A Study Of Using Cultura Project In Selected Universities In Saudi Arabia And Australia - Essay Example

RESEARCH PROPOSAL: A STUDY OF USING “CULTURA PROJECT” IN SELECTED UNIVERSITIES IN SAUDI ARABIA AND AUSTRALIA I. Introduction With the intention to create a means to bridge the cultural gap between two educational institutions based on two different countries, the Cultura Project led by American and French educational institutions showed how a well-designed computer-generated communication system between the two cultures can provide the opportunity to discover new classroom systems that may prove useful in unraveling the hidden dimension of cross-cultural understanding. The project was able to show a concrete and dynamic way to harness the power of the internet to foster understanding between two foreign educational institutions. The cross cultural project was able to provide learners (and teachers alike) on both sides of the Atlantic a unique comparative, cross-cultural approach for gradually constructing knowledge of other values, attitudes, and beliefs, in an ever-widening approach to understand the foreign culture. Although the system has been in question before and has very limited research, such an undertaking that has already proven its worth in order studies and models is truly a worthwhile endeavor. With the progress of the Cultura methodology in the joint American and French educational institutions, there is an incredibly large potential for the Cultura project to be applied in other educational institutions wishing to be integrated as well. This system of integration can be used by other educational institutions separated by culture as an active classroom system where students are left with the task of learning something while teachers are on stand-by for monitoring purposes. It is with this progress that this paper is founded on. This paper revolves around the analysis of utilizing the Cultura method in joining two different cultures like Arabic and English to be applied with the same treatment. This undertaking will not only verify the effectiveness of Cultura methodology and generality of the findings of Furstenberg, Levet, English & Maillet (2001) but also contribute to the legacy of educational institutions towards cultural literacy. II. Statement of the Problem The study is aimed at determining the effectiveness of the Cultura Project in selected universities within Saudi Arabia and Australia. In addition, the study also aims to determine what would be the effect on cultural literacy and integration between Saudi and Australian schools when they are connected via the Cultura Project. The study would also focus on several facets of the socio-economic grid that are primary or secondary factors to the Cultura Project. Some of the factors that would be evaluated are the economic standing of the educational institutions to be involved in the Cultura Project, the socio-economic demographics of the students that would participate in the project, and the technological capacity of the students and the schools. Information technology would also be considered in the study as the increasing use of the global community of computer technology and the Internet requires cross-cultural communicators to be more pro-active in dealing with others. The study is also aimed in being able to provide better recognition and preparation to other cultures that have no prior knowledge to the undertaking or of the Cultura Project. This benefit is also applicable to cross-cultural computer communicators wherein undergoing the platform can serve as a good overview on what to expect the other parties based on the general impression of the culture. Problems about cross-cultural communication and how available methodologies for cultural literacy can address them will be more appreciated in the literature review of this proposal or can be deduced from the results and discussion. III. Literature Review Researches Over the years, there have been many rationales reflected on several studies pertaining to the exploration of an effective methodology on cultural literacy. In a study created by Furstenberg et al (2001) and supported by Caroll (1987), cultural literacy is an ongoing and dynamic process that attaching certain findings under knowledge is inconsistent with the reality as interactions of people in never been static (e.g. there are conflicts, resolutions and evolutions of relationships). In a study made by Kosmoski (1990), it is found that there is a positive relationship between cultural literacy and academic achievement within a class of fifth graders comprised of White, Hispanic and African-American students. This implies that a culturally diverse group of students when clustered together can have the potential for positive cultural literacy and academic achievement. In traditional view, cultural literacy is inferable in language courses. However, in recent study of Maruatona (2002), a centralized approach to cultural literacy of Botswana samples led to lack of learner participation, gender bias and use of single language for multicultural society. As a result, it is suggested that decentralization is necessary to accommodate cultural and ethnic diversity of students including reformation of single-language policy. In relation to the Cultura Project particularly in the aspect of computer-generated communication between two-cultures, Bakhtin (1981), Byram (1997) and Zarate (1997) suggested that ones culture cannot be fully revealed to the other cultural group without having an opportunity for each group to encounter each other’s cultural meaning. Moreover, the World Wide Web is proven to become a very powerful tool in offering efficient representation of reality and ability of communicators to forum including educational uses of technology in ability of querying, communication and construction (Furstenberg et al 2001). According to Crossland and Jackson (1992), using information technology such as multimedia tools can improve a students cultural literacy. One notable advantage is that it can reduce the time spent by teachers in classrooms and another is to provide student independence in setting their own pace, broadening the chance of topic repetition particularly complicated issues and transform learning experience into stimulating interactive design. In addition, the Cultura Project is based on theoretical and practical researches found in the findings of Bennett (1998), Byram (1997), Kramsch (1998) and Zarate (1996). It is infused with a series of systematic stages with the purpose of maximizing the discovery of the other sides culture. In simple terms, the design of Cultura is embedded in five (5) steps namely the exploration of semantics, confirmation by film adaptations, interpretation by