue is in case that cultural diversity is against human rights, egality etc, fundemental values of the Europe (marriage of girls under the lowest legal age, violence against women etc). Alicia's and Erika's views with regard to this issue is very nimportant for me

Ioanna, Greece

ichalkia10 — 2017-02-23 08:20:07 UTC

The last 20 years our school is multiculturalism. Teachers are familiar with approaches and techniques that promote acceptance and respect for diversity.
Intercultural competition is a dynamic process that is constantly evolving
Children are encouraged to share their knowledge and experiences, analyze behaviors and values and to support each other during the learning experience.
It is important for students through cooperation and trust activities, first to know themselves and develop self-esteem and empathy and then develop through solidarity actions their interest in their classmates.
Music, theater, painting and arts in general bring our students closer and teach them respect for diversity, acceptance and solidarity.
ICT’s is a very helpful tool for communication and learning especially for newly arrived migrants who don’t speak the language
The big challenge for us is the newly arrived migrants that jdo not speak Greek or English neither do their families. I hope this course help us with ideas and new approaches.

Marie-Christine, France

2017-02-23 08:54:50 UTC

I agree with the speakers when they say that we need to build a climate of respect and trust in the classroom. It is also necessary to create cohesion between the students by making them work together on a common project.
They also have to accept others, their differences and that is the most difficult.

They must be encouraged and valued. We need to create mutual support and solidarity among the students.

Luisa D, Italy

2017-02-23 10:28:45 UTC

Acceptance and respect are the key words to create positive relationships among students with different cultures and habits. Teachers should encourage students to dialogue, stressing on the importance of listening to different points of view, new ideas that they may not understand and may not like. That does not mean they have to embrace everything they hear, but just become aware that differences exist, be tollerant and accept them.

It is not simple...but developing intercultural competences in our students is really necessary and important... acceptance and respect are the first two steps...making them aware that diversity is increasing...enrichment...the "new" is differt from me and it completes me.

mgchirillo — 2017-02-23 13:06:12 UTC

Silena P. - Italy

p_silena — 2017-02-23 13:37:38 UTC

In my opinion, the main task of the school is to facilitate the meeting and appreciation of other cultures, in a perspective of peace education, collaboration, acceptance of the different. The acceptance of the other is a particular state of mind and heart and should be placed in a large project of education to feelings. That is why is so difficult, because the stranger forces us to open up our vision of life, crumbles our attitude of closure. But I become "Me" through "You".

Lorenza Cairo

lorenzacairo — 2017-02-23 14:35:29 UTC

it's very important understand our student's needs. in Italian school student's needs are at first position. italian law ricognize and needs of everyone. teacher are preparated in meeting all student's cultural and human necessity.

Laura F. Italy

2017-02-23 15:36:57 UTC

I agree with Alicia: it is very important to teach empathy and we can do that if we create situation where the jung people have to cooperate und to collaborate. An important aspect is to learn to help students with special needs and to see in this diversity a resource that have to be respecteted

Lucia, Italy

luciaanemoli — 2017-02-23 15:52:03 UTC

I agree with Alicia and Erika; I also found it very interesting and useful to their suggestions for teaching intercultural skills to my students. Of course, while firmly believing in the values of tolerance, respect, dialogue and so on., Sometimes I fear that the values remain just pretty words. So I think every teacher has to offer personal behaviors that are consistent with those values. Also I would like to know new methods with which to teach empathy.

Fabiana ITALY

fabiana2 — 2017-02-23 16:50:03 UTC

I say thank you for these videos :).
I think that the 'password' is EMPATY. With my pupils I'd like improve communications, relations, comprehension, respect, value. In our classroom we could introduce webtools with Storytelling about the great universal values (STORYBIRD). We could talk about different traditions and culture. All cultures have a lovely fragrance.
We could create a PADLET or PREZI or POWTOON presentations where we can post traditions, foods, religions...and so...School is changing :)

Alice Isabela, Romania

2017-02-23 17:08:11 UTC

It's very important understand our student's needs.

Communication, acceptance , tolerance, respect, empathy , make positive relationships among students with different cultures.

Sara Viotti, Italy

sara_viotti — 2017-02-23 18:01:26 UTC

The main idea I agree with is communication is the right way to manage the conflicts between students. Furthermore, I appreciate Erika's opinion about acceptance. Not all of what another thinks can be understood, but we can try to accept it.

Carol (Italy)

carol_f — 2017-02-23 18:03:13 UTC

I completely agree with Alicia and Erika and I'd like to say thank you to all for the interesting resources you shared in the previous page. I decided to try the Word Search webtool with some key words said by Erika and Alicia. Here is the result:

Anisoara Tarcan, Romania

any_tarcan — 2017-02-23 18:16:43 UTC

It's very important to make students accept diversity. I teach students how to debate, encouraging the dialogue.

RosaMa, Italy

2017-02-23 18:50:56 UTC

We are receiving some precious advice from these videos. I think the most difficult challenge is empathy and consequently respect. That's because students are self-centered and in their pre-adolescence they just struggle with their ego. They probably find it difficult to accept others 'cause they find it impossible to accept themselves completely.

Georgiana Crivat, Romania

2017-02-23 19:39:07 UTC

The key principle is to get learners to compare the theme in a familiar situation with examples from an unfamiliar context. For instance, the theme of Sport can be examined from many perspectives, including:
Gender - Are there sports that are, in the familiar context or in the unfamiliar context, predominantly played by men or by women? - Are things changing? Age - Are there sports for younger people and older people? Region - Are there local sports? - Do people, including the learners, identify with local teams? -Do some teams have a particular cultural tradition? Religion - Are there religious objections to playing sport, or days when some people choose not to do sport because of religious observance?
Racism - Is this found in spectator sports? - Are the players of foreign teams, or foreign players in local teams always treated with respect? - Are there incidents of racist chants or insults?
Other themes e.g. food, homes, school, tourism, leisure, can receive a similarly critical perspective. Grammatical exercises can reinforce prejudice and stereotypes or challenge them. For example, female subjects may be linked to stereotypically female activities or actions; stereotyping generalisations may be encouraged about groups. Teachers can encourage learners to comment on such statements and challenge them.
Similar exercises can be proposed, which include a broader view of culture (e.g. use a wider range of names; include activities more likely to be enjoyed by minority groups, or clothes worn by minorities; include a wide range of names of countries and peoples).

Maria luisa , Italy

luisa_cedrone — 2017-02-23 20:28:13 UTC

Only through empathy and communication ( all kind of communication) our students will be able to open each other, to recognize that their diversities could be a force for building a new way to feel and live their common and at the same time different world

Anna P - ITALY I believe that the foundation of everything is to be found in education. An education that promotes the ability to respect and understand others. A capacity of acceptance that requires knowledge of the cultural specificity and the habit of dialogue and discussion.

2017-02-23 22:25:40 UTC

Roberta Condomitti - Italy

condomittir — 2017-02-23 23:08:22 UTC

As I said in the previous padlet, I believe that only trought the esaltation of diversity of everyone and consequently everyone uniqueness we can teach respect for we and the other people. I belive in the importance of enchance own origins, own culture and, consequently, own uniqueness.

We are all unique, precious and rare therefore we each of us is worthy of respect.

Through use of tecnology and a serene atmosphere we increase self-esteem and respect of other.

Conflicts are always result of a disfuncional comunication.

Dialogue and openness are the only tools to break down the barriers of prejudice.

Elena Chiş, Romania

lenuta_chis — 2017-02-24 07:05:57 UTC

In my opinion, a multicultural class, one of the most important things is respect. For proper respect reach the first step is tolerance. Tolerance is based on mutual knowledge. This is indicated for students to learn in teams, through cooperation, to discuss different cultures.

laura brazzabeni - italy

2017-02-24 08:57:34 UTC

my motto: together in differences; encourage dialogue; getting to know through differences. (collaborative Learning and the 4 cs).

Silvia-italy

2017-02-24 10:03:23 UTC

L'importante è promuovere il dialogo, l'apertura verso gli altri, verso le differenti culture e religioni, condividere i valori di ognuno è aprirsi al dialogo.

Irene, Italy

2017-02-24 10:46:09 UTC

I think empathy is on the basis of all relationship.Empathy as the ability to understand what the other feel, the ability to imagine what it would be like to be in that person situation. So emphaty, respect, dialogue, tollerance and collaboration and ability to listen the others are very important for a positive relationship

Cinzia DM-Italy

2017-02-24 12:08:27 UTC

I think that first of all we have to know each other and understand and learn to know other worlds and other worlds, through dialogues for example. Once we understand that in the classroom we are from different cultures, we can learn how to work together and to respect others.

George Kyriakopoulos

gkyriakopoul197 — 2017-02-24 13:40:53 UTC

Respect, empathy, talking about things we do or dont understand, showing tolerance, understanding our limits, trying not to feel guilty if we can't be accepted by everyone, all these are the main intercultural competences one has to master in order to handle migrant students.

