Establishing Inclusion Among Adult Learners

According to Wlodkowski (2008),  the teaching and training of adult students involves in relationship; such as awareness of inclusion, and feeling of importance of inclusion in a group. “Feelings of cultural isolation often cause adult motivation to learn to deteriorate. In a course or training seminar a sense of community with which all learners can identify establishes the foundation for inclusion” (Wlodkowski, 2008):

Understanding dimensions of intercultural nonverbal communication

Goldin-Meadow (2003) cited by Wlodkowski (2008) states intercultural differences are the behaviours, such as facial expressions, body movements, gestures and conversational regulators which are obvious in the norms of conduct. Adult learners may come from different backgrounds; ethnic and histories of immigration that display the following behaviours:

a. Immediacy

There are differences in the amount of contact in culture perspective; low contact and high contact cultures. Most Arab countries, Mediterranean regions, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia and virtually all Latin America are high contact cultures whereas moderate to high contact cultures are countries, such as Northern Europe, Anglo-Saxons in the United States. Low contact cultures countries are East Asian countries like China, Japan, and Korea.

b. Individualism-collectivism

Individualism is a term used to describe a person who is oriented towards achieving personal goals by themselves for the purposes of pleasure, autonomy and self-fulfilment. Collectivism means and individual who is more oriented by group and towards achieving group goals for the purposes of group well-being, relationships, togetherness, and the common good. Countries like Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Islands are more towards collectivism, and countries like Europe Australia and North America are more towards individualism.

c. Gender

All aspects of interpersonal relationship between men and women expressed in communication behaviour, occupational status dress codes, the types of expressions permitted to each sex, the interactions permitted with strangers or acquaintances of the opposite sex.

d. Power distance

“Power distance means the degree to which power, prestige, and wealth are unequally distributed in a culture, has been measured in a number of cultures using the Power Distance Index (PDI)…” (Wlodkowski, 2008). Hosfstede (1980) developed the measurement of power distance (PDI) and indicated the high PDI scores in Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans. Low PDI scores in the United States. According to Wlodkowski, emotional display tends to be related to status in cultures with high power distance; show positive emotions, for example, the Asians smile to lessen tension and smoothen relationship.

e. Context

There are two types; the high context communication (HC) and low context communication (LC). HC communication is paying much attention to detail and common in countries like Japan, China and Korea and other Asian countries. LC communication is more emphasised on verbal and obvious in the contents, examples are countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavian, Canada and the United States.

Reference
Wlodkowski, R.J. (2008). Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn. US: John Wiley $ Sons, Inc.