current events seen in news, observation of student responses, and theoretical analysis of such responses for findings/ conclusion. On the other hand, this system is continuously upgraded and cultural literacy is thereby never static. The meeting of what is really happening and studying them under theoretical lens can also add-up to the excellent design of Cultura. In addition, the Cultura project views cultural literacy as something that is not taught but rather it is experienced by students of varying cultures and is guided by teachers on both ends. When it comes to student motivation, it has been known that the Cultura Project is also compatible when it is conjoined to traditional classroom lectures, examinations, researchers, and memorization. In heuristic studies created by Tyersky & Kahneman (1983), information involving formal and probability characteristics that tend to obligate a person is regarded less than the more natural, informal and easier way of cognition as similarity technique. For example, Fagley (1988) noted that "one of the principles that seem to be followed in cognition is that strategies reducing mental effort are preferred". According to Brown, McKeachie, Pintrich & Weinstein (1994), the preference to automism of information is motivated by spontaneity and accessibility of similarity assessment as compared to computation-based and more complicated Bayesian probabilities. The former are presumed to be non-obligatory. Because of its nature, people tend to give extra-effort to confront such information to the point of annoyance and frustration. Hence, the results of probability judgments aimed to study the learning strategies of the samples showed their heavy reliance on the use of similarity information. Further, the automatism of employing similarity techniques to answer test questions would likely be used young students in the Cultura Project. Take for instance the case of the United States, on average, eight graders in United States are commonly within the ages 12-13 years. But as cited by Brown et al (1994) in concluding their research, even college students can commit the application of the technique of answering survey questions even in inappropriate situations. This reiterates that information that is academic in nature like mathematics or science that are highly computation-related subject could be applied with automatism approach like similarity which is detrimental to learning. In order to alleviate this problem, Carnine (1989) suggested the use of more simple signals to maximize the potential of automatism approach. This kind of automatism can be married with the Cultura Project in order to further maximize its potential and thereby increase its effectiveness. In his illustration impliedly aimed at young students with automized responses, performance can be enhanced by replacing numbers by letters or a name of a country in a map like for example to the answer to the problem 9+7. Lastly, Bettman, Johnson, & Payne (1990) suggested that initiators of bridging gaps between groups tend to choose strategies that minimize the mental effort involved. This theory is furthered amalgamated by a study conducted that was saw the participation of professionals on the stream of users of similarity heuristic. In their experiment, Brown et al (1994) found that the samples had a greater motivation on reliance to similarity heuristic when imposed with deadline or specific time to accomplice a task. The output in the process was termed “suboptimal” which is caused by minimizing the effort of the respondent to be able to forward the answers on time. In conclusion, student motivation to learn cultural literacy is bounded by two options; namely, probability or similarity heuristic. Through the Cultura Project, its theoretical foundations and computer-generated communication provided the situation wherein the student would unknowingly use the two options instead of the similarity heuristic system alone. In the study of the effectiveness of Cultura Project between US and French students, Furstenberg et al (2001) found that crucial ingredients supporting the success of the project are: equal degree of commitment between the two institutions, aspects of culture should be focused, scheduling of online conversations should be well-planned and executed and close maintenance of the point of communication (e.g. website). Lastly, requirements to acquire the simplicity benefits of Cultura are two-fold namely, students and teachers should have access to the Internet and one of the two institutions has its own server. The continuous development of the Cultura Project (e.g. future inclusion of historical texts to the 5-step design mentioned earlier) will be the considerations in further measuring the cost and benefit of adopting Cultura as the first option on having methodology in cultural literacy situations. Technological Impact brought about by the Cultura Project Emphasis is given on information and not on data. It is a current dilemma for people to be drowned in data but actually lack in the necessary information that can be used in actual decision-making. This can be attributed by unpractical and imprecise data gathering techniques and processes. By the time the decision makers are about to plan or resolve a certain issue, these standard operating procedures pull them down in their path to bring hard decisions. In the education setting, students are flooded with so much data that it is nearly impossible for students to extrapolate the necessary information. The risk would be higher and decisions could diminish its value when they are deferred in favor of deepening the rationale through data mining. Creativity and risk-taking that have far more self-esteem outcomes are further undermined and can be lost to this impractical means of data mining. This thinking is important because it has both business-level strategy implications. The reduction of data clutter can minimize information system costs whereas the savings from this can be transferred on training and other additional benefits for employee motivation. This is one of the implications brought about by the Cultura Project. In order to maintain a relatively cost effective means of communication between two educational institutions, data is filtered down into the necessary and relevant information. By doing so, the Cultura Project in effect filters out unnecessary information and creates for a more cost effective means of communication. It should be remembered that even the organization could result to minimal data; the concept of lean and mean management should also be viewed. Strategic data asset is one that has the right information, in the right place, in the right format and at the right time. Since these four key ingredients are