The Parable is a well-known activity that teaches participants about their cultural values. In the Downloads section of the tool, CILMAR has added two new versions of the parable—“A Modern Parable” and “A Lab Parable."

This discussion starter challenges participants to reflect upon how we (often unknowingly) put new people into categories. These categories can determine how we form relationships. 

The One-Minute Paper helps participants to give quick feedback to a facilitator and demonstrate their understanding of a lesson.

This activity is designed for students who are preparing to study abroad. Students may receive an overwhelming amount of advice before they go abroad, so this activity is meant to help them prioritize and determine what is most important to them. This activity may also help them rethink their priorities or their perceptions of what it means to study abroad, as they may encounter information that had not occurred to them before.

This assortment of buttons depicting a variety of images and slogans are perfect for getting a group interacting. They make for great icebreaking conversations at the start of a program, for exploring roles and perspectives during a group experience, or as a unique processing tool.

This collection of unique postcard images are an impactful tool for vision setting, helping participants resolve conflict or establish group norms, or as a dialogue prompt in restorative justice circles. Postcards inspire creative writing and can be used as journaling prompts for self-reflection. The Pick-a- Postcard Kit is a compelling and engaging tool for practicing the use of metaphor and figurative language.

People often find it easier to express themselves through a picture or symbol rather than through verbal means. Because participants can talk about the object or image rather than about themselves directly, they sometimes express thoughts that would otherwise be left unsaid. The thoughts, ideas and connections inspired by the imagery lead to broader and deeper reflection sessions than when using dialogue alone.

Jen Stanchfield of Experiential tools created this teaching, group facilitation and reflection tool in 2002 after a facilitator in one of her conference workshops shared that they were looking for a “pocket sized” de-briefing or reflection tool that would be easy to carry into the field. The set includes 30 high-quality figural charms in a sturdy decorative tin, with carrying bag, plus suggestions for use.

This conversation was facilitated at the WISE 2020 conference.

We have been socialized to avoid using always and never when describing others' behavior, but Thiagi challenges us to break the rules and do just that.

This reflective activity will ask participants to imagine another point of view and reflect on empathy. 

This activity is based on Jamil Zaki’s concept of the empathy gym, which he discusses on the podcasts Hidden Brain and Clear + Vivid. In those episodes, Zaki describes how he developed empathic skills as a child of divorced parents with two very different sets of values and priorities. He also discusses the positive and negative aspects of empathy in addition to providing some techniques that anyone could use to increase their level of empathy. This activity adapts one of those techniques, which he calls “Disagree Better,” and provides participants with tools for better understanding and empathizing with individuals who they may disagree with.

This activity focuses on teaching participants how to develop self-care guides that are inclusive of individuals from a variety of backgrounds. 

Using Purdue University President Mitch Daniel's 2018 commencement speech and NPR's "Should We Have Empathy for Those We Hate," this activity explains tribalism and empathy.

This discussion starter challenges participants to reflect upon how we (often unknowingly) put new people into categories. These categories can determine how we form relationships. 

Participants in this activity will describe the cultural and emotional meaning of a song with a person of another culture. 

During this activity, participants, define empathy, consider how perspectives toward empathy changed, examine the difference between empathy and tribalism, and learn what the "dark side of empathy" means. 

Rejection sensitivity, a term that originates in the field of psychology, is when a person expects and reacts intensely to rejection because of past traumatic experiences. This activity aims to examine rejection sensitivity that stems from past experiences related to identity (for example, discrimination based on gender, race, sexuality, etc.). Participants will be asked to think about their own identities and how they might experience or contribute to sensitivity to rejection, for themselves and/or others.

This activity enables participants to define empathy, recognize how we develop empathy for fictional characters, discuss the relationship between empathy and culture, and articulate how empathy for fictional characters might translate to empathy for real people or situations.

This activity uses an episode of NPR's Morning Edition, as well as Purdue President Mitch Daniels' 2018 commencement speech, to discuss how current events and social media have contributed to tribalism and a decline in empathy.

This episode of Storytalking with Lakshya features George Simons, the creator of "Diversophy." The episode focuses on how stories can be used as vehicles for both good and evil and how religion, culture, history, can be understood as stories. 

Using an episode of the popular podcast Radiolab, this activity asks participants to discuss the process of naturalization and how individualism, collectivism, assimilation, and xenophobia factor into that process. They will also consider the idea of "belonging" to a place and outline their own sense of "belonging."

