Developing practices for use in the international classroom · Transformations in the International...

1|17-09-2015

Developing practices

for use in the

international classroom

ISS Kick-off Day 2019

Kevin HainesUniversity of Groningen The Netherlands

Guide book to Oslo at 6 o’clock in the morning

Phrases for talking to Lost Runners:

Question: How do I get to the lake?

Answer: Turn left and go up the very small hill.

Question: Is it far?

Answer: The lake is very close by.

Question: So it’s really not far?

Answer: You can do it!

Transformations in the International Classroom: A lecturer’s perspective

“Internationalisation makes the picture more complex.

When teaching a course, different perspectives can be

useful in analyzing a subject. However, particularly

when students are asked to cooperate, it may also lead

to tension and misunderstanding …. This means that we

have to manage diversity more actively than before and

need more student input to do that”.

Mitchell, Lecturer, Law Faculty

Transformations in the International Classroom:

an educational developer’s perspective

“As the creator of the programme, you

are not aware of your ‘Dutchness’. It’s so

‘normal’, it’s so part of you that you have

a blind spot.”

Hendrika in Haines et al 2015: 171

Making the familiar strange

I find it difficult

,

for the power of the familiar is

overwhelming.

Wisniewski 2000: 19

Guide book to Oslo at 6 o’clock in the morning

Making the familiar strange?

The lake isn’t far if you are used to hills.

Transformations in the International Classroom:a student’s perspective

“Whenever I learn anything about myself or

about my friends, it is never when we are

agreeing on subjects or when we share the

same experience. You always learn about

other cultures and other perspectives when

you discuss it from different angles.”

Maja, 2nd Year Medical Student, University of Groningen

International Classrooms?

In the Netherlands (2017-2018):

74% of Master’s programmes taught through English

23% of Bachelor’s programmes taught through English

(KNAW 2017)

At University of Groningen (September 2017):

90% of Master’s programmes taught through English

67% of Bachelor’s programmes taught through English

Two prerequisites for the successful implementation of an international classroom

1. An inclusive, safe learning environment, in which students

are explicitly stimulated to integrate and to exchange cultural

and contextual knowledge.

2. Lecturers have sufficient knowledge and awareness of the

learning processes that occur in an international and intercultural

learning environment, and they are able to respond to this in

an adequate way.

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2017) citing Lauridsen &

Lillemose 2015 and Edwards & Teekens 2012)

Dimension

(actor)

Focus on

activity

(process)

Quality principles (conditions)

1.

Educational

context &

institutional

environment

2.

Educational

processes

3.

Educational

outcomes

The IntlUni Principles 2015

Dimension 1: The HEI

Providing an inclusive learning space

Language & Culture Policy (Cercles)

“A Language Policy of an Institution in Higher Education

should address issues at all levels of the organisation

(university, faculty, programmes, courses etc.) and be

co-owned by all stakeholders and the whole university

community (governing bodies, teaching, research,

administrative staff and students).”

CercleS Language Policy Position Statement 2011

Policy, principles and practices

Generic Principles for Internationalising the Curriculum

1: Focus on students as learners [transition]

2: Respect and adjust for diversity

3: Provide context-specific information and support

[manage expectations]

4: Enable meaningful intercultural dialogue and engagement

[designed interaction]

5: Be adaptable, flexible and responsive to evidence

[meaningful evaluations]

6: Prepare students for life in a globalised world

[graduate attributes & employability]

(Leask 2015: 96-103) [see also Carroll 2015: 113-117]

But how do we make sure

that we really do this!?

Alignment: Policy, principles and practices

Learning

Communities

Project

Language & Culture Policy

Project

International Classroom

Project

Cultures in the international university Westerholm & Räsänen (2015), adapted from Flowerdew &

Miller 1995

Pause for thought

How do you understand ‘diversity’ in your teaching context?

How do you take this diversity into account so that it becomes a resource in the classroom?

Dimension 2: The HE teacher

Raising awareness about teaching and learning processes

“We will promote and support institutional, national

and European initiatives for pedagogical training,

continuous professional development of higher

education teachers and explore ways for better

recognition of high quality and innovative teaching

in their career.”

Paris Communique EHEA 2018

IntlUni recommends HEIs “to provide the necessary

professional development and teacher training programmes

that will allow HE teachers to appropriately develop their

language proficiency as well as their professional and

pedagogical knowledge, skills and competences.”

See: www.intluni.eu

“I don’t teach language”

“I cannot say that I test them or train them in English. Of course

they can always come and ask me, but I don’t think I take

responsibility for training them in English. I don’t correct their

work in English”.