difficult to observe in raw data, the experience and cognition ability of managers serve as fillers to gaps that data cannot instantly provide to its users. In view to this, it is clear how information should overtake stress over data. The combination of people and process including value judgment are key factors in which data cannot provide. Actually, if seen in an unbiased way, organizational data served to students can serve as inputs to every decision-making for any subject or situation. Focus on people. The Cultura project, in its attempt to bridge the gap between culturally different groups, inherently focus on people and see them as the main focal point of the system. Proponents of the Cultura Project in a given situation are required to be absorbed in information management and the current demographics of the people going to be involved in the Cultura Project. By being able to understand who will be the participants of the project, the proponents would be keen to modl the training program, course outline and system and tailor fit it with the students that will be involved. They should also have a clear idea about the boundaries of their work and how would they approach potential and actual information. By doing so, they would know their priorities giving them more confidence to make decisions based on their area of concern. This is when assigning responsibility participates in the success of the process. Of course, an organization does not need a large number of decision-makers as it may only create disassociation to one another. Training staffs to come-up with work ethics to employ judgment at certain functions can improve self-esteem as well as limit the boundaries of SOPs. Outside personal consideration to motivation, creating a culture of information management can even aid the firm in maintaining the practice over the long-term with decreasing motivation costs. Focus on Processes and Mixed Origins of Information. Being able to fully utilize the different mediums of communication through the internet, the Cultura Project presents users with information in various processes and in mixed origins of information. According to extant research, the most common of these modes of information sharing are through online questionnaires, forums and films. This study briefly presents each medium of communication in order to fully comprehend the functionality of the Cultura Project and how information is delivered to the students. The first medium of communication is the questionnaires. Essentially, students on both ends are provided with online questionnaires derived from the content that is the current focus of the class they are in. Students who have participated in using the questionnaires portion of the Cultura Project have given positive feedback on the use of the questionnaire. This is because they are so potent in delivering information and can provided a concrete basis for comparison and provide students with a compact database in order for online comparison. The second medium of communication is films. The use of films add another dimension to Cultura project and in education in general that are not accessible by text alone and gives the students the opportunity to analyze orals of speech and interactions as well as non-behavior, such as tone of voice and/or proximics. This provides for a more holistic learning experience for the students involved in the Cultura Project. With the utilization of video streaming and and other mediums of video technology over the net, students are able to use varying kinds of analysis that provides students with the opportunity to learn more from films. The third kind of online communication widely used in the Cultura Project is the use of online forums. Forums are essentially online meeting places where students and even mentors can freely share information between groups of people and places. Forums also have the capacity to retain large amounts of information that can be referred to by the students. This mode of communication can be very useful for students and teachers alike as information shared through the internet is invariably many and at times too much for students and teachers to absorb in one seating. Much more is information that has originated from a totally different culture. IV. Research Objectives The proposed study will generally provide the chosen two educational institutions separated by cultural divide with an alternative approach of teaching and learning cultural literacy through the means of the Cultura Project. The proposed study will also provide a comprehensive analysis of other options to bridging the cultural divide should the Cultura Project prove ineffective based on the results of the study. The study will specifically revolve around providing a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative analysis to the study. For the quantitative analysis, the study aims to measure the importance or relevance of materials, processes and interactions under the Cultura methodology as observed by the subjects. For the qualitative aspect of the study, the study aims to assess the reactions and suggestions of the samples regarding the Cultura methodology. V. Methodology V. A. Introduction to the Research Design, Procedure and Sample The methodology of acquiring the desired results will utilize a mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative analysis. We have structured our qualitative and quantitative research processes to maximize the quantitative results when integrated to the qualitative method in acquiring the data. This proposed methodology assures further validity of the data as aspects of the results derived via quantitative means can be further validated and expounded by means of the qualitative method. For the quantitative approach, it has several advantages as they have clearer boundaries with regards to data gathering. And yet, these do not come with its weaknesses. For this approach to yield valid conclusions, the tool that is used for data gathering has to have acceptable psychometric properties. The construction of the research tool must be subjected to rigor and careful analysis. On the other hand, qualitative analysis also has an advantage as it adheres to the concept of individuality in terms that each person or group is expected to have varying interpretations of the situation that person or the group is immersed in. This provides for a more in-depth analysis for the study as the qualitative portion of the study focuses more on the inner psyche of the individual/group and acknowledges the point that individuals and groups have different opinions on the issue/topic. It is the responsibility then of the researcher to merge these existing thoughts into a cohesive interpretation that is representative