THE 8 COMPETENCES OF AN INTERNATIONAL TEACHER

Intercultural competence is the ability to communicate effectively with people of other cultures.

• Appropriately: valued rules, norms, and expectations of the relationship are not violated significantly.
• Effectively: values goals or rewards (relative to costs and alternatives) are accomplished.

In interactions with people from different cultures, a person who is interculturally competent understands the culture-specific concepts of perception, thinking, feeling and acting.

Includes the acceptance, recognition and enhancing of diversity in the classroom, and eliminating mechanisms of prejudices and discrimination.

AT THE TEACHING PRACTISE

I can truly say that the teacher we were observing during our teaching practice had the ability to communicate within all the different cultures present in the class. He did not make any distinction at all and had been treating all equally. Additionally, he left no room for misunderstandings, demonstrating this way his ability to communicate with all of them.


 












Interpersonal competence: Interpersonally competent as an international primary school teacher shows good leadership. He/she creates a friendly and cooperative atmosphere and stimulates and achieves open intercultural and international communication.

"The Interpersonal competence domain focuses on students’ ability to interact with others and with the greater community.  Competence in this domain includes the ability to foster and maintain healthy, mutually beneficial relationships with others, and the capacity for interdependence and collaboration."

AT THE TEACHING PRACTISE

Honestly, I did not see him taking any action in particular for stimulating an intercultural communication or even showing good leadership. He did not create a friendly and cooperative atmosphere, he remained just neutral. I think he lacked skills to create an environment where students feel motivated about the activities that were being carried out in the classroom. I had the feeling that he did not get involved in the relationships inside the class between the pupils.

So basically, he was explaining the activities, answering the questions, and promoting teamwork. Personally, I think is very important that in addition to a good organization at the institutional level, the teacher has to meet the objective of stimulating and promote the interest of the activities that are being carried out.

 
Pedagogical competence: stimulate children's socio-emotional and moral development.

“Pedagogical competence can be described as the ability and the will to regularly apply the attitude, knowledge and skills that promote the learning of the teacher’s students. This shall take place in accordance with the goals that are being aimed at and the existing framework and presupposes continuous development of the teacher’s own competence and       course design.”(Giertz, 2003, p.94)

1. Shall be based on that which supports the students’ learning.
2. Shall include the teacher’s ability to develop with the support of theory and to make public their practice - Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
3. Shall make it possible to describe a threshold value (the lowest level) and a progression of pedagogical competence.

AT THE TEACHING PRACTISE

I think the teacher was concerned about this competence, and we had the pleasure of witnessing one of his teaching strategies consistent in making some of his students, who were afraid of public speaking, lose the fear gradually. We were not at the school enough time to observe the results, but he was sure that his method was the best way to do it. My team and I had explained this particular case in the section "The study case: fear of public speaking".

Subject knowledge & methodological competence: must help children to acquire the necessary cultural and international baggage, which each citizen in the international society needs to be a full member of society.

- Subject knowledge: psychologist Shmuel Shulman identifies three kinds:

     - Content knowledge is what most people would perhaps think of simply as ‘knowledge’, the kind of knowledge that comes from textbooks and reference books. 

     - Curricular knowledge refers to what you know about the formally defined curriculum for your age range. 

     - Pedagogic subject knowledge is the knowledge that practitioners have which helps them to teach and provide support as children develop their own personal subject knowledge.

- Methodological competence: is the procedure used to help children to acquire the necessary cultural and international baggage.

AT THE TEACHING PRACTISE

The teacher of our school used different textbooks. But he brought copies for each pupil of the pages with which they had to work on each day. He was very focused on the content knowledge, being absolutely not creative or improvise in that regard. I do not know if the curricular knowledge were being carried out. The only information we have though is that they were following the Danish curriculum. But I would say that the fact that he was taking over of his class always bearing in mind that it is the one with the lowest level on the English language of its grade, and adapting his explanations and annotations, therefore, made that the pedagogic subject knowledge was achieved successfully.

The methodology used by the teacher was based on the division of a class of the same course into groups according to the level of English. Here is where he was taking over the class with the lowest level of English, and was using textbooks with a lower level than the others, explaining the activities in English first, and translating all into danish afterwards, or even carrying out some activities as a solution for individual problems (see the case "Fear of public speaking" posted on this blog).

Organizational competence: must create a well-organized, neat and task-orientated international and intercultural atmosphere in the classroom.

