Individualism vs Collectivism


During this week, I was assigned to watch a video by John J. Ivers, where he spoke about the differences between individual-oriented and group-oriented societies. He said that knowing about cultural differences will help us as future ESL teachers to better understand our students’ behaviors and attitudes. Ivers suggests we should be aware of those cultural differences, learn about them quickly, and even ask questions to gain further insights from our students as regards their cultures.

I believe that differences as regards individualism or collectivism can be best seen when asking students from different backgrounds to work together on projects or assignments. Working in groups can be a real challenge for those who are accustomed to working individually; and it can also be difficult for group-oriented students to work with individual-oriented ones. We have to be aware of those differences, and students must know that group work will favor them in many ways, not only providing them with knowledge as regards the topic of study, but it will also help them develop skills and abilities related to the importance of collectivism.

There are surely many good things we can learn from both kinds of societies, the task for teachers is to get the most out of the differences so that classes are richer and more engaging. 

Reading the material and watching the video made me think about these two questions: 

What would you do to help your individual-oriented students to see the benefits of group work?

How can students from individualistic cultures help those that come from collectivist ones?

I would love to learn from your insights. 

Pablo Paez

Source

Comentarios

Publicar un comentario

Entradas populares de este blog

Week 6 - October 20th - Differences in Emotional Expressivity

Imagen
 Differences in Emotional Expressivity As part of my studies as a future TESOL educator, this week I was assigned to watch a video by John J. Ivers, a professor at the BYU-IDAHO university. He spoke about the differences in expressivity around the world and how those differences replicate, in some cases, within the borders of his country.  Ivers said that there are cultures that are more tolerant of public showing of expressivity than others. He also stated that although there might be differences in public showing, studies have shown that in private most people no matter their culture, express themselves in very similar ways. I live in a country where public showing of expressivity is accepted. Having said this, there are differences in the tolerance towards that expressivity, mainly dictated by the place where we live, whether it is a big or small city or the countryside. There are also differences according to gender. Even though it is not explicitly stated, men are not s...
Leer más