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Abstract:
Many issues challenge the efficacy of cross-cultural course requirements in promoting multiculturalism among students. For example, many of these courses are taught in large lecture formats, cultivating an environment in which students are passive receivers of information rather than active participants in open interactions with the instructor and their peers. Student response systems (SRS) are commonly used classroom technologies that, when incorporated into cross-cultural large lecture courses, can facilitate the active involvement and engagement that are necessary to increase students' openness to adopting more pluralistic perspectives. However, the extent to which the SRS is an effective learning tool hinges on the instructor's ability to promote a comfortable learning environment while reinforcing the significance of students' SRS responses with thoughtful commentary. The present study probes more deeply into this relationship by investigating students' perceptions about how instructor teaching style (i.e., classroom climate, credibility) and the SRS (i.e., peer engagement, content engagement) interface to facilitate achievement of course objectives (e.g., awareness, reflection, critical analysis, cross-cultural learning). Results from a survey (n = 181) conducted in a large lecture diversity course that utilized an SRS indicate that both the SRS and the instructor's method for using the SRS (e.g., discussion of student responses) facilitate cross-cultural learning.
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