A new initiative:

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A new initiativeTeaching International
Students

• Dr Fiona Hyland
• ESCalate,
• Subject Centre for Education
• QUILT Conference
• University of Cardiff
• 8 February 2010

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A presentation in 2 parts

• Listening The Changing World project IaH
• Acting A new national initiative
• Teaching International Students

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A Changing World the internationalisation
experiences of staff and students (home and
international) in UK Higher Education

• Fiona Hyland, Sheila Trahar,
• Julie Anderson Alison Dickens

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http//escalate.ac.uk/5248
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Aims

• To explore the perspectives of students and staff
  on
• what the terms 'internationalisation' etc, mean
  to them,
• the extent of internationalisation within their
  institution,
• the effects on teaching and learning,
• their challenges successes.

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Methods

• 15 Focus groups in February to May 2008
• 5 locations with participants from across UK
• A range of disciplines e.g. Business,
  Engineering, Education, Sociology, Arts, English,
  Mathematics
• Separate groups of international home students
• Topic guide

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Key Challenges as perceived by staff students
in the study
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HEI strategy staff buy-in

• internationalisation means recruitment it means
  reaching out and pulling students in". Staff
• probably in a lot of cases the people who decide
  how many students (as many as possible) are not
  the people who then have to deal with them... So
  I think the problem is basically that the system
  has become too financially driven without, you
  know, care for the quality Staff

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Entry requirements

• Concerns about how English language tests (IELTS,
  TOEFL) are used, what scores are required
• one person I lived with actually its a sad
  story, because she was doing a music course, and
  she actually had to quit her course because she
  couldnt cope. I was like Well why did the
  University let her in? I, kind of, got a bit
  angry they really shouldnt have let in if her
  English was so bad that she couldnt cope with
  the course. (Home Student)

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The Curriculum

• For the international marketplace
• Embedding internationalisation vs tagging on
  extra modules / case studies
• Different disciplines, different approaches
• Accreditation restrictions
• Graduate attributes

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Teaching Learning

• Yeah, when I came to the lecture room it seems
  like white people sit at the back, white people,
  and then in the middle some like me, yellow
  coloured people, and then at the front, black
  people. And when they divide groups, just like
  Malaysia students will go with Malaysia students.
  Muslim students would like to go with Muslim
  students. White people will get white people
  together.. people are still sitting (like this)
  for a whole year International Student

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Teaching Learning

• Staff suggestions what worked for them
• Group work was seen as challenging, but effective
  when encouraged

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Student Interactions

• Cultural cliques
• Language
• HEI and degree course barriers
• Cultural differences in socialising

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• Student I guess we didnt mention it (alcohol),
  because its so obvious, its just there.
• Student my interpretation of the word sociable
  is helpful, supportive, friendly, maybe
  patient, things like that. It turned out to be
  different here.
• Moderator what is it here, your perception?
• Student As experienced in my hallway, it means
  being able to drink more than 10 pints of beer
  an hour. If you can do that, youre very
  sociable. Otherwise, you may be intermediate.

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Internationalisation at Home

• We dont do it actually (make the effort to get
  to know international students). I mean thats
  the problem. Its also our responsibility to
  find out and we dont actually do it, we find so
  many excuses, like I have to do this, and this,
  and this. (Home Student)

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Generally, this is a positive report
internationalisation enriches lives

• So no matter how much I might have tried its
  only by having students from Ghana, from Nigeria,
  from Taiwan and from India who when they talk
  about (their contexts) you can begin to
  understand the parallels and the contrasts and
  comparisons and it brings a dynamic to the
  learning that is so real, so alive, so energised,
  that no textbook, no amount of me preparing to
  remember to say oh and in Singapore it might be
  different, oh and in Canada they do this'.
  Theres no way that I could have created that.
  That is a very dynamic and creative element of
  the learning for students and for me. (Staff)

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Conclusions
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IaH through the Curriculum

• Internationalising the lecturer?
• Sanderson (2008)
• Teekens (2000)
• How local is the content?
• CICIN, Oxford Brookes University
• Haigh (2009)