This activity uses an episode from NPR's Morning Edition to consider different perspectives on empathy and learn what the "dark side of empathy" means.

This activity is based on Jamil Zaki’s concept of the empathy gym, which he discusses on the podcasts Hidden Brain and Clear + Vivid. In those episodes, Zaki describes how he developed empathic skills as a child of divorced parents with two very different sets of values and priorities. He also discusses the positive and negative aspects of empathy in addition to providing some techniques that anyone could use to increase their level of empathy. This activity adapts one of those techniques, which he calls “Disagree Better,” and provides participants with tools for better understanding and empathizing with individuals who they may disagree with.

This activity uses an interview with acclaimed author Ann Patchett to help participants consider the importance of empathy within fiction, the relationship between empathy and culture, and how their empathy for fictional characters might translate to empathy for real people or situations.

During this activity, participants will critically analyze and interpret the music and lyrics of a culturally significant song, reflect on the significant role of cultural and societal critique, engage with a song via their worldview and the worldview of others, and understand the complexity of worldview elements important to members of their own and other cultures.

After completing this activity, participants will be able to understand the complexity of elements important to members of another culture in relation to its history, values, politics, communication styles, economy, or beliefs and practices; better formulate and articulate their own worldview, and recognize how these elements affect the formation of a person's worldview.

This activity requires participants to articulate a nuanced understanding of one domain of intercultural knowledge and competence from the AAC&U Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE Rubric, list activities that will help them personally develop in that domain, and identify evidence that signals they have personally developed in that domain. 

This activity enables participants to define empathy, recognize how we develop empathy for fictional characters, discuss the relationship between empathy and culture, and articulate how empathy for fictional characters might translate to empathy for real people or situations.

This creativity-training activity was designed for a Spring Break study abroad program at Purdue University titled Amsterdam: Creative Thinking & Innovation in Collaborative Leadership. Specifically, it was designed to help travelling students their airport "down time" productively. It enables participants to enact connections between science, creativity, teamwork, and intercultural competence; take risks; embrace contradictions; as well as connect, synthesize, and transform.

This activity was created as part of a Purdue University Spring Break study abroad program, Amsterdam: Creative Thinking & Innovation in Collaborative Leadership. It allows participants to develop a better understanding of their stressors and how to deal with stress during a study abroad program.

This icebreaker activity helps participants to develop awareness of others as both individuals and cultural beings and build empathy and a sense of team identity by listening and sharing. It is best done with pairs who will be working together afterwards, for example: lab partners or project teammates.

This activity uses board games to help participants recognize different aspects of indirect communication styles, develop mental empathy and teamwork skills, and navigate cultural context.

This assessment measures participants' general sense of belongingness and loneliness. The iLEAD version of these two tools was created to assess visiting scholars' sense of loneliness and belongingness. The wording in this survey is specific to the university hosting this program. Edits will be necessary to adapt it to other contexts.

This assessment measures the extent to which participants believe that cultural influences on one's beliefs, attitudes, and behavior are controllable or uncontrollable. It can be used formatively (assessment for learning) to inform curriculum design, summatively, in a pre/posttest format (assessment of learning) to measure growth as the result of a learning intervention, or as part of the learning process (assessment as learning) in which results are debriefed and discussed with learners as a group.

This activity requires participants to identify two to three skills that a company/job requires on a career posting and discuss ways that the skill-level increased during, and because of experiences from, the semester abroad. They will also formulate an interview response in which one of the skills identified can be linked to an intercultural skill and develop a brief story following the STAR method, and create at least two intercultural questions to ask an interviewer. The activity is designed for students who are studying abroad.

This activity asks participants to reflect on their experiences working in teams and examine communication and intercultural issues that can arise when working in teams. It also requires them to practice identifying sources of behaviors using Hofstede's Power Distance Index, practice reflection and application of teamwork strengths to improve teamwork in a hypothetical situation, and draw connections between the practice of these skills in the hypothetical to real-world applications specific to the culture in which they are studying abroad. The activity is designed for students who are studying abroad.

This activity requires participants to interview a professional from their host country, explain how their chosen career and educational path function in a different country, and synthesize or draw conclusions by combining examples, facts, or theories from more than one field of study or perspective. It is designed for students who are studying abroad.

During this activity, participants will reflect on their impressions of their career field and compare them with the views of their host country, develop a better understanding of the complexity of elements important to members of another culture in regard to worldview, and ask deeper questions about other cultures and seek out answers to these questions. It is designed for students who are studying abroad.

