Get Finternational – intercultural communication in theory and practice (3 cr)

Evaluation scale

Hyväksytty/Hylätty

Content scheduling

Theoretical contents:
- Generally about the 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 Optima weblearning platform Get Finternational -workspace.
- There are three mandatory meetings to attend in the beginning of the course about the theoretical basis for the course. In addition, 6 other workshops/events/avtivities need to be attended to pass the course.
- All together the student needs to attend:
- opening lecture (mandatory)
- 2 mandatory lectures about intercultural communication
- 6 other events/workshops/activities
- write learning diary entries of each attended lecture/event/workshop/activity + conclusion of the course
Spring 2020:
- Opening lecture (mandatory) on Thursday 16.1. at 16.30-18.30 in ICT-city lecture hall BETA
-getfin@turkuamk.fi.

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 Optima.

Teaching methods

The course combines different kinds of learning methods according to the learning approach Innopeda, which is used in TUAS. The students are engaged in working together and learning by doing. The lectures and some of the workshops also contain normal lecturing.
The student keeps learning diary throughout the course where s/he reflects upon the observations and experiences s/he has 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.

Pedagogic approaches and sustainable development

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 varity of different workshops/events/activities.

Completion alternatives

If the student cannot participate in the compulsory lectures, s/he can do a compensation task. Only one of the compulsory lectures (3) can be compensated.

Student workload

27h / credit of student’s work, altogether 81 hours for 3 credits.
81 hours include independent work, writing Individual Learning Diary, participating and preparing for lectures, events, workshops and activities,
The student needs to write a learning diary entry after each lecture/workshop/event/activity where s/he has participated in. In the end of the course, the student needs to return a conclusion where s/he reflects upon the learned aspects.

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

Passed – The student has passed the course when s/he has participated in the needed amount of lectures/workshops/events/activities and the learning diary is passed. Learning diary is considered passed, when the student has followed the given instructions and has written 9 individual learning diary entries and one conclusion. Student has analysed what s/he has learnt about cultures overall during the course, explained how lectures/workshops/events have expanded cultural awareness and how communicating with students from other cultures have expanded understanding of intercultural communication and how the overall experience has influenced cultural identity. Learning diary has to include also feedback.
Exchange students: If the student's home university requires a numerical grade, the student needs to fill in a form to request the numerical grade. The form is available in Optima.

Evaluation 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.

Further information

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