Intercultural Development Inventory Results

Today I got the test results from my Intercultural Development Inventory Test. This test is designed to measure the stage of my Intercultural Development. This is an important topic in education today, as diversity in public schools is increasing, and teacher's need to be able to teach a diverse group of students. They rate the test using a scale from 1 that is denial, to a scale of 5 being adaptation. On my IDI report, my perceived orientation score indicates how I rate my own capability in understanding and appropriately adapting to cultural differences. In this category, I scored a 126.80, which is between acceptance and adaptation on the scale. My Developmental Orientation score was 111.56, which falls in-between minimization and acceptance on the scale. In my case, I guess I overestimated my perceived cultural competency. Taking this test has made me aware that I need to develop my intercultural competence.  I now know that it is something that I need to work on throughout the rest of my college and into my new teaching career. I have been learning some good ways to try to develop my cultural competency in class. A few of the things I want to work on are; increasing fluency in foreign language, increasing my cultural self-awareness, gain general knowledge and skill about other cultures, and gain culture specific knowledge and skills. My hope is that increasing my intercultural competence will make me a better teacher in the future.