Examining Elementary Students’ Development of Intercultural Competence Through Self-Regulatory Prompts
Date
2022
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The purpose of the present quasi-experimental mixed-methods study was to examine the effects of an Intercultural Competence Intervention with Self-Regulatory Prompts (ICI-SRP) on elementary students’ development of intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and their self-efficacy beliefs in self-regulating their intercultural learning, and to investigate the ways in which self-regulatory prompts (SRP) influence elementary students’ activation of self-regulatory strategies in intercultural learning. Twenty (N=20) Montessori elementary students from two Montessori schools participated in four sessions of an intercultural exercise, in which only the experimental group were given SRP. It was hypothesized that the experimental group’s use of SRP would further enhance the participants’ development of intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes and their self-efficacy beliefs in self-regulating their intercultural learning. Quantitative data collected from the ICI-SRP survey was analyzed by conducting a univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for each of its four subscales and was used to examine the effects of SRP on the students’ development of intercultural competence (IC) and self-efficacy beliefs in self-regulating intercultural learning. Qualitative data collected from focus groups was analyzed using the constant comparative method to shed light on the ways in which SRP influence the students’ activation of self-regulatory strategies in intercultural learning. Results from the ANCOVA did not support the hypothesis, as they showed non-statistically significant differences between the development of intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and the self-efficacy beliefs in self-regulating intercultural learning in both groups. Results from the ANCOVA showed numerical increases in intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes in both groups, and numerical decreases in the self-efficacy beliefs in self-regulating intercultural learning in both groups. Findings from the analysis of the focus group data were mostly aligned with the data from the ANCOVA. Data from the focus groups shed light on different types of IC knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and different types of planning and monitoring applied by participants of both groups. The overall findings of the present study suggest that it is likely for elementary aged students to develop IC through intercultural exercises, and that SRP may support that development under certain conditions. The findings of the study may contribute to the development of elementary students’ intercultural learning methods and tools.
Description
Keywords
Intercultural attitudes, Intercultural competence, Intercultural knowledge, Intercultural skills, Self-regulated learning, Self-regulatory prompts