Engaging home and international students:a practical theory

Dr Rachel Scudamore

By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:

• explain how previous educational experience can impact on student expectations;

• identify their own assumptions and preferences;

• plan for introducing new teaching strategies in their own practice.

2

Intended outcomes

Timetable

1.30 Introductions

Internationalisation

Teaching, learning and diversity

“Culture” and students

3.00 Tea

3.15 Practical teaching strategies

Assessment and feedback

4.15 Summary and conclusions

4.30 Close

Internationalisation: meanings

More / different students

Changes in who you’re teaching, how they learn and what they expect from a UK education

Internationalising the curriculum

Putting the discipline in a wider context (broader sources, application in a range of contexts)

Graduates with a “global outlook”

An outcome of studying an internationalised curriculum in an internationally mixed student / staff body

International students in the UK

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sfr210

From: Handal & Lauvas (1987) Promoting reflective teaching. SRHE & OUP

P3Ethical / political

justification

P2Theory-based / Practice-based

reasons

P1 Action

Values

Experiences, transferred knowledge etc.

Practical theory

Action in teaching

Teac

hing

pra

ctic

e

A “practical theory”

Internationalisation: questions

What do we mean by “International” students & “Home” students

International students = more diversity (true?)

Why do students go to University?

What does learning mean?

Geert Hofstede

Separating observation and interpretation

Identity collectivism / individualism

Hierarchy larger / smaller “power distance”

Gender masculine / feminine approach to role distribution

Truth uncertainty avoidance / uncertainty tolerance

Virtue long-term orientation / short-term orientation

Hofstede’s“value dimensions” of culture

Geert Hofstede

Individual studies

www.heacademy.ac.uk/international-student-lifecycle

Communicate about:

• Learning outcomes

• Assessment

• Examples

• Perspectives

Talk about:

• Previous experiences

• Expectations

• Groundrules

• Collaboration

Culture and teaching?

Culture as values

Culture as behaviour

High context Low context

Focus on relationships Tasks separate from relationships

Greater use of non-verbal communication and implicit meanings

Highly structured and detailed messages

Values group senseValues individual initiative and decision-making

The purpose of communication ?

High / Low context cultures

After Hall (1977)

Face: a public identityBrown & Levinson (1978)

Positive Negative

Politeness strategies

Express interest, approval, sympathySeek agreementUse in-group identifiersRaise common groundShow knowledge of others’ concernsAssume / assert reciprocity

De-personalise the participantsGive deferenceDeclare an indebtednessMinimise any impositions

Politeness and “face”

After Brown and Levinson (1978)

“a sudden immersion into a non-specific state of uncertainty where the individual is not sure what is expected of him or her, nor what to expect from other people.

It can occur in any situation where an individual is forced to adjust to an unfamiliar social system where previous learning no longer applies”

Hofstede, Pedersen & Hofstede (2002)

Culture shock, learning shock

Culture shock, learning shock

From: Handal & Lauvas (1987) Promoting reflective teaching. SRHE & OUP

P3Ethical / political

justification

P2Theory-based / Practice-based

reasons

P1 Action

Values

Experiences, transferred knowledge etc.

Practical theory

Action in teaching

Teac

hing

pra

ctic

e

A “practical theory”

Approaches to engaging students

Principles drawn from theories of learning Students taking ownership Use of previous knowledge Social interaction

Constructive learning

From: Handal & Lauvas (1987) Promoting reflective teaching. SRHE & OUP

P3Ethical / political

justification

P2Theory-based / Practice-based

reasons

P1 Action

Values

Experiences, transferred knowledge etc.

Practical theory

Action in teaching

Teac

hing

pra

ctic

e

A “practical theory”

Evidence-based teaching

From: Hattie (2009) cited in Atherton (2011)

Evidence-based teaching

After Hattie (2009) cited in Petty (2009)

Influence Effect Size Source of Influence

Feedback 1.13 Teacher Students’ prior cognitive ability

1.04 Student

Instructional quality 1.00 Teacher Direct instruction .82 Teacher Remediation/feedback .65 Teacher Students' disposition to learn .61 Student

Class environment .56 Teacher Challenge of Goals .52 Teacher Peer tutoring .50 Teacher

From: Handal & Lauvas (1987) Promoting reflective teaching. SRHE & OUP

P3Ethical / political

justification

P2Theory-based / Practice-based

reasons

P1 Action

Values

Experiences, transferred knowledge etc.