This activity asks participants to use the SWOT analysis method to critically analyze and revise intercultural and linguistic goals set at the beginning of the semester abroad experience. It also allows them to practice deeper reflection on weaknesses and challenges in order to make informed revisions to those goals, critically consider the influence of their context and assumptions on goal setting, and prioritize evidence and perspectives to draw logical conclusions in the revision of past goals.

This activity enables participants to identify the five qualities that they view as most important in your career field, discuss and compare their qualities with another person's, recognize the role cultural values play in informing and defining professional norms and practices, and practice perspective-taking in considering worldviews other than their own regarding professional cultural values and acting in a supportive manner that recognizes the feelings of another cultural group. It is designed for students who are studying abroad.

This activity incorporates readings and two activities aimed at getting participants to think about the cultural values that define who we are by examining their own identity and values. It is designed for students who are studying abroad.

This activity requires participants to observe people from another culture and practice complimenting others, reflect on connections between verbal and nonverbal responses and cultural factors that dictate social norms in the host culture, and recognize and participate in cultural differences in verbal and nonverbal communication. It is designed for students who are studying abroad.

This activity requires participants to ask deeper questions and interact with members from a different culture; find culturally significant objects and places; and seek out and articulate answers to questions about culturally specific objects and places in a way that reflects multiple cultural perspectives. It is designed for students who are studying abroad.

This activity enables participants to contemplate and explain their culture-learning goals for their time during their semester abroad, develop logical and consistent plans to attain goals, and identify multiple approaches for attaining goals. It is designed for students who are studying abroad.

This activity allows participants to introduce themselves to other classmates/group members, as well as consider cultural factors that led to their study abroad experience. It is designed for students who are studying abroad.

This activity is often introduced with a focus on privilege, e.g., "nationality privilege, race privilege, gender privilege," etc. This version is designed to lead participants to an understanding of privilege as unearned advantage without initial use of the term. Delaying the use of the term may allow participants whose instinct is to shut down, to experience immediate deep feelings of guilt, and/or to focus on their family's use of "privilege" as something earned to engage more fully with the experience of collecting Legos. 

This syllabus for a 1-credit course offered through Purdue's School of Languages and Cultures was designed for both students who enrolled for credit and for language instructors who joined out of professional interest. Weekly meetings alternated between a focus on theoretical texts and on pedagogical tools and facilitation strategies.

This assessment measures respect, openness, empathy, and tolerance of ambiguity. It can be used as a formative assessment to set the tone for appropriate and effective behavior in any group of culture-crossers. It can also be used by an observer or instructor to grade behavior(s) of an individual or a group. Triangulation of observed behavior with expressed self-assessment can, in the hands of a good debriefer or coach, lead to strong "a-ha" moments.

The purpose of this reflective exercise is to allow the sojourner to begin to "take leave" of the study abroad destination, and make meaning of the experience. If done in small groups or with one's host family, it can also increase empathy for other viewpoints and emotional experiences.

This activity aims to help participants respond to being treated as a "stereotypical" representative of their home countries, as well as help them learn how to fit in more in their new host culture. Along the way, they will also gain practice in forming testable hypotheses, an analytic skill applicable to many careers.

During this activity, participants, define empathy, consider how perspectives toward empathy changed, examine the difference between empathy and tribalism, and learn what the "dark side of empathy" means. 

This activity enables participants to define the concept of "critical mass" and analyze photos for critical mass, inclusion/exclusion, and stereotypes.

As a result of this activity, participants will be able to discuss the process of naturalization; discover how individualism, collectivism, assimilation, and xenophobia factor into naturalization; and explain the idea of "belonging" to a place and outline their own sense of "belonging."

As a result of this activity, participants will be able to explain that curiosity is a skill that has to be honed and developed like any other skill; understand that general curiosity translates easily into cultural curiosity; comprehend that it is important to dig beneath the surface, developing curiosity not just about the ‘what’ of culture but also the ‘how’ and ‘why'; and reflect on the process of forming deeper questions about cultural difference.

This one-credit online course is open to select Engineering and College of Science students, who will return to Purdue for a minimum of one additional semester. While abroad, students will complete supplemental readings and guided assignments which will document their study abroad learning and create a portfolio of individual skill acquisition; thereby increasing cultural self-awareness and an ability to work effectively with people from other cultures. 

This free resource is meant to be used as a worksheet for individual reflection that applies the metaphor of a pendulum to the Intercultural Development Continuum for a more robust and realistic sense of one's intercultural competence, the outside forces/events/environmental factors that pull one towards a focus on similarity and difference (magnets), and the strategies and behaviors one can employ to stay balanced (anchors). 