Rosaria, Italy

2017-02-24 14:12:23 UTC

I think that the first thing to do is " respect ". Then it is possible to talk about accepting the others

Yuri, Italy

yurisab — 2017-02-24 14:25:00 UTC

In my classroom I use the cultural diversity as a resource to enrich the different students' knowledge and the peer and group works are other important activities I can use to promote the cultural diversity. I think that the most challenging thing is succeeding in teaching the students to accept the diversity.

Alessandra B., Italy

beralessa_ab — 2017-02-24 14:40:28 UTC

I agreed with Irene the empathy is the key, clearly the respect is the base of the relationship between teacher and class.

Ilaria, Italy.

solaria76 — 2017-02-24 15:16:35 UTC

I totally agree with Alicia and Erika. I think all the aspects mentioned ( empathy, understanding, respect, tolerance ) are the keys to work efficiently in a multicultural class. Even if, I must admit, that it is very hard to put all these aspects in practice when you deal with pupils who have no knowledge of L2.So it is extremely important that the teacher should have support and resources in the school.

Eleni, Switzerland

eleni_mousena — 2017-02-24 15:41:52 UTC

In my opinion, empathy and respect are the most important values in a multicultural class. As a foreign languages teacher, during the first lesson, I always make a contract with my students where we altogether write down our obligations, our rights and our expectations. Among them, we can find respect, justice, dialogue, collaboration, help, empathy, support, acceptance, tolerance and understanding. If I see that any of these values is infringed, I try to give a solution immediately by discussing with the students involved or with all the class (I avoid punishments and other anachronistic methods). This contract has always helped me overcome any difficult situations in class (e.g. racism, xenophobia).

Vanesa, Croatia

2017-02-24 16:28:57 UTC

Respect is the most important thing. Everything else comes out of it.

Arianna, Italy

proia_arianna — 2017-02-24 17:29:38 UTC

Teachers could try to eradicate the prejudice that establishes west, or white is better by watching films, by reading books for istance.
Students have to be conscious that their vision is only one of the many diverse ones, as respectable as the others. Relativity against centralism is my slogan during the lessons.

ROBERTA, SARDINIA (ITALY)

2017-02-24 18:15:39 UTC

I FEEL THAT IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO DEVELOP SENSIBILITY TOWARDS OTHER PEOPLE. WE HAVE TO ENCOURAGE OUR STUDENTS TO RESPECT OTHER PERSONS, TO KEEP CALM, TO HAVE EMPATHY. IT'S A VERY STRONG CHALLENGE KEEPING THE RIGHT BALANCE INTO THE CLASSROOM: WHEN THERE ARE DIFFERENT POSITIONS IT'S NOT EASY.

Cristina Antal - Romania

2017-02-24 18:30:14 UTC

It is easier to work with children, they can listen, they can be happy, they do not discriminate but the difficult thing is to work with adults, the children's parents with their mentalities.

Manuela, Italy

manuela_brattoli — 2017-02-24 18:41:33 UTC

I think that one of the most challenging aspects of our work is to make inclusive activities. That means that we should think about activities that can be done by every pupil in the class and that can allow foreign students to feel part of the class end the small community it represents.

Francesca- Italy

francescapulvirenti1 — 2017-02-24 18:42:31 UTC

Empathy is important. I think it's important they think about being in a foreign country, leaving hometown and friends. There are a lot of role plays for students that can help them in this. It's also important the knowledge of the country and culture of the new arrived student in order to avoid prejudice and stereotypes.

Piera, Italy

2017-02-24 19:46:51 UTC

Relation, point of contact, knowledge,: the basis to build multicultural circle.

Marco Schoeber, Germany

2017-02-24 20:27:20 UTC

Areas for improving/developing competences:

classroom setting – I believe it’s true that you have to teach and role model the (cultural) values you want to see in your students. We often underestimate our ‘power’ as role models when it comes to teaching young people.

teaching respect for others – Empathy and appreciation in all spheres of life should be guiding principles, e.g. I enjoy designing critical incidents (i.e. short stories including intercultural clashes) in order to develop empathy in my lessons. Furthermore, the 4 Cs (communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking) are the foundation of appreciating other because you can do so by talking to each other respectfully, working with each other, creating things together and by critically questioning our actions.

encouraging students to accept difference – A key issue in the classroom! However, this objective is very hard to achieve. We can’t manipulate/brainwash our student; we can only offer alternative ways of looking at things.

teaching empathy/debating skills – I combined these two skills because the go hand in hand in my opinion. Interacting while considering the needs/feelings of other people is crucial to living together peacefully. However, it is sometimes easier said than done to refute clichés or tackle prejudice through communication in the classroom. Small steps (e.g. dialogue activities, activities centring on developing trust in each other) should lead the way towards empathetic discourse.

resolving conflicts – “How can we address verbal/physical abuse in our classes?” Can you remember this question from your days at the university? That was all we wanted to know, yet it is so difficult to find a simple answer to this complex problem. Everyone of has extended his/her own repertoire when it comes to resolving conflicts in class, so have I. Nonetheless, I sometimes can’t get rid of the feeling that a reaction that I conjured up within seconds did not lead to the ideal course of events. Maybe I should encourage myself to pause more often before intervening – a skill we could also teach our students.

Any other area(s): There is something on my mind which I hardly can describe. It is a something I call ‘a general ability to live one’s life’, e.g. without the students’ parents hovering above everything. Only through practical orientation combined with a thorough grasp of life our kids can learn how to adapt to different situations and aren’t shaken to the core as soon as slight difference and/or diverse settings pop up.

The most challenging aspect:

In my opinion, it is very hard to encourage our students to accept difference. Indeed, this is my main goal in class, yet I refrain from becoming their brain – I can teach them things, but they have to think and decide for themselves. Of course, I always reinforce that there are limitations to the freedom of thought/speech as soon as nationalistic/racist/sexist sentiments are involved. Speak your mind, but think before you speak – that’s the creed my students constantly get to hear.

Konstantina, Greece

2017-02-24 21:09:34 UTC

In my opinion, the most important thing is to build positive relationships between students with different cultures. So we should encourage students to dialogue, to listen to each other, to know the different points and to find the similar feelings and needs. Empathy, acceptance and respect are the priority in our multicultural classes. I also think that games and arts help students to communicate without stress. Finally, we have to remember that love is the only thing which everybody needs.

Sara - Italy

sarabemporad — 2017-02-24 21:16:55 UTC

I totally agree with the aspects highlighted by Alicia and Erika. Talking about Chritical Thinkng, I think it is something our students don't have, especially because it isn't something they learn at home. Another problem of our schools is that we usually don't have the instruments to deal with Multicultural Classes. Teachers often need to "reinvent" themselves becoming moderators, trying to teach equality and "inclusion" to their students. That's not an easy goal to reach.

Sara, Italy

2017-02-25 00:14:44 UTC

I agree with Alicia and Erika, because respect and empathy are very important to build positive relationship between students. I think that new tecnology, cooperative learning or peer tutoring can help students to learn each other and can encourage the acceptance of all different point of view, thinks or sensitivities

Wanda

w_pennelli — 2017-02-25 06:18:35 UTC

Italy
I think Empathy and respect for other cultures are very important. The areas which have most challenging to realize in the classroom is communication with technology.

Monica Boccoli, Italy

mobocco — 2017-02-25 08:01:38 UTC

I think ICT and studying English arevery important to address with my students to develop their intercultural competences

Moschoula, Hellas

mcdouris — 2017-02-25 09:17:49 UTC

I believe all the issues raised by Alicia and Erica are well discussed and they are very important in every classroom not only multicultural ones.
For me important is to teach how to resolve conflicts in the classroom, something difficult to deal with especially if different cultures and xenophobia are involved.
The answer would be to make sure we teach respect for others, their personality and their culture, through understanding, appreciation and empathy. In todays globalized world where creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration are of vital importance in order to survive, learning to accept differences is essential.

Emanuela, Italy

2017-02-25 10:39:57 UTC

I think the important think is comunication. The students need to understand and resperct the different cultures even if they don't like. The teacher need to create opportunity of reflections and discutions about different culture .

Maura, Italy

mauraccia — 2017-02-25 14:20:36 UTC

To be honest, I jotted down my answers to the question before watching the video, not to be exceedingly influenced by the experts, and I've found many of them in the tape, just better expressed. My first point was the building of critical thinking, that I find especially important amongst the other life skills: only with it you can really and deeply understand that diversity is a resource. To strengthen it you must visit many places, even virtually, chiefly by reading and playing simbolically (reading is a fantastic tool to stimulate creativity and empathy). I guess that if a child, from the earliest stages of his life, is used to seing books with all kinds of things, diversity for him won't be something puzzling. To let children explore all the diversity of the world you must use a whole range of languages, from music to painting, to dance, so to reach the inner ear of anybody. I find role-playing particularly effective, chiefly to develop empathy and to help children reflect on their behaviour and feeling. One colleague of mine ( a very good teacher and actress) last year used dubbing with wonderful results. As I view it, the key point in building respect is your example and, as Erica was saing, humour is a valuable supplement (which, unfortunately, I almost completely lack...). But I also believe that you can't forget hard, everyday work: only if you are capable of giving everybody strong basic abilities they won't feel inferior anf think that they deserve, in some way, disrespect. Finally, I completely agree with Alicia: you have to build relations in the group if you want that everybody feel themselves backed up: friendship is an often underestimated superpower.