Practical theory

Action in teaching

Teac

hing

pra

ctic

e

A “practical theory”

What are lectures for?

Lectures

Explicitness

Structure

Clarity

Variety

Challenging

Responsiveness

Learning outcomes

Signposts, framing

Pace, glossary

Audiovisual mix

Questions

Answers

Lecturing: a performance

What’s important?

How do I do it?

Questions and activities in lectures

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/resources/largegroup/question698/

Identify main points

Write a question

Do a calculation

Decide your opinion

Match/group/rank

Propose hypotheses

Analyse a situation

Suggest reasons

Plan your reading

Fill in the graph

Label the diagram

Find an example

Propose your action

Draw a concept map

Compare/contrast

Sequence/flow

Participation in large groups

Asking questions in lectures

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/resources/largegroup/askingqu287/

Using student response systems to improve interaction in lectures

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/resources/largegroup/usingstu175/

See also: Altering lectures in response to student inputhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/resources/largegroup/altering064/

Whole group or sub-groups (structure)

Public/private? (method)

Patterns for answering (method)

Open vs closed questions (task setting)

Questions in large groups

Idiomatic language in teaching

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/internationalisation/video/browse/title/idiomatx891/

Bloom’s taxonomy

Enquiry-based learning:

Task: Explore Describe Apply

Oliver, R. & Herrington, J. (2002).

Cross-cultural exchange activities: getting students started:

• discuss your name: who gave it to you, what does it mean?

• sit next to someone “different” (discuss cognitive dissonance)

• line up (by distance from home, experience, English skills, views.)

• topics in a bag (experience, expectation, surprises – student Qs)

• identify ways to learn more about other cultures 48

Intercultural competence

UKCISA (2009) Discussing difference, discovering similarities

Preparatory exercise on challenges/scenarios of working together:

• Communication preferences• Use of native language• Approach to time, planning, and punctuality• Status and group contributions• Assumptions of agreement / expression of

disagreement• Concepts of humour• Vocal dominance• Educational philosophies

Successful groupwork

A clear task

Assigned roles

• Manager• Researcher• Scribe• Reporter• Checker

Reporting on process and product

Successful groupwork

A collusion continuum (Jude Carroll)

See also: Jude Carroll on plagiarismhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/resources/assessment/judecarr898/

You have asked your students to write an individual report on one of three companies that you name. Three of your students do the following. Where do they cross the line between collaboration and collusion?

1. Come and see you to discuss what the coursework brief means.2. Discuss the coursework brief with other students.3. Look at how others have done similar coursework in the past.4. Discuss the good and bad points of how others have addressed the task in the past.5. Discuss the best way to tackle the assignment.6. Decide to all choose the same company to write about.7. Decide what research needs to be done on the chosen company and how to do it.8. Decide to all do a bit of research on everything but to have specialists who really go into depth on one aspect.9. Brief each other on what they found and on useful sources of information for others to check out.10. Discuss what their individual research/investigation revealed and what it all means.11. Copy each others’ scribbles and library notes.12. Identify the arguments or points that need to be made in the report.13. Structure the arguments; agree which are the strongest points.14. Share out the writing task and correct each other’s drafts.15. Pool the sections then each take the compiled first draft away and write an individual version as the final draft.16. Submit the individually written version for a mark.

“Academic language… is no one's mother tongue”(Bourdieu et al., 1994)

Repetition

Patching

Plagiphrasing

Conventional academic writing

Learning to write

Assessment design

Preparing to write

Teach students about academic writing and plagiarism

discipline-specific examples

practice exercises

peer review

Teach about the assessment criteria

Students to mark old essays and give feedback to the author

Create exercises that give you samples of the students’ writing

for giving feedback

for later comparison with submitted work

The assessed task

Require an personal approach

Give unique data / situation

Use novel formats

Relate directly to class activity

Assess in stages

Literature selection with reasons

Article analysis

Aim and plan

Draft(s) with feedback request

Redraft with commentary on how feedback is addressed

Check author knowledge of work

Don’t permit late topic changes

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Feedback

56

Feedback

Timely ?