Faculty or staff who complete the Intercultural Pedagogy curriculum will develop the capacity to be a more effective cultural mentor to students while leading study abroad. 

This assessment measures writers' reflections in journals or blogs using five categories of data: culture shock, communication challenge, cultural appreciation, cross-cultural comparison, and adaptive behavior.

This rubric allows instructors to assess communication (clarity and depth), openness (breadth & fairness), and self-awareness (ability to describe one's own academic engagement & personal growth). It also allows learners or instructors to recognize the elements of good critical reflection.

This is a self-scoring 18-question assessment instrument. Given its self-scoring nature, this assessment will help individuals or teams develop greater awareness of the components of active and empathic listening.  Used in tandem with a debrief or as a discussion starter, it may also create awareness of others' listening skills or help trigger empathy.

This activity is based on Jamil Zaki’s concept of the empathy gym, which he discusses on the podcasts Hidden Brain and Clear + Vivid. In those episodes, Zaki describes how he developed empathic skills as a child of divorced parents with two very different sets of values and priorities. He also discusses the positive and negative aspects of empathy in addition to providing some techniques that anyone could use to increase their level of empathy. This activity adapts one of those techniques, which he calls “Disagree Better,” and provides participants with tools for better understanding and empathizing with individuals who they may disagree with.

The “Where I’m From” project, presented by the Kentucky Arts Council and Kentucky Poet Laureate 2015-2016 George Ella Lyon, ended December 31, 2016. The arts council is no longer accepting submissions, but continues to maintain the project page and poems that were submitted by the project deadline.

A national “I Am From” project, presented by George Ella Lyon and writer/educator Julie Landsman, collects “I Am From” poems, photos, audio, video and other artistic expressions. For more information and to submit your interpretation of “I Am From,” go to https://iamfromproject.com.

This podcast episode examines how food affects our lives and how we come to find some as "yum" and others as "yuck."

Human behavior is complex. While it may be tempting to attribute someone’s actions to “human nature” or some sort of individual quirk, it’s usually not so simple. Therefore, this activity aims to get participants thinking critically about three dimensions (universal, cultural, or personal) of human behavior and the nuances between them.

We all have experienced moments where we just can’t seem to understand each other. Moments of miscommunication commonly occur in our everyday interactions, and cultural differences can sometimes further complicate these situations. Therefore, this activity is designed to get participants thinking about not only how miscommunication happens but also how understanding culture can help us to mitigate scenarios where misunderstandings occur. 

This activity is designed for students who are preparing to study abroad. Students may receive an overwhelming amount of advice before they go abroad, so this activity is meant to help them prioritize and determine what is most important to them. This activity may also help them rethink their priorities or their perceptions of what it means to study abroad, as they may encounter information that had not occurred to them before.

This activity is based on the equilintegration (EI) theory, which explains the process through which humans construct a belief and values system by interacting with the world around them to get their needs met. This activity asks participants to consider how variables—like geography, race/ethnicity, gender, economic/social class, or physical ability—interact with environmental or contextual factors, such as family, media, or education, interact to form one’s EI self.

This activity is based on the Intercultural Development Continuum™ (IDC), which was created by IDI, LLC. Participants will identify statements indicative of various orientations on the Intercultural Development Continuum and reflect on connections between the orientations and their own life experiences. 

Rejection sensitivity, a term that originates in the field of psychology, is when a person expects and reacts intensely to rejection because of past traumatic experiences. This activity aims to examine rejection sensitivity that stems from past experiences related to identity (for example, discrimination based on gender, race, sexuality, etc.). Participants will be asked to think about their own identities and how they might experience or contribute to sensitivity to rejection, for themselves and/or others.

For this activity, participants use picture cards to learn how to identify familiar and unfamiliar cultural experiences, exhibit curiosity in unfamiliar cultural practices, articulate deep cultural knowledge for outsiders, and practice emotional resilience and tolerance of ambiguity.

The ability to adapt in new or unfamiliar situations is a crucial life skill. However, in cross-cultural interactions, it can be difficult to decide when we should adapt to a different culture’s expectations, or when it might be more appropriate to refrain from enacting unfamiliar customs and norms. Therefore, the goal of this activity is to guide participants through this decision-making process (using Stella Ting-Toomey's model of Transcultural Communication Competence) and allow them to understand and reflect on their ability to adapt.