Astrid, Italy

astriddandrea — 2017-02-25 15:08:36 UTC

I reckon empathy should become the basics for us and our students. In my opinion, it can be encouraged daily through listening and making the students speak about their opinions on a specific topics (for example after having dealt with a specific reading or listening activity or a video). This will enhance respect and the acceptance of the differences along with a progression in problem solving.

gabriella

2017-02-25 15:36:05 UTC

one of teh most important aspect is lisening in the largest sense of the term

Patrizia, Italy

Patseba — 2017-02-25 16:17:42 UTC

I think the key thing is respect for diversity

María, Spain

isasama10 — 2017-02-25 17:48:19 UTC

I absolutely agree with Alicia and Erika on the areas to develop student intercultural competence: 1. Get to know each other, Respect, Empathy, Understanding, and Appreciation; 2 Encourage to accept differences; 3 Teach students how to debate and encourage dialogue; 4 Teach how to resolve conflicts. I would only add the principle of Leading by example in every situation.

Angeliki, Thessaloniki-Greece

2017-02-25 17:48:24 UTC

Developing intercultural competences of our students is not a simple thing. In my opinion we should be sufficiently prepared to deal with the different cultural backgrounds. My view not only includes the adequate knowledge of their languages and their particular needs but the most important is to get into their souls. The psychology in such ages is very sensitive. As a result teachers have to be trained on such issues like chid psychology on specific situations (wars e.t.c.). If they manage to do this, then they will be able to make students overcome their differences and respect each other. Our job is to learn them how to communicate and collaborate understanding that diversity is the most beautiful thing in our relationships. Without it the world would be boring.This can be easily done through workshops with a common goal. Thus they will realise how constructive is to support different views.Furthermore it would be attractive to them if we organised thematic days such as food in a chinese restaurant or a french movie at the cinema with subtitles of course or visit to a "different" museum. All these will encourage them to improve their communication skills and their personal relationships. Last but not least I would like to remind that we ourselves are role models for those children. As a consequence our actions should keep up with the values we maintain. This is the biggest challenge we have to consider.

Antonella, Italy

2017-02-25 18:59:06 UTC

We should help our students in encouraging Respect and Empathy. Teachers should be good moderators in order to encourage dialogue and accept differences. could be a brainstorming activity, in order to face conflicts and solve them

Giuseppina, Italy

2017-02-25 21:17:04 UTC

I think that It's very important communication, acceptance , tolerance, respect, empathy , make positive relationships among students with different cultures. Develop knowledge about the foreign countries in its various cultural dimensions: customs, traditions, music, holidays, history ... and know how to tell them seizing the embedded wealth in every culture.

Marina, Italy

marinademma — 2017-02-25 22:01:46 UTC

I think that everything should start with a generating question like : "What mean the word different for you?",from here you can encourage dialogue or a simple draw to explain at the rest of the pupil and find out that what is different for you isn't for somebody else.
After a long discussion it is always nice try to live the different culture in first person and a chance can be realize a recipe for each ethnic

Elvira Esposito, Italy

2017-02-25 22:36:13 UTC

Respect, collaboration, discussions, use of technology, are all activities that promote inclusion in the classroom. You could also assign group research, to encourage the inclusion in extracurricular life.

Irene, Milo (CT) Italy

ireneprastani — 2017-02-26 00:11:25 UTC

Empathy is developed from knowledge through dialogue, through the account each of their history and the possibility of moments of confrontation generates empathy. Pupils confront and learn to know each other even in recreational activities or in the game, during which I think we can let students free to relate. Then there are disciplines that foster relationships, overcoming the obstacle of language. Music, Art, Sports speak a universal language that stimulates mental faculties that can more easily free themselves from cultural patterns. I think that these areas represent a tool that generates empathy and for this reason must be given priority to them in multicultural contexts.

Rosaria Filippo - Italia

rosaria_filippo — 2017-02-26 00:11:33 UTC

The work for the creation of a climate of inclusion in the school is to be inserted in the context of a coherent overall school projects with this regard.
An inclusive approach requires the collaboration of all stakeholders in the school world. Specifically, the teacher should strive to achieve the following objectives: To promote a sense of belonging, recognize diversity, Practicing listening to others, manage conflict, promote the participant-action, establish the rules together, build the community. To do this, you should put yourself in the shoes of changing perspective and train the observation and listening skills. It should organize role plays, simulation, problem solving. Learning to work with Storytelling (Literature of Migration) is in audiovisual production and in writing workshops (Rewrite the stories, diary or scrapbook photo). Organize workshops on emotions using mediation body (theater) painting and music.

VAIA EVANGELOUDI-GREECE

vami800 — 2017-02-26 03:12:03 UTC

WHAT SHOULD BE STRESSED IN ALL CLASSROOMS IS THAT THERE AREN'T ANY INFERIOR AND SUPERIOR CULTURES.THIS CAN BE ACHIEVED BY PUTTING STUDENTS IN EACH OTHERS' SHOES THROUGH DRAMA OR DIALOGUES OR MAKING THEM EXPERIENCE SITUATIONS THAT CAN BE HEARTBREAKING AND MAKE THEIR CLASSMATES SAD. ESPECIALLY FOR STUDENTS WHO INITIATE EMBARRASSING ACTIONS FOR THEIR CLASSMATES. ALL IN ALL MAKE STUDENTS FEEL HOW THEY WOULD FEEL IF THEY HAD BEEN TREATED IN A NASTY AND INSULTING WAY.

antonella italia

2017-02-26 06:45:04 UTC

There are many skills to acquire ar; respect, cooperation and inclusion of those who are different

Francesca, Italy

2017-02-26 10:44:09 UTC

I think that if teachers develop the 21stcentury competences: communicate, create, collaborate and critical thinking they are then able to encourage empathy, discussion, cooperation, inclusion.

EMANUELA B. ITALY

manubar2016 — 2017-02-26 11:31:57 UTC

It's important to encourage dialogue and respect for other cultures to develop empathy

Eleni, Greece

kyriotieleni — 2017-02-26 12:29:29 UTC

I think that respect and empathy are very important.

Salva, Spain

salprosm1 — 2017-02-26 12:39:23 UTC

I think we should teach our students to know and respect the cultural diversity in which they live. This is the best way to respect each other and to enrich ourselves with cultural diversity.

Alessandra G. Italy

scrocchia67 — 2017-02-26 15:15:49 UTC

I agree with the ideas by Alicia and Erika. Getting closer with each student is the key to intercultural competences, anyway it's a hard work. The more the students grow, the more we have to fight racism, close.mindedness, shame even fear. Students may be afraid not to be accepted because they see, perfectly well, that the new classroom reality isn't the same reality they come from or live in once they get out of school. They must feel that we really care about them. I'll be happy, if I can build a trust-worth relationship with my (foreign) students. This is to me the most challenging area to realize in my classrooms

Victoria, Brussels, Belgium

2017-02-26 15:15:50 UTC

I agree with the speakers, very valuable. I would like to add that I think it is important to inform with facts and figures about the topic, before there is a debate. I think it is important that students learn to debate and use the right arguments based on information and not on rumours or prejudices.

Rosanna, Italy

2017-02-26 15:55:52 UTC

It's very important for encourage dialogues and rispect for other cultures, improve communicative, collaborative and critica thinking to develop emphaty.

Nina E., Finland

nina_enkkela — 2017-02-26 16:13:20 UTC

I fully agree with Erika and Alicia. For me the key words here are: respect, open-mindedness and appreciation. You can teach empathy by making the students work towards a common goal. You can teach respect by discussing every "bad word" or bad action in classroom. It´s very important to be curious about other people (students, classmates, colleagues) which means trying to get to know people personally. This is very difficult for me in a Finnish education system where I "teach" and counsel 300 students It´s also demanding to try to understand other people or other cultures. We tend to think "my way" and stick in prejudices. I really liked Alicias words:" It´s not necessary to understand everything."

VITTORIA-NAPLES-ITALY

vdaquila63 — 2017-02-26 16:16:36 UTC

I think we MUST teach our students to know and respect cultural diversities in which they live. This is the best way to respect each other and to enrich ourselves with cultural diversity.