Specific ?

Constructive ?

57

Feedback

59

Feedback

Make the learning outcomes and your assessment criteria clear

Make the feedback relate to the criteria

Use a range of sources for generating feedback

Identify what’s done well and what to improve

Set formative tasks that build towards the summative task

Build in use of feedback as part of improvement

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Feedback techniques

Approaches to engaging students

Principles drawn from theories of learning Students taking ownership Use of previous knowledge Social interaction

Conversations

Social contact

Active participation

Principles for action

How do your students spend their time?

Listening in class Planning their own

learning Finding answers to

questions Teaching each other Discussing with

tutor/students ?

Atherton, J.S. (2011) Teaching and learning: what works best. http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/what_works.htm

Barrett, T. & Cashman, D. (Eds) (2010) A Practitioners’ Guide to Enquiry and Problem-based Learning. Dublin: UCD Teaching and Learning http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDTLI0041.pdf

Black, P.J. & William, D. (1998) Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice. 5(1):7-74.

Bourdieu, P. et al. "Introduction: Language and the relationship to language in the teaching situation" in Academic Discourse: Linguistic Misunderstanding and Professorial Power. Cambridge: Polity Press..

Brierley, G., Hillman, M., Devonshire, E. & Funnell, L. (2002). Description of Round Table Exercise: Environmental Decision-Making about Water Resources in Physical Geography. Available from Learning Designs Web site: http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/exemplars/info/LD26/

Brown, P. & Levinson, S.C. (1987) Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dolan, M. & Macias, I. (2009) “Motivating international students” in The Handbook for Economics lecturers. HEA Economics Network . http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/handbook/international

Hall, E. T. (1976) Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Press

Handel, G. & Lauvas, P. (1987) Promoting reflective teaching. Milton Keynes: SRHE & OUP.

Hattie, J. (2009) Visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge.

Foster , E. Et al (2012) Higher Education: retention and engagement. HEFCE funded project. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/what-works-student-retention/HERE_Project_What_Works_Final_Report

Hofstede, G. (1980) Cultures consequences: : International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills CA: Sage Publications

Hofstede, G.J., Pedersen, P and Hofstede, G. (2002) Exploring Culture. Exercises, Stories and Synthetic Cultures. Boston: Intercultural Press

Lysgaard, S. (1955) Adjustment in a Foreign Society: Norwegian Fulbright Grantees Visiting the United States. International Social Science Bulletin 7:45-51.

Montgomery, C. (2010) Understanding the international student experience. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

PESL (2009) Promoting Enhanced Student Learning. University of Nottingham. http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/

Petty, G. (2009) Evidence-based teaching: a practical approach (2nd ed.). Nelson Thornes.

Petty, G. (2011) Teachers toolbox. http://www.teacherstoolbox.co.uk/

Oliver, R. & Herrington, J. (2002). Explore, Describe, Apply: A problem focussed learning design. Learning Designs Web site: http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/guides/info/G4/index.htm

Surgenor, P. (2010) Teaching toolkit: Large and small group teaching. UCD Teaching and Learning resources. http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDTLT0021.pdf

Thomas (2012) Building on student engagement and belongiing in Higher Education at a time of change: a summary of findings and recommendations from the What Works? Student Retention and Success programme. HE Academy. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/what-works-student-retention/What_Works_Summary_Report.pdf

UKCISA (2009) Discussing difference, discovering similarities. http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/files/pdf/about/material_media/discussing_difference.pdf

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References

Second language issues

More complex curriculum design options

Developing academic writing skills

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Additional material

Students working in a second language

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/internationalisation/video/browse/title/students663/

Brierley et al. (2002)

Learning academic writing and skills of argument

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/internationalisation/video/browse/title/learning800/

Study skills support for international students

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/internationalisation/video/browse/title/studyskx228/