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University of Florida

See, We are Different and Similar!


UF Faculty: Feihong Wang
Department: Psychology Department
College: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Partner Faculty: Emmanuelle Awad
Department: Department of Psychology and Education
Partner Institution: Lebanese American University (LAU)
Title: See, We are Different and Similar!
Project Description: In this virtual exchange project, we match students from Dr. Wang’s and Dr. Awad’s classes to explore differences and similarities in developmental topics of their mutual interest. Students are connected first via email and then form their own social media groups with 10+ students from Dr. Wang’s class and 2-3 students from Dr. Awad’s class per group. Students start an icebreaking activity first using the provided prompts and then proceed with cultural dialogues on the chosen developmental topics with relevant authentic pictures as illustrations, culminating in a snapshot writing project reflection on cultural similarities and differences in human development.
Learning Outcomes:
  • Gain global self-awareness and perspective taking.
  • Obtain cultural understanding in physical, cognitive and social-emotional aspects of human development.
  • Reflect about different values and beliefs in human development.
  • Reflect about cultural biases and misconceptions relating to human development.
  • Increase curiosity and openness to the complexity of human development in the global world.
  • Increase cultural sensitivity and empathy in the discussion of human development.
  • Enhance cultural discourse mastery.
  • Enhance communication and writing skills.
Participating Countries: Lebanon
Number of Participants: 300+ UF Students; 23 Lebanese American University (LAU) Students
Discipline: Psychology
UF Course Code & Name: DEP3053 - Developmental Psychology
Project Duration: 3 weeks for active virtual exchange/Cultural dialogues + 6 additional week for the VE writing project
Activity Type(s):
  • Student-to-Student Dialogue
  • Student-to-Student Project
Time allotted to each activity:
  • Asynchronous Activities: 1 hours/week
  • Individual work: 0.5 hours/week
Technology Tools:
  • Email
  • WhatsApp application
  • Google Drive
Sequence of Activities:
  • Icebreaker:

Students are asked to introduce themselves based on three Ps (personal, professional, and peculiar aspects about yourself). They are encouraged to get further connected with additional exchanges beyond this icebreaking activity to learn more about each other.

  • Engagement Activity:

The instructors provide some prompt questions or project guide for students to discuss with their VE partners via the social media platform of their own choice (e.g., the WhatsApp group) to:

  1. Identify some topics related to human development that students have mutual interest in and share their cultural experiences in their own country. For example: parenting styles, peer conformity, education, intergenerational relationships, attachment styles, pregnancy, etc.
  2. Compare and contrast the differences and similarities, with picture demonstration. They need to introduce the picture by stating where they got it from and why they chose it.
  3. Explore the reasons behind the differences and similarities.
  4. Demonstrate VE participation with both text and video components, and reflect about the participation via a VE developmental snapshot project (FW) or a Reflection paper (EA).
  • Collaboration Activity:

The collaboration is a group activity.

The sequence of activities is as the following:

  1. The students are matched by EA and FW into different groups.
  2. EA’s students initiate contact with FW’s students via email to form a group using a tech tool of their choice.
  3. Icebreaker activity via a tech tool of their choice (see above).
  4. Asynchronous cultural dialogue and exchanges between students and their VE partners via the same tech tool of their choice.
  • Reflection Activity:
  1. Students report on their experience through a submitted project (i.e., developmental observation project final report for FW and reflection paper for EA).
  2. Students have the option to do a pre-VE and a post-VE surveys to understand the impact of the VE project on students.