Maria INTRIERI, Italy

mri5 — 2017-02-26 16:50:22 UTC

I share Erika's opinion: empathy is the first ingredient for proper development of intercultural competences. In my daily practice, one of the biggest problems that I see is the prejudice against the foreigner who (partly because of the economic situation of crisis that Italy is experiencing at this time) is often seen as an enemy, an obstacle to the realization of a young native. Among the most effective strategies tested in order to induce the development of empathetic relations and alliance between students of different nationalities there is the team work: the need to achieve a goal, a common goal unleashes positive synergies. You can start from the simple game until you apply the same methodology on authentic work programs.
I also feel that the knowledge of the other in terms of culture and traditions is essential to the development of a healthy relationship.
Ultimately these are the cornerstones for the start of a proper development of intercultural skills:
1) capacity for empathy
2) knowledge of the other (culture and traditions)
3) sharing of human values.
So that our educating action has, however, successfully, I believe that a sharing of objectives with the families of the boys is necessary: the family and school educational agencies must more than ever, in this case to be collaborative, otherwise difficilemnte will succeed to achieve significant results.
In class discussions, readings, films can be some of the useful tools to create the climate for a well done work
inclusion.

Stefania, Italy

2017-02-26 17:17:34 UTC

I agree with Alicia and Erika. At first is very important to be open to diversity,Teacher should be able to integrate his foreign student with empaty in classroom and he can create a working group starting from the respect to diversity as to arose curiosity and provoke reflections on the part of the other students about customs and traditions

Ida, Italy.

2017-02-26 17:30:51 UTC

I think is very important empaty but teacher to be obliged to incite the students to work in group starting from the respet to differences.

Giuliana Italy - There are some key words used by Alicia and Erika which a teacher has to take in mind in order to succeed in developing the students’ intercultural competence: communication, open-mindness, empathy. They should be our goals in our daily practice, regardless of the subject matter we teach. A classroom is a small community, the place where we build our society and teaching students respect, empathy,collaboration, how to debate, how to confront each other and to resolve a conflict, are our primary educational objectives. Generally speaking, I believe this is the most important challange of our 21st century society!

2017-02-26 18:03:37 UTC

Sanja, Croatia

2017-02-26 18:31:11 UTC

I agree with Alicia and Erica. Most important is to create the culture of respect, tolerance and acceptance in the classroom. Personal approach is also very important. We have to know students story, parents, needs and - traumas.

Also, we have to know how to cope with the post traumatic stress. School psychologist is very important in our work.

We are visiting local synagogue or Serbian orthodox church. On the school website we share our experiences using Kizoa Movie Maker: https://www.kizoa.com/Movie-Maker/d39283096k7976446o1/pravoslavna-crkva.

We are encouraging students to accept differences. Also, they are thinking and feeling more about their similarities. We have very interesting discussions between catholic students and islamic students. They are explaining to each other what they want to know in the spirit of tolerance. They are teaching each other! Sometimes they don't fully understand everything, but that's ok! Important is not to judge with prejudice! They discover that they must teach their parents! Teacher must consider parents - always!

For me, the most challenging is to teach students how to debate, because they are sometimes very excited and emotional. Or very shy! Foreign students often need more confidence!

About resolving conflicts in the classroom: we have Debate club for resolving some problems. We are exploring our emotions and that's very hard.

Open-mindedness is essential…

From project „I am a migrant“: www.iamanimmigrant.com/: „The only difference between you and another person is the fact that they got an opportunity in life that you did not have.“ Camille from Trinidad

miriam scafati, Italy

miriamscafatihpg23 — 2017-02-26 18:52:14 UTC

I think is very important empaty . Teacher must to incite the students to work in group starting from the respect to differences.

Daniela Scalia, Sicily

danielascalia81 — 2017-02-26 19:52:53 UTC

I agree with them. It's important to create a positive place to study, to learn and to open our minds to accept the others. I've three stranger students: a Columbian and two croates, we make all the possible to help them ti stay well with us

Tania, Trofarello (TO), Ital

tanjarull — 2017-02-26 20:47:08 UTC

Very comforting to listen and read so interesting opinions.
I think key words to develop intercultural competence are:
- dialogue
- reflection about our own personal and cultural identity
- curiosity

In my opinion, the most challenging aim in classroom nowadays is to improve curiosity about others. Curiosity needs time to spent with dialogue and information: that is what we are loosing more and more. Time.
School can be the palestra for training these competences, to be used normally in life.

Maria Marioara, Romania

lenuta_chis — 2017-02-27 06:37:35 UTC

In my opinion, a multicultural class, one of the most important things is respect and empathy towards others. For this first step is tolerance. Tolerance is based on mutual knowledge. This is indicated for students to learn in teams, through cooperation, to discuss different cultures.

Valentina Confido, Italy - The importance of empathy

valentinaconfido — 2017-02-27 08:49:14 UTC

Empathy is the key which starts any kind of intercultural path aimed to include the 4 Cs. No project can be valuable if we do not encourage students (and their family) to really dive into "other" or "different" people's lives and experiences. Curiosity must be fostered, as well as the sense of respect that modern fears and negative feelings often block out. I agree with what both Alicia and Erica said. We have to create a positive enviromnment and imrprove collaboration.

Stefania, Italy

2017-02-27 08:54:00 UTC

It's important empathy and open mindness to support the integration of all the students, not only foreign students.
I think we have to help our students to appreciate each other overcoming mistrust and prejudice to became open to everh type of diversity. Trying to turn a difficulty into an opportunity for growth.
Stimolare respect and curiosity for other culture and way of life.

Konstantina, Greece

2017-02-27 10:25:10 UTC

Create the culture you want to have in your classroom and know well your students, in order to teach respect for other cultures, as Alicia highlighted. In my opinion, empathy is very important to address with my students to develop their intercultural competence. It is challenging create creativity and critical thinking among students. Moreover, the teacher has to encourage students to accept differences as Erika mentioned. I have to add not only among people but also among all species of nature. This makes them more open minded at differences around them at school, in the community and at nature. In order to encourage students at dialogue, we should practice them at the debate. It is useful what Alicia mentioned about teaching students how to resolve conflicts in the classroom by developing communication.

VITTORIA-NAPLES-ITALY I think we MUST teach our students to know and respect cultural diversities in which they live. This is the best way to respect each other and to enrich ourselves with cultural diversity.

vdaquila63 — 2017-02-27 10:48:25 UTC

Laura Lupo, Italy

2017-02-27 11:26:00 UTC

Empathy and dialogue are the most important aspects to develop in classrooms, because too often we are focused on our own problems that we are sightless and we can't see others ' problems

Elisa, Soverato Italy

m_riccio — 2017-02-27 12:42:14 UTC

I agree with them. What we have to teach to students is open - mindness, comunication , dialogue. I have noticed that when students talk to each other they want to learn more and know more about other cultures.

Luisa, Italy

ossolengoluisa — 2017-02-27 13:18:48 UTC

I think that the most important area to address with our student's to develop their intercultural competences are those regarding the appreciations of the other cultures, because other cultures enriched us and help us understanding thera are no values or traditions good for all people and all the situations.
the most challenging area is, in my opinion, to create the culture we want to have in our classroom: this is a long-lasting teaching and we could find, between our students, some guys with no-open mind

Paola, Italy

2017-02-27 14:13:15 UTC

The main competences the speakers talked about are to be shared and experienced bu all classes independently from their level of multiculturality. I mean that those competences often lack in class in general. In my experience the problem is often the lack of interest in other cultures, other stories and other people in general. So if we were able to improve the interest of the students towards each other, and their listening skills in terms of attention and concentration, that would be a great help.

Vani (Fot. Vass.), Athens, Greece

2017-02-27 17:25:11 UTC

Both speakers have outlined very important areas that matter in the development of intercultural learner competences. In my teaching experience, it is of utmost importance to forward the values of self-respect and respect to others in a classroom and the value of democracy. An extremely challenging task is to approach and work with parents who have not adequately developed these skills in themselves and who exert major influence on their child, to the extent that our interventions have merely no result.

Chiara, Italy

chiara_agnelli1 — 2017-02-27 17:35:26 UTC

I think that arousing curiosity and interest among students is the best way to develop intercultural competences. As Erika and Alicia said, dialogue and respect are key-concept to teach empathy and cooperation among peers. In my experience I saw that peer activity or group work are always a good way to encourage learners to spend some time together and get to know each other. now that I'm teaching to adults, I can see how difficult it is. Children are more open to new things and tend to welcome diversity with more enthusiasm. Adults are usually bounded by their beliefs, prejudices and personal experiences. In this context, what Erika said becomes extremely important: even if we do not agree or we do not share the same ideals, we can listen to each other and respect each other. I would like to help my learners to approach this way of life. But in order to achieve this, I am aware I have to embrace it myself and work hard on my empathy skills.

