Evaluating the international learning experience:
what works, what doesn’t, why do it?
Or, Inquiry based learning in global context
Dr Clare Newstead
College of Arts and Sciences Global
Education Office
Outline
•Introduction to internationalising the curriculum
•Making a case for a conversation between inquiry
based learning and internationalisation of the
curriculum
•Examples from NTU
Internationalising the curriculum (IoC)
Key motivations:
1. Offer a curriculum that meets the needs of a
diverse international student body (equity and
inclusivity)
2. Enable students to develop the knowledge, skills
and attitudes for effective and responsible
participation in a globalised community (global
citizenship)
Approaches: ‘additive’, ‘intercultural/interaction’ and
‘transformative’ (Clifford, 2013)
In practice…
We see a diversity of drivers and approaches to IoC
BUT a common (and growing) emphasis on:
Graduate outcomes and the relationships between
students and the worlds beyond study
Defining IoC
“Internationalisation of the curriculum is the incorporation of
an international and intercultural dimension into the content of
the curriculum as well as the teaching and learning processes
and support services of a program of study. An
internationalised curriculum will engage students with
internationally informed research and cultural and linguistic
diversity. It will purposefully develop their international and
intercultural perspectives as global professionals and citizens”
(Leask 2009, emphasis added)
“Internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC) is about students
developing global perspectives and cross-cultural capability in
order to be able to perform, professionally and socially, in a
multicultural environment.” (Clifford and Joseph 2005,
emphasis added)
‘Engaged Global Citizens’
NTU Graduate Attribute: Global Citizenship
• International awareness and openness to the world, based on
appreciation of social and cultural diversity, respect for human
rights and dignity.
• Understanding and appreciation of social, economic or
environmental sustainability issues.
• Leadership capacity, including a willingness to engage in
constructive public discourse, and to accept social and civic
responsibility.
This outward orientation is an important
contribution of the IoC agenda, but IoC also has
profound implications for pedagogy
“An internationalised curriculum will…focus on both
‘what is taught and learned’ (that is, on both
content and outcomes) and ‘how it is taught and
learned’ (that is, on what both teachers and
learners do)” (Leask 2008, 61)
A globally-oriented pedagogy
• Decenters claims to truth – challenges disciplinary authority
• Encourages openness to plurality (appreciation that all
knowledge is contextual)
• Invites interrogation and unpacking of a priori assumptions willingness to constantly question and test knowledge claims
• Values humility – acceptance of gaps in knowledge
• Appreciation of the value of difference
• Fosters an awareness of self
•Universities and classrooms as safe meeting places
for developing inquisitive pedagogies of
encounter
•Students as co-producers - actively engaged in the
construction and reconstruction of knowledges
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How can inquiry based
learning facilitate
internationalisation of
the curriculum?
What does taking
internationalisation
seriously mean for
inquiry based learning?
Evidence suggests study abroad is associated with the
development of skills that might also support inquiry based
learning
In addition to improving intercultural competence, the 2014
Erasmus Impact Study found problem-solving skills,
innovativeness, curiosity, and self-awareness improved by an
average of 42% among students undertaking an exchange
period abroad
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Warwick University Global People Project:
Global Competencies
Information
Flexible
Making Yourself
Flexible
Rapport
Language Learning
Attentive Listening
Gathering
Thinking
Understood
Behaviour
Building
Self Awareness
Information
Gathering
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Personal Strength Spirit of Adventure
Flexible
Thinking
Flexible
Behaviour
Rapport
Building
12
But study abroad is not required!
IoC at NTU
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HEA Commissioned Research on disciplinary
approaches to Internationalising the
Curriculum
• Working Group: Clare Newstead, Cheryl Rounsaville, Rose Gann and
Sandra Kirk
• Research Assistants: Adam Spencer and Noémie Dehling
• Exploration of disciplinary differences in approaches to internationalising
the curriculum
• 15 disciplinary areas across all nine academic schools
• Review of course documents, interviews with teaching staff, focus
groups with students
• Plus: Testing a tool to engage staff in further integrating international
approaches into their curricula
Research-oriented: Collaborative cross-cultural
groups in BA (Hons) Furniture and Product Design
Year 2 Design Studies module
• All students have the opportunity to undertake a week-long
cultural visit to a European city
• At Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Portugal, students work
collaboratively with local students on design tasks, while also
exploring local industries
• Students complete a reflective study on the contextual factors
(history, culture, economy, philosophy etc) that influence
local design principles and industry development
• Students are responding to set questions but they learn to
‘discover’ how design principles shift in context
• They also learn to situate and specify their own design
principles
• Project work – defined communities of engagement
Research-based inquiry: reflecting on the moment
of displacement in BA (JHons) Global Studies
In-Country Study (ICS)
• ICS focuses on structured student learning through everyday
interactions with local communities and guided reflection on intercultural
and international experience
• Students complete a reflective diary:
– Record of encounters with difference and feelings of dislocation
– Set of enquiries
• Through online discussion with peers and tutors students select one
encounter for further research and inquiry
• Students draw on a research skills module, completed in the first
semester before exchange, and subject knowledge
• Explore the histories and contexts that produce difference and,
potentially, contribute to their feelings of dislocation or surprise
• Students are discovery-active but also learning to question their a priori
assumptions and test their acquired subject knowledge in a different
context
Research-tutored: Peer Assisted Learning in Biomolecular sciences
MSc Pharmacology
• Using pairings of students (30 in total) from
Universidad de León, Spain and NTU Biosciences,
students develop a presentation of scientific research
on a mutually agreed topic to be delivered to a multinational audience
• Skype, Googledocs and Google Hangouts for
information sharing and delivery of final presentation
• Tutor support and feedback throughout
• Students are ‘information active’
• But also active in locating disciplinary knowledge and
conventions in a globalised research context
• Student feedback indicates a greater appreciation for
similarity and difference and the need to modify
approaches
Students as learning resource
Conclusions
• Mutually reinforcing agendas
• IoC: focus on inclusivity, diversity, ethics, context, displacement
(drives questions)
• IBL: how to engage students
• Mobility not required to foster pedagogies of encounter
• Flexibility in design and delivery of curriculum
• Group work to bring together diverse students in learning
communities
• Students (and staff) as learning resources
• Reflexive practice
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References
• Clifford, V. (2013) The Elusive Concept of Internationalisation of the Curriculum, Oxford
Brookes University
• Clifford, V.A., Joseph, C., (2005) Report of the Internationalisation of the Curriculum Project,
Monash University, Published, pp. 1-137HEA (n.d.) Internationalising the Curriculum
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/Internationalising_the_curriculum.
pdf
• Erasmus Impact Study (2014) Effects of mobility on the skills and employability of students
and the internationalisation of higher education institutions European Commission EAC-20120545
• Leask, B. (2009). ‘Using formal and informal curricula to improve interactions between home
and international students’. Journal of Studies in International Education, 13(2), 205-221
• Leask, B. (2008) A Holistic Approach to Internationalisation Connecting Institutional Policy and
theCurriculum with the Everyday Reality of Student Life. In Shiel, C. & Takeda, S. (Eds)
Education for Sustainable Development: Graduates as Global Citizens. Bournemouth
University: 57-66.
• Webb, G. (2005) Internationalisation of curriculum: an institutional approach, in: Carroll, J.
and Ryan, J., Teaching International Students: Improving Learning for All, Routledge:
Abingdon and New York