Utilising In-Country Experience

Introduction
This unit is delivered by Flinders University, South Australia.

Utilising In-Country Experience provides opportunities to reflect upon and extend first hand experience of the peoples, cultures and contemporary issues of the countries of Asia.
The focus of the unit is on developing, furthering and refining:

• explicit curriculum outcomes contributing to curriculum change, with classroom applications appropriate to the needs of primary and secondary teachers
• understanding and appreciation of the diversity of environments, cultures, religions and societies of Asia
• informed attitudes and behaviours towards Asian peoples, events, issues and lifestyles and the ability to communicate these appropriately and effectively to others
• awareness of the diversity of values within Asian societies that extends beyond cultural stereotypes
• skills for interacting effectively with peoples of the Asian region, within school curricular activities and generally

The unit also examines relevant curriculum and resource materials and considers ways in which knowledge and understandings derived from in-country experience can assist primary and secondary teachers to:

• develop high quality teaching and learning materials
• implement strategies to disseminate widely the outcomes of their Asia in-country experience

Unit Structure
The unit is divided into five study modules, as follows

1. Recapitulation, Reflection and Setting the Scene
2. Relating Knowledge and Theory to Professional Practice
3. Extending, Deepening and Broadening Knowledge
4. Perspectives and Interpretations
5. Translating the In-Country Experience into Curriculum

Aims and Outcomes

The two major aims of this unit are to enable students to:

• increase their knowledge and understanding of particular Asian societies and cultures and the Asian region in general
• develop and apply their knowledge and understandings to the teaching and learning in the classroom

As a result of completing this unit, students will be able to:

• identify a range of ways of aligning what they learned in-country with local curriculum frameworks/syllabuses
• strengthen the sense of authenticity arising from their in-country experience, assisting them to identify and formulate relevant teaching and learning approaches with greater confidence
• increase their awareness of the potential for making effective use of the resources they acquired in-country
• refine their skills for developing/evaluating additional resources for classroom use
• develop strategies to incorporate more varied and challenging social, economic and political issues in their teaching and learning programs
• understand life in the country/countries they visited more closely, including customs, behaviours, values and attitudes
• identify a range of strategies for further increasing their knowledge in particular areas of interest
• address any gaps in their knowledge brought into focus as a result of the in-country experience
• investigate ways in which their pre-conceived notions may have been affected by the in-country experience, and formulate new perspectives
• acquire heightened awareness of similarities, diversities and differences through cross-cultural comparison
• enhance their ability to assess the usefulness and adequacy, or otherwise, of cultural generalisations
• place greater emphasis on cross-cultural comparison and challenging of cultural stereotyping
• encourage direct personal interaction between their students and students in particular Asian countries

Assessment

Assessment for Utilising In-Country Experience is predominantly assignment based, drawing on a range of strategies as appropriate, including:

• case studies
• issues studies
• reports
• investigations
• literature reviews
• comparative analyses
• presentations (oral or written)
• unit writing (outlines of teaching units)
• resources critiques …

The various assessment activity modes can be designed to different levels of sophistication to suit participant needs and to reflect the levels at which study may be undertaken. For example, assignments may constitute the dominant mode for assessment at Certificate level, whereas a comparative analysis of case studies may be more appropriate at Masters level of study.