TEACHING ABROAD
By Kelly
Barbazette
Rethinking teaching methods before
presenting workshops abroad will lead to more effective training experiences for
the instructor and the adult learner, Training Clinic instructors say.
The time to
become aware of who your workshop audience isn't the first day of class but
before you even board the plane, say instructors for The Training Clinic, which
has offered its “train the trainer” workshops internationally for the past
nine years.
Kathleen
Terry, a 15-year instructor for The Training Clinic, had to shift gears during a
workshop in Singapore in 1997 when she realized that her students weren't
responding to her usual teaching “bag of tricks.”
“If you
try to foist your teaching methods, you're going to lose,” she said. “I say
you learn quite quickly what doesn't work and what does.”
Terry's
attempts to engage learners and elicit questions failed not because she was
doing a poor job but because of her students' cultural attitudes and behaviors.
During
workshops in the United States, Terry was used to being peppered with questions
and anecdotes from learners. But in Terry's experience in Singapore, all of the
information came from her, the instructor.
Singaporeans
are much less direct than Americans, Terry has experienced. They prefer
interacting in small groups and material presented in a lecture format rather
than through discussion, she said.
Ron
Garnett, a Training Clinic instructor, had a similar experience while teaching
workshops in Singapore.
“The
people in the class were extremely quiet and reserved and so it took a very
intense effort to get participation on their part,” he said.
This
cultural trait threads across many Asian countries, said Judy Frey, who has
taught workshops in the Philippines and Indonesia for The Training Clinic. While
Americans are taught to be assertive and their own individuals, some Asian
cultures revolve around being a “group society,” she said.
As a result
of their cultural differences, Terry said she learned to become more comfortable
lecturing and engaging her students less frequently and to be patient with her
audience's lack of participation.
While large
group discussions are uncommon in Asia, Frey said she has found adult learners
in Asia thrive in a small group setting, which conversely in the United States,
doesn't always work.
“When
given a task to work in groups, they really work well,” she said.
It's common
for one person in each group to be the assigned spokesperson, answering
questions for the group. Frey added she had to allow more time for the group
activity because the students were very concerned with taking into account each
person's opinion and individual needs.
Terry
advises learning about a culture before becoming immersed in it. Being open to
changing one’s teaching approaches and being more culturally sensitive also
will help result in a more successful workshop, she said.
Frey
stressed that an instructor should consider beforehand how a managerial or
interpersonal concept would fit into his or her audience's "cultural value
system."
For
example, how would students in the Philippines, where "saving face" is
a big component of their culture react to assertiveness training?
“In
presenting new ideas, we have to ask what will be their concerns based on their
upbringing and the way they deal with each other?” Frey said.