The both teachers shared useful ideas on the topic. I would also use personalisation task, which should get the students thinking and talking about the personalissues connected with cultural diversity and to reflect whether they think most migrants move countries for positivereasons or for negative ones. Giving the students the opportunity to imagine themselves as an immigrant may make them more conscious and more respectful

2017-02-27 19:14:24 UTC

Stavroula - Greece

stavroulakod — 2017-02-27 19:21:46 UTC

Alicia and Erica highlighted very important areas and I agree with them. It is very important to create a good climate in our classroom by promoting basic social skills, such as embathy, respect, open-mindedness, understanding and appreciation. So we could encourage students to work together, debade, resolve conflicts and interact with each other. In my opinion the good climate is one of the key things about developing intercultural competences of our students.

Luciana ,Italy

2017-02-27 19:24:50 UTC

Regarding this topic I want to share with the other partecipants my experience.In one of my classes there is a girl from Philippines. She is very good at school and active. Once when she had just arrived from her country ,I was teaching
a poem about nature and its seasons and she brought me a similar poem she had already studied in her country.I asked her to share the poem with her classmates.
Another time we made a poster and she decorated it with some origami teaching all the class to make them.I always encourage her to share with her classmates her previous experiences.So, I agree that involving our students into activities in order to reach a common goal and developing the four Cs is important to create their intercultural competence.

Stefania, Italy

ste_lenzi_75 — 2017-02-27 19:29:13 UTC

I sometimes like to mention the famous aphorism "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (E.B. Hall). I think it's important to teach respect for other cultures, encourage students to accept differences and, in order to obtain it, my exemple is essential. However, can I teach empathy? How can I become more empathetic? I'm afraid but that's not easy. Moreover, I'd truly like to be empathetic, but I cannot make me sure of being it.

Loredana, B. Romano Italy

2017-02-27 19:35:05 UTC

In my opinion, students must be aware of the phenomenon of the immigration and they have to improve their intercultural and relation approach . They need more socialization and exchange moments. Their learning object has to build a model able to value the differences, promote the integration, the interreligious and intercultural dialogue, to create a better social cohesion.

Claudia Renda Italy

claudiarenda — 2017-02-27 20:29:10 UTC

I agree with Alice and Erika. In my opinion cooperative learning, sharing moments during the lesioni and outside of school, tollerance, dialogare improove. Competence culture is a working in progress, Long life learning. Multiculture is opportunity for increase society.

Annamaria, Italy

2017-02-27 20:31:49 UTC

there should be much more time to share everybody stories and believes. it is important to teach that all has the same value for each other and respect for all personal boundaries.

Giorgio Figura, Italy

2017-02-27 21:15:27 UTC

In my opinion, students should be aware of one of fenomend of our day that immigration to mature in them an intercultural approach and relationship. In this way they can better socialization between them. This definitely can be an opportunity to highlight the differences, promote integration, inter-religious and intercultural dialogue, to create a better social cohesion both in the classroom but also in the external social life, to educate students to become comfortable citizens .

Silvia, Italy

2017-02-27 21:23:31 UTC

I think that developing intercultural competence is a real challenge for teachers nowadays. Students are not always open to others, especially if they are from different countries and cultures. They get into many conflicts and they are not always willing to respect cultural diversity and to accept other ways of thinking. I do agree with Alicia and Erika's opinions, of course. I think I need to learn effective strategies to deal with conflicts in the classroom and to develop empathy and respect among students.

Zoi, Greece

zetakoli — 2017-02-27 21:55:24 UTC

1.4 Developing intercultural competences of your students
I agree with Alicia and Erika but I think also as a crucial component the parental agent, because I had an experience with a girl from Sudan. My collegues and I we tried to support her incorporation in the class team but her mother din't help in this direction, so we decide to call the parents in a meeting at school. We soon understood that their culture was very different from ours about the education of a girl. The father was more open minded person and support our educational plan. In fact he was invited to visit the class and give informations about their life in Sudan. The whole think proved to be very interesting for all the class and the girl seemed to be very proud about the presence of her father.

Giovanna Dotato - Italy

2017-02-27 22:03:14 UTC

I am of that, the students should be aware of the phenomenon of immigration to grow in them an intercultural approach. In this way they can better socialization between them. This definitely can be an opportunity to highlight the differences, promote integration.

Kalliopi, Greece

2017-02-28 15:15:13 UTC

I think that both speakers have a lot of experience on working in a multicultural environment so they covered all areas of the topic. The most challenging thing for me is to encourage students and colleagues to accept differences. And I'm asking myself: how can I work on me accepting differences and then trying convincing people around me. This is the BIGGEST challenge.

Tiziana - Italy

ioptiziana — 2017-02-28 15:46:19 UTC

I think that everything the speakers said was interesting and worth remembering. The most challenging area to realize in class is perhaps the teaching of empathy, especially when it comes to teeangers who want to feel unique and "different" and tend to forget ther people's needs or to take all they have for granted.
Another problem area is the parent-teacher relationship, as not all of our students' parents are always willing to cooperate in their children's intercultural education. This has been made particularly difficult since certain media have started putting particular emphasis on the "danger" represented by foreigners, fuelling resentment and suspicion on both sides.

Yakup, Turkey

2017-02-28 17:57:01 UTC

İn this issue we can do many things. First of all, we have to know all people equal. For this reason we must do in equality. We must respect people. We should learn try to understanding others. We can't humiliate others. We can't otherize people. We should search students culture. We must be curious about learning students culture. We should try to teach students respectful behaviours.

zuhal Ozbay, Turkey

2017-02-28 18:42:06 UTC

Children are more open to when things and tend to welcome diversity with more enthusiasm. Adults are usually bounded by their beliefs, prejudices and personal experiences. In this context, even if we do not agree or we do not share the same ideals, we can listen to each other and respect each other.

Roberta,Italy

rlrc — 2017-02-28 19:54:08 UTC

I think that both speakers have a lot of experience on working in a multicultural environment.I will have to learn a lot.

The most challenging thing for me is to encourage students and colleagues to accept differences. It's important to accept differences and to try convincing people around me (teacher, family ecc).

Muriel, Belgium

murielgoffin — 2017-02-28 21:06:55 UTC

The first thing Alicia talks about in the video is the necessity to get to know one's students individually in order to create the atmosphere we want to have in the classroom. This reminded me of this teacher in the United States who greeted each students in an individual way before they entered the class.
Alicia also emphasises that project learning enhances empathy in a class which is completely true in my opinion as students learn to respect each other and get to know each other while collaborating to achieve a common goal.
Something which was also mentioned at the beginning of the video but not really developed is the importance of raising students' curiosity. Watch the video below to know more about this wonderful tool.

Angela - Rome, Italy

2017-02-28 21:50:31 UTC

Teaching empathy, respect and appreciation for other cultures is an interesting challenge. It is not so obvious because people often don't accept differences.
I agree with Alicia when she says that it is important to debate with pupils and to encourage discussions.

Silvia, Rome

silvietta_68 — 2017-02-28 21:55:52 UTC

It is important that students have opportunities to learn from one another’s varied experiences and perspectives. To create this learning environment, teachers need to skillfully draw on student experiences to enrich their studies.

Ioannis Velonakis, Greece

2017-02-28 22:01:01 UTC

Both Alicia and Erica have a lot of experience on the topic of intercultural competence. In my opinion, the most important and challenging thing they address is the necessity of understanding and accepting differences between each other, since the vast majority of us has concrete beliefs and they are not willing to understand the others' way of living.

Rossella, Italy

rossella_esposito — 2017-02-28 23:34:02 UTC

I agree that teachers must teach respect for other cultures, encourage to accept differences and above all teach empaty among students. I usually try to create situations in my classes so that my students have a common goal and must collaborate to reach it. I usually use PBL, and I think it's very important to develop in the students all the competences they must have in the society of the 21. century. I find technology very useful in order to create a relationship between the classes and the real world. Therefore, I find very useful to develop the intercultural competence eTwinning projects, because students have the opportunity to know other culture trough the collaboration with students of other european countries.

danielamioarachisalita — 2017-03-01 07:51:09 UTC

DANIELA, ROMANIA

In my opinion the respect and understanding of culture, empathy, encouraging students to collaboration, communication, accepting differences are important targets for the development of cultural competencies.

Lucia, Greece

luciadamianidou — 2017-03-01 08:44:56 UTC

I really loved the idea that we dont have to understand every single thing in the other cultures but to accept the ideas of the others. Empathy is somethinh I definetely try to teach my students, mostly through projects , think pair share sessions and learning stations. This means that actually for me it is more about feeling not so much about just knowledge. And playing in the classroom can be used to promote all this empathy.

