Intercultural sensitivity training for preservice teachers using culture-general assimilator with a peer interactive approach and media analysis

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of the culture-general assimilator with peer interaction and media analysis in preparing undergraduates in Teachers College in Nebraska to understand intercultural interactions that take place in an educational setting.^ Two hundred and seven undergraduates from Teachers College enrolled in a course in multicultural education participated in this study on a voluntary basis. Pretest, posttest, and extended posttest data collected from the participants included: generating and analyzing personal critical incidents (PCI); a multiple-choice task, an analysis of issues task, and a task involving matching terms to definitions using 12 critical incidents; a four-item Likert scale for assessing attitude toward training; the Inventory of Cross-Cultural Sensitivity (ICCS); the Hogan Empathy Scale (HES); and a ten-item Social Desirability Scale (SD) drawn from the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale.^ The treatment group performed significantly higher than the other groups in the posttest 1 and posttest 2 tasks of multiple choice and analysis of issues in the 12 critical incidents. The groups did not differ on the matching terms to definitions task. The treatment group and the partial treatment group did not differentiate in their ability to generate and analyze personal critical incidents, but were significantly different from the control group. Significant differences were not found among the three groups on the ICCS and the HES. Following training, the treatment group showed a significant difference compared to the partial treatment group on the subscale Empathy in the ICCS. The treatment group gave a moderately high rating of the training. The correlation between the group\u27s evaluation of training response pattern and the Social Desirability scale was not significant.^ The treatment group showed a decrease in scores on their performance on the extended posttest analysis of issues. Time and a temporary language inhibition appeared to be the factors in the resulting decrease in their articulation of issues in terminology acceptable to the coders.^ Treatment using the culture-general assimilator appeared to be effective in increasing the ability of the participants to problem solve in the context of intercultural interactions.