EMBRACING ENTERTAINMENT AND INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES IN CLASSROOM: CROSS-CULTURAL AND GENDER COMPARISONS

In a nowadays dynamic educational environment, entertainment and interactive activities in classrooms are highly encouraged as a means of enriching student learning experience. The present work discusses how college students perceive these practices and whether they are shaped by cultural and gender diversity. A total of ten classroom activities were analysed, namely: role playing, games, competitions, quizzes, videos, debates, team exercises, intercultural group assignments, projects, and workshops. The sample consisted of 221 students from the University of Valencia in Spain, being 52.9% domestic (N=117) and 47.1% Erasmus or international students (N=104). Female students counted for 53.8% of the sample (N=119), while 46.2% of the respondents were male (N=102). Activities that obtained the highest scores on the total sample were intercultural group assignments, games, workshops, and debates, while role playing and competitions reached the lowest mean values. Three activities were highly influenced by both culture and gender, i.e. role playing, team exercises, and workshops. These activities were assessed significantly higher by domestic and male students. In addition, significant differences were obtained for intercultural group assignments, which scored higher among Erasmus and international students than their domestic counterparts. Finally, findings suggest that gender played a significant role also in the case of videos (preferred by women) and debates (preferred by men).