Sara Dionisi from Italy

sara_dionisi — 2017-03-01 16:40:09 UTC

I think it is important to teach our students to be respectful of people with other cultures. They are often frightened by what they do not know and don't accept differences. so it is important to debate with them and to encourage discussion.Our pupils must be more aware of the phenomenon of immigration to lead them towards an intercultural approach. I agree with the idea that we don't ha ve to understand every single thing of other culture but just to accept them . saying that we have to teach our pupils how to cooperate, to accept differences focusing not only on the cultural differences but also on cultural similarities. I often use Etwinning to try to develop a sense of integration , cooperation and acceptance in order to help them to become, a day, the best E uropean citizens

Lara, Italy

monarca_lara — 2017-03-01 17:33:24 UTC

I think that what Alicia and Erika say is very important.First of all we are all different in the look , languages , personality, way of talking,relating with others , expressing our emotions etc. also in the same cultures. Understanding these differences in other cultures and accepting them is even more difficult.I think that in primary school we can do a lot to develop intercultural competences in our pupils. We must focus on empathy among children and teachers, giving our students to chance to work together, more often sharing opinions, debating and developing a critical mind. We should encourage our students to share their cultures , languages,traditions in the class with cross curricular activities, stimulating curiosity to undertand the value of all differences.It's a hard work but we can have results if we consider children and their diversities as the focus of our work.

Rosa, Italy

2017-03-01 18:25:23 UTC

I agree with Alicia when she says that promoting dialogue and teaching how to menage conflicts is very important at school. I’d like to add to strategies she lists, the method of Circle Time. If done regularly it can be a good opportunity to improve social competences of our class.

Βασιλική Κρικώνη, Greece

2017-03-01 19:04:04 UTC

Both Alicia and Erika were very informative and i am very gratefull for sharing with us their valuable experience. I believe that they have covered the most important areas.
In my opinion, its a challenge for every teacher to create an appropriate environment in the classroom, where all the students are going to feel special and accepted no matter their differences.
Communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking are the valuable keys that we can use.
Empathy!!! : the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another. Managing to instill empathy to my students is one of the most important aims that i have set

Loredana,Italy

loredanamarzocchella — 2017-03-01 19:38:43 UTC

I think that is important to be respectful with people from other cultures. It's strategic to create a positive environment in the classroom so that everyone can feel as special as different from the other one.

Diversity is a richness.We must learn to respect themselves,the other ones, listen to the other needs. Teachers should encourage the dialogue, learn how to resolve conflicts in the classroom, how to communicate.It's also important to create intercultural laboratories so that students can work together and share their ideas.

2017-03-01 21:20:40 UTC

Maria, Greece

mampla78 — 2017-03-01 21:37:17 UTC

It's so important to teach our students a basic life skill: how to live with other people. So a nice idea is to make them work together through a collaborative work, encourage dialogue - even if we are not comfortable with the topic- learn our students how to debate and teach them empathy

Zvonimira, Croatia

2017-03-01 22:28:05 UTC

I agree that communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking is very important for today's society. If students have the opportunity to work together, to cooperate then exchanged opinions and develop critical thinking.

Jolanta, Poland

jolanta_stefanska — 2017-03-02 07:00:48 UTC

I live in a culturally homogeneous society, so are the students I teach.The large part of students' kwnoledge about the world is based on mass and social media.
In my situation, stereotypes and xenophobic attitude are very difficullt to overcome. Meeting these challenges in the classroom often causes bad emotion. It takes a long time to persuade the students to look for sheer facts, eg individual stories or statistic data.

Ivana, Italy

ivana_fratter — 2017-03-02 09:00:48 UTC

In particular I agree with Alicia when he says that the dialogue should be encouraged. The teacher has to manage any conflicts. I believe every teacher should take care of their training on the management of conflicts.

Finally I thank Muriel (Belgium) for interesting video of Musallam that she has posted. The curiosity is a keywords not only for “to spark Learning” but for intercultural competence.

Luigina Astorino Italy

20febraio — 2017-03-02 10:09:14 UTC

I will icrease my efforts to teach students how to debate, encouraging the dialogue, and also how to resolve conflicts in the classroom, learning how to communicate. It’s also important to create intercultural laboratories, because students have to work together towards a common goal
I think that involving foreign kids' parents is important. School can be a way even to integrate not only kids but also adults. So teachers can organize laboratories to show and shared foreign traditions or costumes, in this way all students can acquire intercultural competences.

Deppie, Greece

2017-03-02 12:33:51 UTC

First thing teachers need to do in the very first begging of the year, as Ms Alicia mentioned, is to create the culture they want to have in the class. More specifically, they need to create a friendly and respectful environment, in which acceptance and good gestures are taking priority. What we need to focus on is that acceptance and cordiality should be cultivated not only between the students, but also between the teacher and the students and between the teacher and the parents. Also among the parents themselves. In addition, through the whole process of cultural competence, the teachers should highlight everytime that the similarities finally between the students are surpassing the differences. For example, they are all students of the same class, they are all at the same age, most of them have many things in common, most of them have the same interests and hobbies, etc. The teachers should always point out the common points of the students and reduce the differences between them that may exist.
Furthermore, I was surprised when Ms Alicia was talking about modern teaching techniques and especially about debate. Me myself I have been taught this technique in my university from my professor and I have also tried it with my classmates in real. The benefits of such technique are truly amazing! The students get used to the dialogue and also they learn how to argue in the frame of a friendly and respectful environment. They also learn how to accept others opinions and they learn how to respect the rules. Another technique that I can suggest is to give the students a scenario that represents a real situation. This scenario talks about a real problem that happens in the outside world. The teacher after gives roles to the students to act. Each of them has a specific role that they need to carry through with it. After, they all trying to find a solution to the problem, each one from his point of view and based on his role. The teacher represents the rules to the students at the beginning of the activitiy. This activity really helps the students to understand the word "empathy" and to try it within a realistic backround.

Ago, Italy

falco_gabu — 2017-03-02 16:13:00 UTC

Communication is the key. But we must always give more space for creativity and critical thinking. The exchange of experiences and opinions also allows you to deepen and build a collaborative process

D

2017-03-02 17:47:38 UTC

Daniela

2017-03-02 17:47:38 UTC

Daniela

2017-03-02 17:47:38 UTC

Daniela Distefano,Legnano (Ital

2017-03-02 17:47:38 UTC

Daniela Distefano

2017-03-02 17:47:38 UTC

Daniela Distefano,Legnano

2017-03-02 17:47:38 UTC

Daniela Distefano,Legnano (Italy

2017-03-02 17:47:38 UTC

Daniela Distefano,

2017-03-02 17:47:38 UTC

Daniela Distefano,Legnano (Italy)

2017-03-02 17:47:38 UTC

I think that the main cognitive challenge concerns the formulation of a constructive vision of intercultural relations, through processes that stimulate curiosity and facilitate structured contact with other culture. We must start from the acceptance of the other and from the consideration that multiculturalism is a wealth of values, of study, of crescit.
The dialogue is very important to have a constructive exchange between pupils and the teacher, a spontaneous dialogue dictated primarily by curiosity.
Laboratory activities and circle time help to develop both intercultural competence and acceptance.

Eirini

2017-03-02 19:22:28 UTC

Given the situation of global economy, many children assume that theire relatives lost their jobs to refugees. What is more, children who live in unsafe regions that happen to be multicultural, tend to blame diversity and foreigners for that lack of safety and believe that most foreigners are criminals. In this case the challenge is to make children realise that crime isn't a national characteristic but a thing that is caused by the way of someone's living and growing up.

Michela, Italy

2017-03-02 21:28:40 UTC

Communication is the key, indeed: accepting the differences, listening to each other and debating together, showing curiosity and respect for all the cultures, languages and traditions, planning an intercultural project (on eTwinning for instance) and working on it..... thanks for the food for thoughts!

Rafaela

tziouvar — 2017-03-03 13:59:23 UTC

For me as a teacher, i think it is very important to get to know each student's background. I would organize fairs where students would present their background, not only students from different countries and cultures, but also from different regions inside the country. That way it would be obvious that we all have similarities but also special attributes

Cristina, Romania

cristinahelena2108 — 2017-03-03 14:32:11 UTC

1.4 Developing intercultural competences
I agree with Alicia when she said that the dialogue should be encouraged. The most challenging thing for me is to encourage students and colleagues to accept differences.

Mirela, Romania

scomi78 — 2017-03-03 16:34:21 UTC

We live in an global society. It is important to learn to understand each other by accepting diversity. I think that a good dialog can resolve any situation.

Marina Gurina (Ukraine)

mariam_72 — 2017-03-03 19:07:31 UTC

I think it's very important to involve students into common activities such as dialogues, projects, exchanging some information in debates and so on.

Rosanna, Italy

ros_basso — 2017-03-03 19:09:21 UTC

I think it is important to encourage students to develop awareness about diversity like enrichment. Teachers have to provide information on how to meet the needs of all students in an inclusive environment. Dialogue and cooperative learning help to share experiences and roles. Alicia talks about promoting dialogue and debate. In my opinion “flipped classroom” and “cooperative learning” are useful strategies to create a friendly environment in our classroom. The fondamental element is the empathy. Students learn to respect each other and to better the socialization process.