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IaH and intercultural competencies

• e.g. Stier (2003)
• Content knowledge about other cultures
• Intrapersonal
• Cognitive e.g self-reflection
• Emotional e.g. avoiding judgements
• Interpersonal
• Communication competence

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IaH and student interaction

• Doesnt just happen you need strategic
  interventions (Leask, 2007)
• Managed (long-term) group work
• Mentoring/buddies
• Using learning outcomes which value
  cross-cultural learning
• Global citizenship schemes

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At the same time, in 2008/9, a national
initiative was being proposed
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Teaching International Students

• Run by the Higher Education Academy
• Funded through the Academy, UKCISA PMI2
• 2 year project

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The Team

• Janette Ryan
• Jude Carroll
• And many others across UK

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Teaching International Students - Aims

• Raise the profile of teaching and learning for
  international students
• Establish a repository of national and
  international research
• Identify and disseminate information and guidance
• Provide guidance on staff development strategies
• Establish a network of interested people

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A one stop shop
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Extract from Internationalising the Curriculum
section

• Strategies include
• Considering with students how knowledge/content
  might be alternatively constructed in different
  cultures.
• Ensuring that learning outcomes include values
  and skills as well as knowledge.
• Discussing relevant ethical issues in
  international contexts.
• Giving time in sessions to considering how
  professional practices might differ across the
  world.
• Building-in experiential learning so that
  students can experience and reflect on the
  intercultural aspects of their learning alongside
  the core disciplinary learning.

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Empathy Game Not knowing the rules Based on
Leask, B. (2000). Teaching NESB and International
Students of the University of South Australia,
Teaching Guide. Adelaide University of
Adelaide. Also quoted in Carroll Ryan (2005 p.
143) Make a simple set of cards by cutting up
paper and with different colour pens writing the
numbers 1 - 10 on a few of them (draw a line
under 6s and 9s to show which way is 'up'). On
the remaining cards draw a few random marks such
as black dots in some corners, green triangles at
the base, perhaps a blue square in the top left
corner and so on. Then divide participants into
smaller groups of five or six people. Tell them
to devise a simple card game based on Top Trumps
or Snap. The rules need to be easy to learn and
they need to use the numbers and markings on the
card. The game needs to identify who is a winner
and who is a loser in each round of play. Groups
are bullied NOT to devise too complex a game!
Allow groups to practise for three or four
minutes until everyone is an expert. Then ask
one person from each group to leave the
room. Pass round the room a sheet of paper that
specifies a change in the rules for example,
that all red numbers are doubled for everyone who
has stayed in the room but not for the returner
(i.e. a 3 becomes a 6 etc). Or that anyone with
a green triangle is automatically the winner
which applies to incomer plus the remaining
group. Or that black numbers don't count. The
groups now play the game with the additional
rule, until it goes smoothly - maybe a minute or
two. Invite the people who had gone outside to
return and re-join the game. The groups are
instructed to be friendly but not to explain what
is different, just play. The groups are allowed
to play for a maximum of five minutes. After
this, ask groups to discuss how they felt about
the outsider and ask the outsider to express how
they felt. What was going on for the outsider?
How much 'head space' was devoted to trying to
understand the new situation? Ask groups to
consider how they could have helped the outsider?
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Provisional dates for collaborative Subject
Centre events

• 5 March BMAF in Leicester
• 11 May ESCalate in Bristol
• 30 April Economics Network, LSE London
• May Psychology
• June Engineering
• June Languages, Linguistics Area Studies

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Strategies for supervision assessment

• A TIS / ESCalate event
• Tues 11th May 2010
• University of Bristol
• Facilitators
• Jude Carroll
• Sheila Trahar
• http//escalate.ac.uk/6560

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Further details from

• Fiona.Hyland_at_bristol.ac.uk
• Katherine.Lagar_at_heacademy.ac.uk
• http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/home

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Activity

• Tell your neighbour about two cultural groups to
  which you think you belong.
• What are some of the characteristics of these
  groupings which you would need to bear in mind
  when communicating with people from other groups?