Cross-Cultural Teaching and Learning for Home and International Students

Internationalisation of Pedagogy and Curriculum in Higher Education

Janette Ryan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136225178
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

Cross cultural teaching and learning for home and international students maps and discusses the increasing internationalisation of teaching and learning at universities around the world. This new phenomenon brings both opportunities and challenges, as it introduces what can be radically different teaching, learning and assessment contexts for both students and staff. This book moves beyond the rhetoric of internationalisation to examine some of the more complex issues for practitioners, researchers, students and those working in transnational or non-Anglophone contexts. It recognises that although universities around the world enthusiastically espouse internationalisation as part of their mission, there is currently little information available about carrying out this vision in terms of pedagogy and curriculum at a practical level. This book fills that gap comprehensively, organising its information around four main themes:

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• New ways of teaching, learning and assessing: Challenges and opportunities for teaching practice, student engagement and participation, assessment and supervision of learning.

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• New ways of designing and delivering curriculum: Internationalising the curriculum for all students within 'home' and 'abroad' contexts.

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• New ways of thinking and acting: Developing the global citizen, intercultural learning and respectful dialogue, responding to student diversity and equity, enhancing graduate employability and future life trajectories.

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• New ways of listening: Discovering and responding to new or unfamiliar voices among students and staff, embracing 'other' academic and intellectual traditions.

Illustrated by a wide range of examples from around the world, this book brings together contemporary work and thinking in the areas of cross cultural teaching and internationalisation of the curriculum.

Part 1

New ways of teaching, learning and assessing

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Chapter 1

Capitalising on a multicultural learning environment

Using group work as a mechanism for student integration

Christine Edmead

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Introduction

The increase in student numbers and diversity is creating both challenges and opportunities for universities in terms of the effective delivery of an internationalised, inclusive curriculum (see Caruana & Ploner, 2010 and further relevant literature reviewed by Caruana and Spurling, 2007). In 2006, a three-year Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF) project was undertaken at the University of Bath to identify learning and teaching strategies that make, or could make, our courses more inclusive to our increasingly diverse student population (Diversity in Academic Practice Project). Initial findings from this study identified the main barrier to inclusive learning to be a lack of student integration, particularly but not exclusively, between home and international students. Although not unexpected, these findings clarified the need to identify new approaches to meet the University’s Learning and Teaching Strategy statement of ‘capitalising on the benefits of the multicultural learning environment’.

Simultaneously, support was being requested by departments looking to implement effective group work activities within their academic programmes. Irrespective of discipline, the use of group work as an effective strategy to support learning has long been recognised in pedagogical literature (Race, 2003; UTDC, 2004) whilst being able to work effectively as a member of a multicultural team is a generic skill that is highly valued by employers. For these reasons, as well as being a mechanism for coping with increasing student numbers, elements of group work are included in the majority of degree programmes at the UK higher education institutions (Learnhigher, 2011).

Group work in its simplest form enables students to interact, share knowledge and experiences and build confidence to express their views. Therefore, using group work as a platform on which to build intercultural relationships and to help students recognise the value of diversity seems a logical progression (Montgomery, 2009; Osmond & Roed, 2010; Teaching International Students Project, 2011; and explored in more detail by McGrath-Champ and her colleagues in Chapter 2 of this volume). Since students engage better with tasks in which they can see the relevance, it makes sense to focus the group work task around subject specific learning. However, this creates the challenge of increasing pressure on the students to succeed and often resentment of the extra challenges of ‘mindful’ interactions – thinking carefully before they speak or act to ensure that their words or actions will not cause offence or misunderstanding whilst also paying more attention to interpreting the information imparted to them – and ‘taboo’ topics faced when working in a multicultural group (Harrison & Peacock, 2010). The learning outcomes of the task must therefore be structured such that students are encouraged to develop intercultural competency alongside the generic employability skills of teamwork and communication (Carroll & Ryan, 2005).

This was obviously not a novel idea and many departments were already utilising group work to encourage intercultural learning. However, the requests for guidance on how to enhance the effectiveness of the group work, coupled with student feedback which revealed a low level of satisfaction in their academic group work (see below; personal observation from student interviews), indicated that, as often reported in other studies, the approaches being used were not meeting the needs of the tutor or the student (De Vita, 2001). A review of the group work assessments commonly revealed the focus to be on a single product, the marks from which usually contributed to the final degree. Such output-based activities, however, are usually counterproductive in terms of development of group work skills as the pressure to succeed overrides the student’s desire to engage with the process (Gibbs, 1995). If the activities take place within a multicultural environment the pressures faced by students are multiplied, resulting in resentment between group members and a tendency for some high achievers to ‘take over’ and ‘do it all themselves’.

