Understanding Diversity
itle: Understanding Diversity Purpose: To reflect on our own understanding of diversity. Resources: This essay is a reflection exercise. Activity Instructions: After reading chapter 5 of the textbook, complete this activity. You have learned about the skill of understanding and managing diversity what it is, why it is important, and how to improve your skill in these areas. Answer the questions below in comprehensive, complete sentences. Do not provide brief answers. Instead, compose at least 4-5 full sentences (i.e., a complete paragraph) that answer each of the posed thought-provoking discussions. Please remember that your task is to not only write your own assessment, but to show that you are able to draw connections between your readings and your reflection. Use concepts and theories from the appropriate chapters, explain your understanding of their application, and show how they help you understand yourself. Remember to cite properly in-text (Author, YEAR) and at the end of your reflection with a fully formatted APA reference. I have provided you with a template where these questions are already entered. All you need to do is enter your own information by typing it right into the template. Students Name Understanding Diversity Assignment 1. Explain the difference between valuing and managing diversity and provide examples from professional experiences for each. Your examples should be novel (do not use what is written in the book). Show how communication affects this process. 2. Using a variety of concepts that were introduced in your chapter, identify, define and explain the one or two areas regarding understanding or managing diversity in which you are the strongest. Show how communication affects this process through specific examples. 3. Using a variety of concepts that were introduced in your chapter, identify, define and explain the one or two areas of understanding or managing diversity in which you need more improvement. Examine specific communication opportunities that could help you improve your intercultural communication competence. 4. If you did not change or improve your intercultural communication competence, discuss how it would affect your personal and professional life. Use specific experiences/examples to show the implications. 5. Identify, define and explain one barrier to accepting diversity discussed in your textbook that you experienced/observed and discuss how you would address it. 6. Select one of the five dimensions of cross-cultural differences discussed in your textbook. Explain the meaning and offer a specific example to show how it impacts cross-cultural communication (from your own experiences, or from what you learned through your research). 7. Name individual diversity strategies discussed in your chapter. Select one and explain how you might apply it moving forward to help gain awareness and improve your ability to understand and relate to others. 8. Think back on the questions and identify a few that were more difficult to complete than others. Explain why. 9. What did you learn about yourself in this exercise? References: (remember that you should cite your textbook and locate additional scholarly sources to demonstrate knowledge gained).
