Our fourth cultural workshop was about how expected and
acceptable classroom behavior differs between cultures. This is of course a
very relevant topic both for CIES students, who are presently students in a
different culture, and TEFL students, who in the future will be teachers
abroad. There were many similarities share between Saudi Arabia, India, and the
US among the behaviors we discussed. For instance, in none of our countries is
it acceptable to address your teacher by their first name and students are
generally punished in some way for arriving late to class. Additionally, it
became clear from listening to Hassan and Ankita that Saudi Arabia and India
have classroom cultures which involve a lot more reverence towards teachers
than typically found the US. Additionally, both Saudi Arabia and India have
more gender segregation in schools than the US does. After primary school, male
and female Saudi students typically attend entirely separate schools, where in
India, classrooms are often separated with girls on one side and boys on the
other.
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