Intercultural competence is the capability to shift cultural perspective, appropriately and effectively engage with those from different cultures, and to adapt behaviour to cultural differences and commonalities. The ability to effectively engage in intercultural interactions is essential for individuals to thrive in our interconnected, culturally diverse world and also in our multicultural classrooms, and classroom innovations such as virtual exchange have raised the need for effective pedagogical instruction of intercultural competence. Although intentional, well-designed activities seem to be the most effective at moving students along the intercultural development continuum, there has been little systematic analysis of the effectiveness of these activities or the best assessment practices to detect intercultural development. To address these knowledge gaps, I conducted a research project to understand the best strategies that help students develop their intercultural competence by following students' intercultural development as they participate in various structured activities. I recruited 61 undergraduate students and used the Intercultural Development Inventory assessment tool as a pre- and post test to understand students’ intercultural development. I conducted six different activities with each activity including a focus group or debrief for students to reflect on their learning and intercultural development. I used qualitative thematic analysis as an additional measure to understand changes in students' intercultural understanding. There was no correlation between the number of activities that foster intercultural competence and changes in developmental orientation according to the Intercultural Development Inventory assessment. Some students that showed the highest gains in intercultural competence, completed only two activities out of the six, while others who completed all activities showed no change in development. However, participation in these activities did significantly increase students' intercultural competence. In addition, students' participation in these activities and focus groups lead to a better understanding of their own level of intercultural development as measured by their orientation gap. As self awareness is a key aspect to intercultural competence this is an important finding of the project. From the qualitative analysis, I was able to determine which key activities supported intercultural development and I was also able to identify the particular strengths of the different activities. In this presentation, I will discuss these findings and propose various situations that are best suited for different assessment practices.

Keywords: Intercultural competence, global learning, assessment.