Study Guide

Objective

International students: gaining a wider perspective into the Finnish society, taking part in it more actively, learning how to analyse the adaptation to a foreign culture, learning how to interact with the representatives of different cultures.
Finnish students: learning how to interact with the representatives of different cultures, being more confident in using foreign languages, analysing cross-cultural issues, gaining another perspective in one’s own culture.
 
 

Content

Students will take part in different events and collect markings from them.
 

Materials

The lecture material will be available in the itslearning learning environment.

Teaching methods

The course combines different kinds of learning methods according to the learning approach Innopeda, which is used at Turku UAS. The students are engaged in working together and learning by doing. The lectures and some of the workshops also contain traditional lecturing.
The student keeps learning diary throughout the course where they reflect upon the observations and experiences they have had during the lectures/workshops/events/activities. The student discusses about them with the theoretical background from intercultural communication presented in the compulsory lectures.

Exam schedules

No exams.

International connections

Get Finternational course utilizes the learning methods from innovation pedagogy, Innopeda. The course entails the cornerstones from Innopeda such as internationalization, working life orientation, learning in teams etc. These are approached via variety of different workshops/events/activities.

Student workload

27 hours/credit of student’s work, altogether 81 hours for 3 credits.

81 hours include independent work, writing an Individual Learning Diary, participating and preparing for lectures, events, workshops and activities,

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

Passed: The student has passed the course when they have participated in the needed amount of lectures/workshops/events/activities and the learning diary is passed. The learning diary is considered passed, when the student has followed the given instructions and has written 9 individual learning diary entries and one conclusion. The student has analysed what they have learnt about cultures overall during the course, explained how lectures/workshops/events have expanded their cultural awareness and how communicating with students from other cultures has expanded their understanding of intercultural communication and how the overall experience has influenced their cultural identity. The learning diary also has to include feedback.

Please note that this course is assessed only as pass/fail. It is recommended that students whose home university requires a number select other courses instead.

Content scheduling

Theoretical contents:
- Concept of culture
- Cultural identity: What is my cultural identity and why should I understand it? What is the essence of Finnish cultural identity? What can I learn from other participants’ cultural identity?
- Intercultural communication: What similarities and differences are there between verbal and nonverbal communication styles and why does it matter? What are typical features of Finnish communication style? How could I communicate better with representatives of different cultures?
- Finnish culture and society

Practical contents:
- The course consists of lectures, workshops, events and activities, which open the theoretical contents of the course to the participants.
- The whole timetable will be available for the course participants in itslearning learning environment, in Get Finternational -workspace.
- There are four to five mandatory meetings to attend in the beginning of the course about the theoretical basis for the course. In addition, 5 other workshops/events/activities need to be attended to pass the course.

Altogether the student needs to attend (all dates will be available later):
- opening lecture (mandatory)
- mandatory lectures
- other events/workshops/activities
- write learning diary entries of each attended lecture/event/workshop/activity + conclusion of the course

Further information

More details about the course are available in itslearning.


For more information: getfin@turkuamk.fi

Some of the events and activities might have fees, but it is possible to select only those that are free of charge.

Evaluation scale

Hyväksytty/Hylätty

Assessment methods and criteria

Attending workshops and events and writing learning diary entries of each attended event/workshop and a conclusion in the end of the course.