Dimitra, Greece

2017-03-03 19:45:20 UTC

I think that students, especially teenagers, should be encouraged to develop empathy, understanding and tolerance. It is important to help our students to better know themselves in order to get better acquainted with the common characteristics that they have with people originating from different backgrounds. The school has an important part to play especially in promoting humanitarian and democratic values.

Valentina, Italy

flyvale — 2017-03-03 21:50:03 UTC

It's very important to teach how to live with other people. So a nice idea is to make them work together, forwarding the dialogue, the respect and the curiosity for the diversity. The flipped classroom” and “cooperative learning” are two winning strategies to create a friendly environment in my classrooms.

Niki, Greec

nikialexakou — 2017-03-04 01:43:31 UTC

As Alicia and Erika mention, it is very important to help our students develop their communication skills, to teach them to accept differences, to respect other cultures and to think about others. The latter, teaching them empathy, I find it the most challenging as our society has become very competitive. We also have to find ways to encourage their curiosity and to teach them to be open-minded.

Valentina, Rome, Italy

2017-03-04 13:58:01 UTC

i agree with the tools showed by Alicia, specially i believe in the dialog, because we can discover what they think about migration and what know. also important is to give informations about history migrations in the world and explain many important reasons behind this movements. finally the respect is the basic key , and work with differents kind of activities for improve it is very important.

Lucia, Italy "We have our own ideas but we have also to accept others ideas": so simple, so difficoult, surely not only for my pupils!

2017-03-04 14:14:43 UTC

One of the practices I like most in my classes is the debates; a certain theme is studied from different points of view, expressed by all students. Then the class is divided in two or three groups, each one must sustain, motivate and explain just one idea, indipendently from what is your personal belief. After the debate quite everyone admite to have shared (and understood!) opinions that at first weren't considered

Livia, Italy

liv_ann — 2017-03-04 15:18:48 UTC

The main aim for a teacher should be teach students to respect different cultures, ways of thinking and behaviours. The starting point is to consider as enrichment the presence of students who come from other parts of the world, developing the curiosity about the discovering of different ways of living, developing the attitude to collaborate and communicate.

KLeri, Greece

evriklia19 — 2017-03-04 18:56:56 UTC

- get to know the students and their parents
- empathy, understanding and apreciation
- communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking
- extend the classroom
- accept differences
- project based learning and work together towards a common goal
- show students how to debate - give feedback
- resolve conflicts - rules of the class

The most challenging areas are those of conflicts because everybody is emotionally involved and it is very difficult to find balance and the right solution for everybody

ROSA ,PORTUGAL (AÇORES)

rosa_medeiros1 — 2017-03-04 19:05:06 UTC

I regret the video is not subtitled in English, as it would be easier to follow the ideas.
The attitude of the teacher is very important in the conduct of the whole process of integration of the students.
-- I would begin with a meeting with the caregivers to get to know the new families in the community and how they would help them to become undeveloped. What parents think will help the behavior of students in school.
-- Then it would create moments of sharing. For example the foreign student can show youtube videos of your country and how to live.
-- Native students would also do the same.
-- Initially, she would create groups to accompany the student throughout her school career.
- They would make a collaborative album with descriptions and images of the different countries (calameo).

Heidi, Germany

profgiese — 2017-03-04 20:53:33 UTC

Interculrural competences:
- respect, empathy,
- 4 C: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity.
- Lessons have to change. With new tecnical opportunities of the www the classroom can be extended to the outside world.
- the need of accepting other cultures not knowing or understanding everything, just accepting diversity
- encourage dialogue in the classroom! think about other children (ex: Anne Frank)

Daniela,Italy

2017-03-05 12:07:16 UTC

I think that for the children and for the teacher is very interesting and important to know the diversity because we live in the multicultural world. For me the Flipped classroom and the Cooperative learning are very functional strategies to achieve a cooperative atmosphere.

Antonella, Italy

2017-03-05 12:11:58 UTC

I believe that cultural diversity is an opportunity for both students and for teachers. Teachers must encourage the reception sensitizing pupils and at the same time know the background of foreign students to identify the most appropriate strategies for the inclusion and integration.
Cooperative learning and flipped classroom are very useful, along with a pinch of humor.

Aneta, Italy

anetakraw71 — 2017-03-05 13:18:23 UTC

I think that both Erika and Alicia mentioned the most important aspects which should be considered to help our studentd to develop their intercultural competence.

I fully agree with Alicia that it is essential to know our students
needs and backgrounds because it helps us to plan the activies in the classroom in more effective way.
Moreover, all the activies should have a part where our students can compare their views on different issues in pairs or in groups.
It is essential and challenging to make our students collaborate with their classmates.
I think it is really hard to solve problems among our students, but it also important to discuss about the problems that come out creating a kind of whole class discussion.

Paola, Italy

2017-03-05 13:51:10 UTC

I believe that all the key points for developing an inclusive culture in our classrooms have been touched. In particular, I believe that behind the development of inclusive multiculturalism there is dialogue. important task of the teacher is that of a dialogue between the different cultures present in a class in the first place not to be afraid, and from there you can then built everything else. Important support is given to us by technology. Indeed, we can push students to do research about other cultures and see everything that is beautiful have. All this is facilitated by the acquisition of social and civic skills that it is good to search through the cooperative learning.

Victoria, Greece

victvoud — 2017-03-05 16:00:27 UTC

I totally agree with both Erika and Alicia. They have touched upon empathy, acceptance of other people's ideas, the critical four 'C's, the use of technology in order to extend the classroom, the encouragement of dialogue among students and between T and Ss. All these elements are important towards the common goal of inter-understanding!
Though diversity is useful, it is ofen challenging to cope with it as a teacher whose experience in such matters is minimum. However, it is usually the students themselves who show us the way to act proactively. Through their willingness to adjust to their brand-new reality, they make an effort to communicate - a first step toward 'interculturality'. Different mother tongues are hard to go by in the first semester and patience on the part of the teacher is essential to prevent the feeling of getting lost into translation on the part of the students! Getting to know them on a first name basis is essential and verbal encouragement when misunderstanding occurs is also needed.

Anisoara, Romania

2017-03-05 17:24:22 UTC

Maria Grazia G., (Italy)

mariagrazia_caltanissetta — 2017-03-05 20:44:43 UTC

Milena Santerini, in the context of the Skills Training for participatory citizenship,says that intercultural competence and the development of empathy is very important

Tania, Italy

2017-03-05 21:26:56 UTC

I think that it is important to talk with students and also use ICT as effective instruments to improve students’ communication skills. A good idea, in my view, could be to create a Skype video-conferences schools-network, where the teacher and the students can share their scholar-experiences. This activity could show to the pupils a different ,but not so much, educational reality.

Izaskun, Spain

2017-03-06 09:18:42 UTC

I totally agrre with both of them, but thinking in more stages....why no to use PE class to develope intercultural resources? I thiks sports (through games) is a perfect stage to show, work and learn different way of behaviours. I also allows the opportunity to colaborate in a same goal and it´s a great moment to learn how to comunicate each other. On the other hand, why not to dedicate sessions to share sports and games from different countries?

Melahrini Papardeli Greece

mpapardeli — 2017-03-06 11:22:39 UTC

I agree with both.
We teachers have to develop a friendly environment where all pupils can fit in,nomatter when they come from.All of them have the sdame rights and the same needs.Thi is something that have to teach them to realise.

Graziella, Italy

2017-03-06 13:32:58 UTC

I agree with Alicia and Erika. I think at the beginning it is necessary to set a certain respect, to know each student and their needs. Then encourage communication and mutual dalogue are important aspects to teach them to work together and to live with other people. To develop what the school is the perfect place.

Clara, Spain

2017-03-06 17:54:08 UTC

I agree with Alicia when she said that the dialogue should be encouraged.
The most challenging thing for me is to encourage students and colleagues to accept differences.

Rita, Sicily

2017-03-06 19:16:14 UTC

Develop intercultural skills is not easy… certainly! I believe that all the fundamental points have been touched. Inter-culture is respect, acceptance, empathy, comparison. It is not easy to accept norms, customs, languages other than their own and - not latest- differences in physical appearance.It was not always aware of the rejection you feel toward each other. Our best intentions lead us to convince the other to adapt to our way of thinking. We believe this can help and we are unable to see how much this can be destructive.The school and teachers, extracurricular structures play a key role. To provide a suitable welcome to immigrant children who come from different places you need to know the culture and the characteristics of the various countries of origin.

This facilitates understanding and helps to overcome obstacles and create an atmosphere of respect and harmony between people who share a common space.

Annamaria Italy

2017-03-06 19:32:18 UTC

I agree with Erika and Alicia about empathy. It is really important and difficult to promote collaboration and critical thinking, but it is essential if we want to have an open-minded classroom. The key of multicultural teaching is encouraging dialog but at the same time showing the need of working with other people, who don't always agree with us.