As part of the University’s Innovations Week, an independent survey was carried out across campus to ascertain students’ views of the effectiveness of different learning and teaching environments. Although overall the comments were positive, much of the student dissatisfaction recorded about group work seemed to arise from a perceived lack of training in preparation for group work; a lack of perception about the benefits of multicultural working or a lack of clarity of the learning outcomes of the exercise, as these student quotes illustrate:

You don’t get taught how to work with each other. We’re just expected to get together and learn.

In most cases group work is a particular disaster – people usually follow their own goals rather than the team in general.

These views are not unique and have been reported in other studies of group work (Mutch, 1998).

To address these perceptions and improve student satisfaction with group work, the project team set out to identify effective strategies for supporting staff in the design, implementation and assessment of multicultural group work tasks. Departments were asked to hold discussions during staff and student meetings to identify and record examples of good practice connected with group work activities for institution-wide dissemination. From the reports, the project team identified four departments, spanning three different disciplines, which were undertaking specific studies and activities designed to investigate and potentially improve the group work experiences of their students. This chapter outlines the approaches undertaken by the different departments and highlights some initial findings, although much of the work is still in the early stages of the research.

Use of a skills development approach to enhance group work participation

In September 2009, the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering requested support for their newly initiated 2 + 2 integrated programme of study. Twenty-two students who had studied Engineering for two years in China were joining the second year of the three-year Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) degree programme at the University of Bath. Whereas the Chinese students could demonstrate comparable levels of subject-specific knowledge with the existing second-year cohort, support was required to facilitate their integration into the academic and social culture of the University. A two-week induction programme was implemented to aid the students in this transition process. Owing to little prior experience of group work and the fact that the students would have to undertake a semester-long group student project, it was felt that the induction programme should address group work. A workshop was designed to encourage the students to explore the concept of group work, including the skills required and the benefits in terms of social integration and sharing of prior knowledge and experiences with home students (Huxham & Land, 2000). During the workshop, the students were asked to describe any previous experiences of group working; interestingly, this revealed that most of their prior experience had been gained during extracurricular activities such as participation in clubs and voluntary work and revolved mainly around leadership. The workshop therefore provided an opportunity for the students to explore and discuss the different skills and roles required in effective group work, with a focus on contribution to a common goal and negotiation skills. To practise these skills, the students then engaged in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style activity (a television programme where new entrepreneurs pitch for investment from experienced business people).

All the students engaged very well with the activity, practising their communication and negotiating skills. Their ‘products’ were extremely creative, with several relating to Chinese culture. This highlighted the importance of providing open topics for group work which enable students to draw upon their own prior knowledge, culture and experiences. At the end of the session, the students were asked to vote for their favourite product and the winning group received a small prize.

Although the students gained a deeper understanding of the skills, strategies and benefits of group working, which better prepared them for the upcoming group project, this approach did not result in significantly more multicultural project groups or appear to enhance student integration. This finding showed that simply redressing the issue of a lack of group work skills was insufficient to provide the confidence or incentive for students to opt to work in multicultural groups. Discussions with the remainder of the second-year cohort revealed that despite prior experience of group work, they felt they would also have benefitted from similar support. This follows the principles underpinned by the Universal Design for Learning, which endeavours to encourage consideration of curriculum design ‘to give all individuals equal opportunities to learn using flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs’ (Centre for Applied Special Technology, 2009).

Use of a skills development approach to enhance integration and intercultural competency

The Master of Pharmacy programme attracts a diverse cohort of students, around 25 per cent of whom are international, although many have studied previously in the UK schools and colleges. However, despite departmental initiatives such as integrated tutorial groups, peer mentoring schemes and social group-based induction activities, there was still a clear lack of integration of home and international students. This was particularly evident in workshops and laboratories when students self-selected their work partner(s). This meant the opportunities for students to engage in intercultural peer learning and sharing of prior experience was not being maximised. Based on the lessons learnt from Engineering, it was decided to develop a core, skills-based approach in order to facilitate integration and intercultural competency. To inform the development of effective approaches, discussions were held with both home and international students, and, as with the Engineering students, these discussions highlighted considerable variation in prior academic experience of group work. The pharmacy degree programme is accredited by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), which broadly dictates the knowledge and skills expected of a pharmacy graduate, including working as a member of a multicultural team and effectively communicating both with peers and patients in a variety of vocational settings. A learning outcome of the first-year programme therefore became to engage students in a range of subje...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1 New ways of teaching, learning and assessing
• Part 2 New ways of designing and delivering curriculum
• Part 3 New ways of thinking and acting
• Part 4 New ways of listening
• Index