Tandem Teaching in the summer semester 2020/2021 within the CIICPD project

Within the project CIICPD, four tandem teaching courses are being realized in the summer semester 2021. At Škoda Auto University, three courses are planned to be taught in the cooperation with academicians from the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, the University of Applied Sciences Zwickau, Germany and the University of Siena, Italy; one course is being also taught together at the University of Siena, Italy and University of Applied Sciences Zwickau, Germany.

Mgr. Dagmar Sieglová, MSEd., Ph.D. from the Department of Languages and Intercultural Competences (ŠAU) with Mag. Dr. Martina Gaisch (FH OÖ) are running shared project works within their English courses. In pairs consisting of one Czech and one Austrian, students are going to select a social-related issue and research it in both the involved countries. The outcome of the international-team work will be an academic poster and a video presentation of the findings. The aim of this activity is to strengthen students´ ability to cooperate, to improve their communication skills and to increase the awareness of various social problems. Tandem Teaching can be also seen as a great way how to utilize the opportunities given by on-line lessons.

In addition, Mgr. Emil Velinov, Ph.D. from the Department of Marketing and Management (ŠAU), is cooperating with Susanne Klein, M.A. (FH Zwickau) within his course Diversity Management. Susanne Klein, M.A. has already joined two seminars and shared her lecture regarding Critical Incidents with Czech students. The participants have been also given an opportunity to consult their semestral work and final presentation with her as the German academician is going to be an independent evaluator of their assignments. Both the academicians are looking forward to dynamic seminars and are enjoying the cooperation in the context of the topic of Critical Incidents.

Moreover, Mgr. Emil Velinov, Ph.D. (ŠAU) and Mario de Martino, Ph.D. (UNISI) are collaborating within Mr. Velinov´s subject International Management. Mario de Martino, Ph.D. plans to teach students about the European Project Management and is going to be one of the evaluators of students´ individual reflexions regarding the topic of FDI and modes of international-market entry. The Italian academician is also going to become an independent evaluator of students´ case studies.

Furthemore, on April 1st 2021, the University of Siena and West Saxon University of Applied Sciences of Zwickau started the tandem teaching in the framework of CIICPD project. Mario De Martino (Unisi) delivered a lecture on Europen project management to the master degree students of West Saxon University of Applied Sciences of Zwickau enrolled in the course "Intercultural Project Management". During the lectures, the main topics discussed were how European project works, which critical incidents may happen, how critical incidents due to cultural differences can be limited. The methodology used during the lecture was through case studies. The tandem teaching gave the opportunity to combine different disciplines (management and European studies, from one side, and intercultural communication, on the other side) in the analysis of critical incidents in projects' implementation.
The tandem teaching will continue during the current semester with the participation of Mario De Martino as a stakeholder in the interviews that the student of the course "Intercultural Project Management" are running in their course group work.

A student´s prospective of the Diversity Management (SAUni) seminar with Mgr. Emil Velinov, Ph.D. and Susanne Klein, M.A.:

"The lecture on Critical Incidents in Intercultural Communication was really interesting. Mrs. Klein explained to us what the expression "Critical Incident" means, spoke a bit about the history of this discipline, and showed us two approaches - culture assimilator and multi-perspective exploration. Following that, we discussed the topic using some examples in smaller groups and then together. Now, I feel ready to prepare the presentation which we are going to deliver in the end of April."