Rosanna B, Italy

ros_basso — 2017-03-06 19:37:17 UTC

I teach groups of students from 14 to 18 years old. A sense of calm and friendly atmosphere is an essential key to motivate and encourage them. Empathy, sensitivity, patience and self-consciousness is a way to improve their different learning styles. I agree with Alicia and Erika on intercultural competences and new strategies. Research of past generations, pictures, videos and so on, are exactly that and part of my job. I like ICT. My students are familiar with them. When they work in group, they realize games, videos easily and emotions education becomes important too. I think cooperative learning can be an effective strategy to develop intercultural competences. Last year I organized a comedy with fifty pupils to raise money for charity. It was very fun and they helped one another to succe All parents and pupils were satisfied and happy to help children in Ghana.

Melania, Italy

2017-03-06 20:55:11 UTC

I agree with Alicia when she said that the dialogue should be encouraged.
The most challenging thing for me is to encourage students and colleagues to accept differences

Jenny, Greece

2017-03-06 21:59:13 UTC

Respect is definitely the key. Establishing a good relationship with the students will help us, as teachers, to put across the idea of tolerance, acceptance and as many others have also said, love. For this to happen we must model the desired behaviour and show our students the way.

Sofia, Greece

sofiakolosidou — 2017-03-07 09:00:57 UTC

I believe that empathy is the key word. It is important for children to develop intercultural skills and critical thinking. And to do that teachers have to create a loving and caring environment in the classroom in the beginning of the year. They must focus on human rights and meanings like respect, equality for all human beings etc. A way to feel children accepted is to make them feel like home. We can try to learn more about their culture, their language and their family background. New technologies helps to stay in touch with students after school and to build a network.

Rossana, Italy

rossaco — 2017-03-07 14:42:09 UTC

I totally agree with them and the importance to create an open minded group of learners but I'm afraid that it isn't enough if, after school hours, they go back to a family where they hear differently.

Annamaria south Italy (Molise)

2017-03-07 15:05:14 UTC

I'm agree with Erika and Alicia: empathy, acceptance of other people's ideas, the critical thinking, use of ICT, playful and joyful teaching, the encouragement of dialogue between students. The diversity is useful, open the mind and offer educational challenges.

Carmelina Longo, Italy

2017-03-07 19:26:49 UTC

Respect and openness can help! Why not have a change with creative activities in a new language? As we did with my students, thanks to Deutschwagen (http://www.deutschwagen.it/) from Goethe Institut (https://www.goethe.de/en/index.html)

Ionela- Cristina Busuioc

2017-03-07 20:12:02 UTC

_{^{I agree with the issues mentioned by Alicia and Erika. Support the idea that there must be a dialogue between students and potentiometers to be developed by teachers of critical thinking among students.}}

_{^{I believe that multiculturalism is the key to communication.}}

Brunella from Italy

brunella_pedretti80 — 2017-03-07 22:02:09 UTC

I think that in the classrooms there are most differences culture and the techers must create the multicutural classrooms where there are respect for all ideas, cultures, religions and opinions.
The techers can use images, short phrases, videos...during the lessons so the students can increase the skills, the knowledges and competences. The technologies are important inclusive methodologies.
The teachers must remember the European competences (European Parliament 18/012/2006).

Behlül AKYOL, Turkey

2017-03-07 23:23:52 UTC

We must increase our ability to be tolerant, sensitive and patient to increase the intercultural competence of our students. Collaboration in work, group work supports this very well. Having joint events in the family outside the school accelerates the process. There is not a single individual in education that we can give up.

Chiara Semplicini, Italy

2017-03-08 07:51:30 UTC

Diversity acceptance, opend-mindedness and constructive dialogue are the most important areas to be addressed with students in order to develop their intercultural competences.
In the classroom it is extremely important to give students the possibility to cooperate, to debate, to resolve conflicts. I strongly believe that students need to be encouraged to critically reflect on cultural diversity by experiencing it in a constructive way in the classroom. This means, for example, working together on a certain intercultural issue (ex. food) in order to build new knowledge, exchange ideas and opinions and develop a positive attitude toward cultural diversity.

Elena, Greece

l_1_doug32_ed — 2017-03-08 10:45:33 UTC

I agree also that empathy is the key word and for me this is the most challenging, to help the students to get this emotional attachment and the bonding afterwards. You get good results, when you give them a common goal, so they will work together and know each other.
Finally, it is necessary for me, to get a contract done in the beggining to set the limits of our behaviours and the debate is a great idea to confront each other.

ROSANNA, ITALY.

ros_cristaldi — 2017-03-08 16:54:00 UTC

There are many differences between pupils in each classroom, for culture, religion, habit, opinion. But I think it's important to get to know others, especially through play and  physical approach. So the pupils can learn a kind of universal vocabularyof gestures, expressions moods,  and discover that they are the same in all over the world. Students can increase their skills, knowledges and competences by innovative approach for integrating digital into teaching.

Bianca, Romania

2017-03-08 18:05:19 UTC

I believe the communication is the key. By that, the students will learn things about the others, will become friends and will learn to help each other and to collaborate

Antonella Sellia, Italy

2017-03-08 19:10:25 UTC

In my opinion debate is the most important area. Students should foster their ideas, but following some important rules, listening different opinions, they can learn how to communicate with people in a respectful way.

Ourania, Greece

ranialampou — 2017-03-08 21:27:55 UTC

It it essential for teachers to model and encourage non-judgemental approaches to discussing cultural, social, or other types of difference, facilitate discussion among students with a variety of communication styles and create opportunities for interaction among learners that allow them to learn from each other, share different perspectives, and share their experiences. It is also important to cultivate empathy, tolerance and interaction. Students should develop cultural awareness, the ability to understand different cultural contexts and viewpoints, demonstrate and respect for others.

Angela, Italy

2017-03-08 22:47:56 UTC

I think it is very important for today's society : collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking.

Licandro Italy

mglicandro — 2017-03-09 06:57:38 UTC

I think it's important to recognize the students the value and the merits of each one in diversity.

Paola

2017-03-09 11:02:34 UTC

Very important respect of the rules. Collaborazione and open minde

Camelia Hoara, Romania

cameliahoara — 2017-03-09 17:48:16 UTC

It is very important that students learn about teamwork, cooperation, acceptance.

Livio, Italy

2017-03-09 22:20:10 UTC

Empathy must be developed, it isn't only innate. Learning to be empatic it's important to develop social skills. When you put yourself in connection, respectful connection, with other person, you can see his diversity as a precious thing. I's evermore an enemy, but a friend, and what we know is no more a thing to be afraid.

Elena, Italy

2017-03-10 16:33:47 UTC

Empathy, cooperation, collaboration and acceptance are very important.

Suzana Pimentel, Portugal

2017-03-10 18:51:55 UTC

Diversity is a challenging element. We must learn to respect ourselves, others, to listen as other needs. Teachers encourage dialogue, learn a conflict in the classroom, how to communicate. It is also important to create intercultural labs so that students seek to work together and share as their ideas.

Sonia,Romania

2017-03-10 19:34:50 UTC

Everyday experience leads me to say that new teachers us plays a critical role in creating a friendly atmosphere, full of respect between children and between parents in order to avoid misunderstandings or conflicts interracial. It is imperative to tolerance, whatever class family children come in terms of ethnic, religious, social, etc. In my work I was confronted with situations when they came and children from totally different: very poor families, families of different religions, and children from different business with different cultures and different ethnicities, in which case my main goal was to to persuade the children to feel or not feel the least way their origin, protecting them from the phenomenon of frustration that could have repercussions on the infant personality in formation.

Develop the intercultural competencies of pupils sgnifica open a debate on the issues of diversity: teach respect for other cultures, to have proximity to other cultures, accept diversity they bring elavorare for a common goal.

2017-03-12 21:25:12 UTC

Iuliana, Romania

iulyanaivan — 2017-04-08 15:22:38 UTC

Students must be malleable. To accept that we are not all the same. And as indifernet culture that we are human.

Betty-Greece

2017-05-02 20:58:34 UTC

Respect-Empathy,Acceptance.
We need to accept others as arem to respect the diversity and to show empathy to others. These are not only for cultural diversity but we need these to live the life with proper way.

Isabel Quirino, Portugal

isabelquirino — 2017-11-08 18:47:26 UTC

We, adults in schools, are role models to our students - and they learn from us in a formal and informal way. So we must assume that all our actions are intentional: not only our words but particullary our actions. I try to act always with this in my mind.

Ulfet, Turkey

2017-11-10 16:13:36 UTC

As a teacher - as a Ufi for my students, I believe we, especially teachers, should be more careful about our manners as we are role models.

Romeu and Juliet

00001109875216sp — 2022-09-21 23:50:52 UTC

Ayanna n° 5 - 8D
Gabrielly Castro n°11 - 8D
Isabela de Campos n°16 - 8D