EDUC9888 Studies of Asia: Utilising In-Country Experience

Topic offered subject to minimum enrolment numbers.

This topic provides a range of inputs, ideas and activities aimed at enabling students who have undertaken Asia in-country experience to consolidate and extend the impact of that experience in ways which enhance both their knowledge and professional practice. The topic provides opportunities to critically reflect on the complexities and ambiguities of intercultural encounters, so the lessons gained can be synthesised, assimilated and implemented into the curriculum.

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

• Increase their knowledge and understanding, derived from in-country experience, 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

1. Demonstrate knowledge of life in the country/countries they visited, including customs, behaviours, values and attitudes
2. Identify a range of strategies for further increasing their knowledge in particular areas of interest
3. Identify a range of ways of aligning what they learned in-country with local curriculum frameworks/syllabuses
4. Identify and formulate relevant teaching and learning approaches, arising from their in-country experience
5. Understand the potential for making effective use of the resources they acquired in-country
6. Develop strategies to incorporate more varied and challenging social, economic and political issues in their teaching and learning programs
7. Analyse how their pre-conceived notions may have been affected by the in-country experience, and formulate new perspectives
8. Evaluate similarities, diversities and differences through cross-cultural comparison