A Global Framework for Understanding Cross Cultural Teaching Experiences Gained in Japan

摘要

The two of the three largest economies in the world today, the U.S. and Japan, share common globalization challenges and opportunities, particularly in the area of engineering education. The globalization of engineering education calls for international educators who are able to gain a cross-cultural knowledge of their students, institutions, and countries. This is critical, because both Japan and the U.S. need to attract and develop larger numbers of engineering students with the technical skills for successfully innovating into the future as their populations increasingly age. This paper provides best practices experienced from teaching in Japan in order to help address and learn from gaps between foreign cultures, so that teaching can be more motivational and effective for learning. This leads to the following research question: How can engineering education in Japan benefit from cross cultural understanding? This paper draws from the literature streams of knowledge sharing, social influence, and social psychology. From these streams, a theoretical framework is developed and applied to teaching and learning in Japan. Through this framework, best practices are developed that can be applied for greater cross cultural understanding for engineering education across borders. The framework can be applied to not only Japan, but to other counties for greater understanding for teaching and learning globally.