Examining the realities of internationalisation: lessons learned from an international collaboration between Hawler Medical University, Iraq and the University of Glasgow

Ms Natalie Watters, PhD Student, School of EducationMs Lynette Jordan, Lecturer, School of EducationDr Catherine Bovill, Lecturer, Learning & Teaching Centre

Overview of workshop

• Introduction to DelPHE Iraq project• Small group activities

– Cultural sensitivity and maintaining integrity– Defining partnership and collaboration– Developing capacity and sustainability

• Summary and conclusions

• British Council funded DelPHE Iraq project• August 2010 partnership visit 2 staff UoG to Hawler

Medical University, Erbil, Iraq• Successful bid for funding for student centred learning

project• Academic development programme March-November

2011• 2 x face to face weeks in Iraq (March & Sept)• Moodle online exercises and support• Collaborative meetings to develop a plan for sustaining

pedagogic change at HMU• 2 x international conferences, 2 x journal articles

DelPHE Iraq project

Characteristics of SCL (O’Neil and McMahon 2005)

• Students being active in the process of learning

• Taking on a greater responsibility and autonomy for their learning

• Greater interdependence between the teacher and learner

SCL approach

…to develop changes to the teaching and learning methodologies employed by HMU staff (in Pharmacy, Dentistry, Nursing and Medicine) towards student-centred approaches and away from predominantly didactic teaching methods that have been used in the past

• 35 staff from HMU • Over 50% HMU participants female• two staff + one PhD student from UoG.

Programme involvement

Range of experience in developing SCL including:• problem based learning medical curriculum (Mackenzie et

al, 2003)• student-led initiative on enquiry based learning (Pritchard

et al, 2008)• ongoing research into active learning, student

engagement and students as co-creators of the curriculum (e.g. Bovill et al, 2011; Sinclair, 2011)

What could Glasgow offer?

Cultural sensitivity and maintaining integrity

Task –

• What culturally sensitive issues have you experienced in your international work? How have you dealt with these

issues?

• Have you ever felt the integrity of your international work has been compromised? How can we meet the needs of all

partners in international work whilst maintaining the integrity of the project?

Defining partnership and collaboration.

• Sharing issues related to partnership working

• Suggest headings for a Working Agreement between partners which outlines the expectations you would have of one another e.g. •    Roles and responsibilities•    Levels, ways and regularity of communication etc.

Developing capacity and sustainability

• Apparent transformation– Saying what we want to hear– Mimicry (SCL as a threshold concept)

• Timescales and realism

• Assumptions about shared expectations– Importance of support at all levels of organisation

Summary and conclusion from today’s workshop..............

Thank you for participating!

Summary and conclusions