“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open mind” –Malcolm Forbes
This quote was the opening line of Professor Anthony Russel’s lecture about education without borders. Not only does this quote reiterate his aim for education without boundaries, but it also demonstrates the purpose of international week for student development.
Students from Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Holland, The United States, Germany, Spain, and other countries all came together to learn about each other, and international education. We all learned not only from experts in their fields about innovative education strategies, but we also learned firsthand what it means to encounter diversity and how international interaction can benefit students. We all came with our own cultures and ideas about education, but through interacting with each other, and hearing from various lecturers, the empty pieces of our mind, where we had not encountered or pondered diversity among different cultures were replaced with curiosity and understanding.
In the first workshop for international week I sat between some students from Spain, and other students from Belgium. We conversed in English, but occasionally Sarah would turn to me and inadvertently say something in Dutch! While we were working on a practical aspect of the lecture, the Spanish girls would occasionally slip into speaking Spanish. This particular workshop was discussing how studying different languages can be extremely beneficial for students. What better way to recognize this through interacting with students that speak a different first language. After spending so much time with these students, for only one week, I can already speak a few sentences in both Spanish and Dutch, as well as underst...
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...erature not only has value in and of itself, but also has merit in exposing the human condition. As teachers, we can then help students learn how to cope with these discoveries and think for themselves. An important part of this is discussing ethics. The purposes that this session outlined for learning ethics are as follows: To understand diversity better, to increase respect among students, to inspire a sense of moral obligation, and to encourage personal development. We did two exercises as a class, the first one was to stand in two circles facing each other and we discussed an ethics question with the person across from us. In the second exercise the professor asked a question to the entire group and we moved to a side of the room indicating whether we agreed, disagreed or were in the middle. The discussion sparked debate and encouraged us to think.
“In addition to giving special attention to the history and current situation of their own nation, [children should] learn a good deal more than they frequently do about the rest of the world in which they live” (6). In this method of education, students will be creating bonds with characteristics of cultures that they personally find good and worthy of upholding. Rather than upholding traditions of their own nation without the respect they where originally meant to give. In this way, you would find differences in other nations cultures and not see them as flaws, but as unique features you can appreciate and strive to
Ethics is an important proponent when considering any decision. Knowing the difference between right and wrong is something everyone should know. However, the importance of ethics gets minimized when a decision that seems wrong actually has benefits. In the efforts of improving society, often ethics is violated. Sometimes in order for society to be better off as a whole, there has to be little sacrificing of ethical practices along the way to do so.
Ugbu, J., U. (1992). Understanding cultural diversity and learning. EDUC 160 Urban Education (Spring 2014, pp. 213-228)
Barry, Vincent, Olen, Jeffrey, & Van Camp, Julie C. Applying Ethics: A Text with Readings, Tenth Edition. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the moral principles and values that govern our behavior as human beings. It is important in the human experience that we are able to grasp the idea of our own ethical code in order to become the most sensible human beings. But in that process, can ethics be taught to us? Or later in a person’s life, can he or she teach ethics the way they learned it? It is a unique and challenging concept because it is difficult to attempt to answer that question objectively because everybody has his or her own sense of morality. And at the same time, another person could have a completely different set of morals. Depending on the state of the person’s life and how they have morally developed vary from one human
The book uses a variety of examples throughout the book talking about ethics, for instance, they discuss how medical students refer to classes on ethics, philosophy and other classes of similar context
Sharland, A., Fiedler, A., & Menon, M. (2013). ETHICS IN THE BUSINESS CURRICULUM: DOES DELIVERY NEED TO BE REVISITED?. Southern Journal of Business & Ethics, 5.
Being educated in an international environment certainly sets the building blocks for the future of students. Through tolerance and understanding, we are better equipped to face the world and what it has to offer. From an international education, so many tools are developed; we just need to be able to know how to use those tools to benefit our lives.
What a person see, hears, or feels in their life will influence one’s understanding of ethics. What is true for one will not be true for all, because of how people make decisions. For example, nurses can face
In order for multi-cultural education programs to achieve their goals, they must aim at knowledge through engagement and inquiry-based activities that build on cultural similarities and differences and life experiences of students themselves. As Nieto and Bode (2013) stated, “True multicultural education both generates coherence and synergy from student and community diversity, and teaches students how to continue to thrive in, benefit from and contribute to the pluralistic world in which they will inevitably
43). There are four stages: first stage, an initial willingness to respect local ways and viewpoints; second stage, personal participation, which is a concrete demonstration of respect; third stage, advanced participation, where one lives the culture; fourth stage, shows an in-depth understanding. Both the soft and hard approaches within international education merge within this cross-cultural process and underscores that contact alone will not accomplish the larger goals of internationalization. Hanvey (1976) supports this notion: “there must be a readiness to respect and accept, a capacity to participate, and one must assume some plasticity in the individual since the ability to learn and change is crucial” (p. 12).
In fact, at schools there is a lot of diversity. In the classroom cultural diversity should be appreciated because they will want to learn more about themselves and their culture (Borkar). Different groups means that there will be a wide variety of topics to discuss. This benefits the students because they can learn about the many different perspectives of the world around them. They can learn different ways of thinking and n...
The issue of multiculturalism has been a large contributor towards the growth of the Australian educational industry. In 2011, 21.3 per cent of the total student population within Australian universities was made up of international students (Winter 2011). This not only makes Australia more competitive within the international education market, but also plays a significant part in welcoming students of other cultures into Australia.
“Ethics are defined as a set of principles of right conducts; the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession” ( Dictionary of the Human Language, 2000). Teachers are often put in situations that require more than just knowing the basic school rules. It is within these situations, that the ethical dilemmas occur. There is not always a right way to deal with many daily problems that face educators, but there are ways to handle situations that are better then others.
Garcia, E. (2002). Student cultural diversity: Understanding and meeting the challenge (3rd Ed.). New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.