Workshop Series
Academic Department Workshops Service Department Worskshops
Student Group / Classroom Workshops 
TRU World, in collaboration for the Centre for Teaching and Learning, has developed workshops to enhance faculty members understanding of our culturally diverse learners’ communication, learning, and behavioural styles.
All workshops are a mixture of presentation, discussion, and experiential activities allowing participants to review theoretical considerations and relate implications and applications to their actual experiences.
Workshops can be tailored to a specific focus or participant group. They can be arranged for departments, interest groups, and classes.
TRU World also runs a series of International Student Workshops each semester. Contact Sultan Almajil at salmajil@tru.ca to arrange a workshop for your class.
Academic Department Workshops
“
This material is critical for anyone who works with anyone from another culture, especially for those of us engaged in teaching diverse student groups.The content was relevant to my delivery style, our class work, communication between students, and even curricular considerations.”
“Kyra is well spoken and really funny. Her workshop style gets everyone involved engaged.”
“I really enjoyed this workshop. I have attended a few sessions on intercultural 'stuff' in the past, but I experienced several "aha" moments during Kyra’s presentation. It was very lively, engaging, and interactive.”
Culture in the Classroom: Exploring Assumptions, Expectations and Approaches
- Review current and established cultural and communication theories
- Enhance cultural self-awareness
- Explore strategies for working with culturally diverse students
- Reflect on how culturally embedded assumptions influence perspectives and learning styles
- Consider how perceptions of academic standards can be shaped by culture
- Develop communication strategies for effective interaction with culturally and linguistically different others
Academic Integrity — Whose Culture is it?
- Explore how cultural perspectives and learning styles can influence students’ understanding and approach to plagiarism
- Consider strategies to minimize academic integrity infractions
Facilitating Multicultural Group Work
- Consider formation and preparation for group work
- Explore strategies to enhance participation, inclusion, and collaboration among culturally diverse students
Writing across Borders
- Examine culturally influenced rhetorical styles
- Discuss academic writing conventions and how culture may inter-play with student achievement as students express their ideas.
Service Department Workshops
“Following the workshop, I noticed that my communication with students changed. I found myself thinking about the cultural differences and understanding our exchanges in a new light.”
“I think everyone on campus should take this workshop as everyone is dealing with different cultures and it helps to open minds.”These workshops explore the intercultural interactions experienced by service departments such as campus residences, the university bookstore, the registrar’s office, advising, security, and others. Opportunities to explore specific experiences relevant to the participant group are provided.
- Consider how current cultural theory informs intercultural interactions
- Explore culturally influenced communication styles
- Examine how high and low context messages can be misinterpreted
- Provide strategies for effective oral, written, and electronic communication across cultures
- Explain how English-language conventions can create comprehension difficulties
- Enhance cultural self-awareness
Workshops are offered in half- or full-day sessions and may combine different sessions.
Service Areas that have participated include:
- TRU World
- Finance
- Registrar’s Office
- Academic Advising
- Counselling
- Bookie’s
- TRU Library
- Marketing and Communications
- TRU Residence
- McGill On-Campus Housing
Student Group/Classroom Workshops
‘The workshop was a pivotal learning experience in my business education.”
“This is so important for everyone! All students and anyone who works here should take this workshop.”
“This was more like a conversation than a lecture. Kyra welcomed questions and input from students and got us thinking about situations we have witnessed, but until now didn’t understand.” Workshops for students typically focus on increasing awareness of cultural differentiation, enhancing intercultural communication and diversity in group work. At TRU, both international and domestic student response to this material has been very positive. Student groups that have benefited from workshops include:
- MBA students
- Business students
- Tourism students
- Social Work students
- Nursing students
- TESOL students
- Early Childhood Development students
- Student leaders
- Peer support group
- Writing Centre tutors
- Supplemental Learning tutors
Pre-Departure and Re-Entry
(Study Abroad, Field Schools, Faculty Exchange)
Pre-departure and re-entry workshops are widely considered beneficial for all individuals living in another culture for an extended period of time. We recommend these workshops for study abroad, field schools, or faculty exchange.
Pre-Departure Workshops
Pre-departure workshops prepare individuals to recognize cultural differences and process their reactions. They may also include culture-specific information if participants will sojourn to particular places.
Topics include:
- Culture shock
- Adaptation/coping strategies
- Cultural differentiation theories
- Intercultural communication strategies
- Cultural self-awareness
Re-Entry Workshops
Re-entry workshops provide participants with a way to express their feelings regarding their experiences both during the sojourn and upon returning home. Topics include:
- Review of culture shock cycle emphasizing re-entry phase
- Adaptation/coping strategies
- Reactions to change
- Re-entry as learning experience
- Learning/action plan
About the Workshop Facilitator, Kyra Garson
Kyra is the primary author of “TRU: A Globally Minded Campus” and works as a consultant to TRU World and the Centre for Teaching and Learning at TRU. She holds a BA in Religious Studies from the University of British Columbia and a MAed with an Intercultural Education focus from St. Francis Xavier. Kyra is an instructor for Queen's University's International Educator's Program (IETP). She is also a facilitator for the BC Government Employee's Discrimination Prevention Workshop She has travelled, worked, and lived around the globe and has shared her cultural and instructional experience with hundreds of workshop participants including administration, faculty, staff, and students.
For more information or to arrange a workshop, contact:
Kyra Garson
TRU World and The Centre for Teaching and Learning
Tel: 250-852-7184