Student's background, college experiences, and students' intercultural competence in six state universities and colleges of region IV-A Calabarzon / by Lionel S. Mihiripenna

Thesis (PhD - - Education) Cavite State University.

Includes bibliographical references.

Graduate Studies Open Learning College (GSOLC)

MIHIRIPENNA LIONEL S. Students’? Background, College Experiences and Students’ Intercultural Competence in Six State Universities and Colleges of Region IV-A-CALABARZON. A dissertation. Doctor of Philosophy in Education. Cavite State University, Indang, Cavite. April 2006. Adviser: Dr. Cristeta M. Montano.

This research is a detailed look at intercultural competence, an issue showing escalating importance in today’s undergraduate students education in Region IV-A, and sought to determine _ their background characteristics, college activities and experiences, and their degree of relationship in the development of intercultural competence. In this study three major types of diversity taken into consideration, (a) structural diversity, which is the cultural proportions of students from diverse cultural backgrounds; (b) interactional diversity, which refers to the extent students interact with their peers from different cultural backgrounds; and (c) curricular diversity; which is the extent to which students have been exposed to diversity issues in the classroom.

Specifically this study sought to (a) determine the background characteristics of undergraduate students of six State Universities and Colleges of Region IV-A, (b) determine the college experiences or activities as perceived by the undergraduate students of six State Universities and Colleges of Region IV-A, (c) determine the level of intercultural competence of undergraduate students of selected State Universities and Colleges of Region IV-A, (d) ascertain the relationship between students’ background characteristics and their college experiences undergraduate students of six State Universities and Colleges of Region VI-A, (e) determine the degree of relationship between students’ background characteristics and their level of intercultural competence of undergraduate students of the six State Universities and Colleges of Region IV-A, and (f) determine the degree of relationship between students’ college experiences and their level of intercultural competence of undergraduate students of the six State Universities and Colleges of Region IV-A CALABARZON.

The respondents of this study consisted of one population which was undergraduate students from six State Universities and Colleges of Region IV-A, and the sample of the population consisted of 1025 undergraduate students were taken from the stratified random sampling method.

The instrument used in this study was constructed originally by Indiana State University Center for PostSecondary Research and Planning, School of Education. This same instrument modified and validated by Chun Mei Zhao for his unpublished
dissertation which was submitted to Virginia Polytechnic and State University in the year 2002. Researchers reconstructed, contextualised and validated the same instrument in accordance with the context of Region IV-A.

In this study, intercultural competence was defined in light of the concept of culture and the contact hypothesis. Person environment interaction theory and college impact theories were incorporated as theoretical foundations for the operationalization of this research. The development of students’ intercultural competence was examined from perspectives of a desirable outcome of college education and as an active environment component that exerts important influence on students’ gains competence to live in an environment of diversity.

This study was designed to expand the concept of intercultural competence to include multiple dimensions of students’ background characteristics, such as age, gender, curriculum year, residence, cognitive ability, socio-economic status, spoken language and ethnicity. These background characteristics were thoroughly examined in relationship with the college experiences and effect of those characteristics in the development of the intercultural competence.

Findings of this study evidenced that students’ background characteristics, variety of college activities, college environment, and academic major/specific college, were highly correlated for the development of students’ intercultural competence. Intercultural competence, in turn, has substantially positive effect in student gains in multiple dimensions of behavioral aspects in developing the student to the school organization, to the society and to the nation and go beyond internationally.

College students were at a crucial point of their behavioural development. Exposure to diverse experiences, challenge, interaction with peers from diversified cultural backgrounds create the stimulus and the mismatch. Consequently, it would push students to think and behave in a deeper and more complex way.

Submitted to the University Library 04/19/2006 T-3273