AT THE TEACHING PRACTISE

I did not have the opportunity to observe deeper on the internal organization, and there was not really multicultural environment either, being as there was not an international school, so the official language was Danish and there was such a little diversity.


Competency for collaborating with colleagues: must be competent in collaborating with his/her colleagues.

AT THE TEACHING PRACTISE

I did not have the opportunity to attend to one of their meetings, and even if I could I would not have been able to understand it. So I can not talk specifically about whether the teacher of the class we were observing had or not competency to collaborate with colleagues or in which level. But I had some conversations with other teachers about it, and they told me that communication in the school between the teachers is very fluent, clear and efficient. They sit down very often to talk about general and specific problems, find a solution together and make a plan specifying which task should be performed each of them (if necessary) for the plan to work.

Competency for collaborating with the working environment: must keep in touch with the children's parents.

AT THE TEACHING PRACTISE

I think the fact that the school is situated in a very little town, makes people be closer to each other, and therefore the communication with the parents happens more often, as the teacher also bring his pupils to alternative extracurricular activities such as The Running Club of the town, where I believe that the teacher and the parents also meet, and have the opportunity to know closer whether there is any problem with their children at the school. So, I know they are constantly in touch, but I could not observe if the teacher had or not the skills to carry out properly the communication with the parents.

Competency for reflection and development: must permanently work on his/her personal and professional development.

AT THE TEACHING PRACTISE

The teacher is constantly thinking about how he can make it better for his pupils to achieve the goals in an efficient way. But he did not talk about his personal daily development to improve as a teacher. 

My First Impression: The class

I must say that this is the first time in my life where I belong to such an international class! I felt in a dream, excited to talk with everybody. Well, above all, I was looking forward to listening to everybody. I love to meet new people and learn from other cultures, and this is one of the reasons because I have chosen these studies. In the beginning, I thought that I knew a little bit of every culture, but I realized how little knowledge I had about them! Stereotypes were flying above my head, like this little flies that are very annoying when you open the window. And that is what happened, I opened the window. And something amazing happened while I was getting rid of them!

I think that there is always a reason/origin because a picture becomes a stereotype, even if it is not the reality that represents the entire concerned group. And not be aware of that matter, may be very dangerous!
But in my case, I came here with the mind, eyes, and ears completely open, and there is nothing more pleasant than hearing how others see life from a point of view that, otherwise I wouldn't have taken in consideration, ever.
I feel like there are people that really look forward to telling others their point of view, and the way they have been living in their respective countries. And other people might have learned (I guess) that in Europe is frowned upon certain aspects of their culture, and I perceived a bit fearful to express their opinion or explain those parts of their culture that may not be accepted here. I guess, for me it is easy to do it, being as there are only several things that are different from Danish culture, but in general, we share many values or the way to see life... Anyway, I think we all have in mind the following words, or else we wouldn't choose to be where we are (or else we are in the wrong place) so I hope that everybody, sooner or later, feels free to talk openly about their culture, or whatever they feel to:

I must say, that everybody was very nice and friendly from the beginning, and that makes a huge difference in the time spent at the college as if people were behaving in another way. It is such a nice environment! And I really appreciate seeing how everybody do their best to make this happen.

Thanks all of you, for making me feel so good, and for making my time at the University so easy and bearable!

My First Impression: The University

 My first day at the University was amazing. I was wondering what will I find at the encounter, how would be the people...and if I actually I would find the address of the college, being as it was the first time that I was visiting Vordingborg. And what was my surprise when I got off the train and there were two people holding a sign saying "WELCOME ITEPS". My mouth drew a smile in my face, and it was a great pleasure to find out that actually there were people holding signs along all the way up to the college. And here I found the first distinction regarding Danish and Spanish universities: I was at the university in Spain, and the first thing they did was warning us about the difference between the high school and the higher education, so "we could be prepared for very hard work!"

And much less you will find coffee and something to eat at the meeting room. That was awesome! But if there was something that really attracts my attention was: the tutor figure. I think it is a great idea to give a job to a student at the university, it makes people get involved and earn some money, and offer to other students the option to consult information to a very close person, being as they are also students. It is the first time I see this project, and I think the tutors around me were doing a great job.
Sadly I could not attend to the parties that the tutors organized, but I was aware of all the activities, and I think it is very well thought to get to know each other this way.
Noteworthy was also the friendliness of all the teachers and old/new students that attended the event.
And here I will take the opportunity to express my gratitude for all those people that made possible such a warm welcome.