of the entire subject base. The combination of both the quantitative and qualitative study truly provides for a more in-depth study of the Cultura project as it is applied to other educational institutions. V. B. The Qualitative Method of Analysis For the qualitative aspect of the research, the study will adopt the method of soliciting inputs from the subject base via the questionnaire method in conjunction with the Cultura Project with samples of Saudi Arabian and Australian university students. The descriptive method of data presentation will be used since the method is intended to primarily compile information for the study (Creswell 2005). The questionnaire is designed to focus on two aspects: the first part is the screening section that would identify respondents that were able to utilize the Cultura project or were able to make use of a system that is similar to the Cultura project. The second portion of the questionnaire is designed to focus on the response criteria of subjects that have experienced using the Cultura system. The first part is the screening section that identifies respondents whether they were able to use the Cultura Project and had already undergone the study or the respondent was able to use another type of methodology in order to achieve cultural literacy. The questionnaire will require users to provide appropriate information pertinent to their utilization of the Cultura project – where were they able to use the program, what was the reason for them using the program, who was their counterpart on the other end, and what was their overall experience to the process. The second portion focuses of the study focuses on the response criteria of subjects that have undergone or have experienced using the Cultura system. In collecting the response criteria, the study will utilize a modified version of the Likert Scale (e.g. 1 = strongly disagree while 5 = strongly agree) in accordance to the study of Cultural Project users. The collated response criteria will then be grouped into six categories; namely, (1) usefulness and interest in cultural understanding, (2) relevance of materials used, (3) features of the web interface, (4) evaluation of materials used, (5) qualitative assessment and (6) future recommendations. The third portion of the questionnaire design presents the behavior of actual use of Cultural Project. Lastly, as part of the standard questionnaire designs, the subjects’ personal profile is obtained for the purpose of stratification and creation of subject demographics. Subjects can provide additional inputs as well not included in the scope of the questions. Samples will be applied with stratified sampling with selection arising from random procedure. The target is focused on the collegiate level (if not possible, on the high school level) and should focus on one particular undergraduate degree, and subject that is present in both the universities for purposes of homogeneity. The number of students to be sample depends on the current enrollment of the target subjects but should not go below 40 (average number of students in one classroom) on both target universities. Lastly, in order to address other issues that may affect the Cultura Project (such as information technology levels between Australian and Saudi Schools), case studies pertinent to these issues will be researched and highlighted as part of the qualitative design. The present research also utilizes a case study approach for our study analysis. By definition, a case study is as a means for carrying out research which entails empirical study of a specific phenomenon within the natural setting in which it occurs, utilizing various sources of proof or evidence. The use of a case study lends itself to effectively addressing the questions of why and how and data may be yielded through survey methodologies and observational methods. The case study approach was used for the purposes of the current study because it offers several advantages to our study of the Cultura project. We use the case study method because we deliberately want to cover contextual conditions – believing that they might be highly pertinent to the phenomenon of study. Other advantages are the discovery of hidden forms of behavior, the exploration of causal mechanisms linking phenomena, the revelation of a critical case, and the explanation of variations. The case study approach also provides a way of studying human events and actions in their natural surroundings. On the other hand, because phenomenon and context are not always distinguishable in real-life situations, a whole set of other technical characteristics such as logic of design, data collection techniques and data analysis approach have been applied in the study. The general characteristics of the case studies could be interpreted following two dimensions: the number of units of analysis and the number of cases. Based on the number of units of analysis a case study can be holistic (single unit of analysis) or embedded (multiple unit of analysis). In addition, based on the number of cases, the design of the case study can be single (one case) or multiple (more than one cases). In this study, the focus is on a single case study particularly focused on the Cultura project and how it has been applied to connect two culturally diverse educational institutions and what was the learning’s acquired from the practice. The next part of the methodology focuses on the quantitative aspect of analysis. V. C. The Quantitative Method of Analysis The quantitative approach will focus on the analysis of the numerical data recorded by the researchers that was collated from the results of the questionnaires distributed in the two educational institutions. Responses will be collated in the form of tallied frequencies for easy extrapolation and analysis. The information that will be gathered will be encoded in a computer and place under SPSS program. To analyze the collected data, the study will utilize the content analysis option that would provide frequency analyses on the resulting data acquired. The study aims to find any mathematical relationships (e.g. proportionality, dependency, inverse proportionality between variables, and homogeneity of the data,) between the acquired data and provide analyses on trends that may emerge within the data. The resulting analyses will then be integrated with the results and discussion derived from the case studies acquired. According to extant studies, content analysis is the systematic description of behavior asking who, what, where, where and how questions within formulated systematic rules to limit the effects of analyst bias. Bibliography Books Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. 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