Physics lecturer (Airey 2012: 75)

“Speaking Math(s)”

”Instruction should move away from simplified views of

language as words, phrases, vocabulary, or a list of

definitions.”

“The mathematical register includes styles of meaning,

modes of argument, and mathematical practices and has

several dimensions such as the concepts involved, how

mathematical discourse positions students, and how

mathematics texts are organized.”

Moschkovich 2012: 21-22

The EQUiiP Project

2016 – 2019

Designing and teaching

inclusive international

programmes

“This project focuses on the development of modules which

will provide a consistent platform for educational

developers (EDs), who are responsible for the Continuous

Professional Development (CPD) of university teaching staff

in internationalised programmes.”

EQUiiP Project proposal, 2016 p, 33

EQUiiP definition ofEducational Developers

Educational Developers (EDs) support lecturers in

their work in universities, both in relation to the

design of programmes and courses and the

delivery of these programmes and courses (the

didactics).

The EQUiiP Platform

www.equiip.eu

Pause for thought

EQUiiP Timelapse videos

by Laura Hoskins, University of Bordeaux

Dimension 3: The HE student

Developing one’s own cultural identity and extending one’s knowledge base

Student’s perspective

“They expect you to be able to do academic writing, but you

have never done it before. There’s also a lot of diversity in

what has been done before. It would be the first time for

me to do it in Dutch too, although the language would be a

lot better.”

Vera, 2nd Year Dutch Medical Bachelor’s student

Haines & Dijk 2016: 362

Student’s perspective

“In the International Baccalaureate I had learnt to

write essays, to structure essays, to express

myself in essays. So since I had done the IB I

knew how to write an essay and I knew how to put

my ideas down nicely.”

Vincent, Lithuanian Medical Bachelor’s graduate

Haines & Dijk 2016: 362

Feedback to Vincent(research training report)

Partnerships with students in the informal curriculum

“An instance of collaboration is the Groningen Journal of

International Law (https://grojil.org), which is independent of UG

and mainly comprised of students. This as “an effective way of

maintaining a ‘partner’ relation with the University and staff of the

Law Faculty who form the advisory board of the journal”.

Student at International & European Law, UG

Purposeful Co-production: Students and teachers

“The students and teachers make meaning of diversity in a

complex manner and they engage in negotiating multiple

perspectives of knowing which they encounter in

pedagogies within international contexts of higher

education.”

Welikala 2013: 54

Mutual engagement

It is more important to know

how to give and receive help

than to try to know

everything yourself.

(Wenger 1998: 76)

ISS Kick-off day 2019

Developing practicesfor use in the international classroom

Kevin HainesUniversity of Groningen

Thank you for listening!

Useful references and resources

Airey, John. 2012. “I don’t teach language”: The linguistic attitudes of physics lecturers in Sweden. AILA Review,

25, 64–79.

Carroll, Jude. 2015. Tools for Teaching in an Educationally Mobile World. Abingdon: Routledge.

CercleS. 2011. Language Policy Position Statement. http://www.aks-sprachen.de/wp-

content/uploads/2015/01/CercleS-Language-Policy-Position-Statement-revised-Nov-2011.pdf

Cozart, Stacey M., Kevin Haines, Karen M. Lauridsen & Thomas Vogel. 2015. The IntlUni principles for quality

teaching and learning in the multilingual and multicultural learning space. In Lauridsen, Karen M. & Mette

Kastberg Lillemose (eds), Opportunities and challenges in the multilingual and multicultural learning space.

Final document of the IntlUni Erasmus Academic Network project 2012-15, 17–22. Aarhus: IntlUni.

http://intluni.eu/uploads/media/The_opportunities_and_challenges_of_the_MMLS_Final_report_sept_2015.pdf

European Higher Education Area (EHEA). 2018. Paris Ministerial Communiqué.

http://www.ehea.info/media.ehea.info/file/2018_Paris/77/1/EHEAParis2018_Communique_final_952771.pdf

Haines, Kevin. 2017. Purposeful interaction and the professional development of content teachers: observations of

small-group teaching and learning in the international classroom. In Jennifer Valcke & Robert

Wilkinson (Eds.), Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education: Perspectives on Professional

Practice. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

Useful references and resources

Haines, Kevin & Anje Dijk. 2016. Translating language policy into practice: Language and culture policy at a Dutch

university. Language Learning in Higher Education 6(2), 355–376.

Haines, Kevin. 2015. Imagining oneself: Narrative evaluations of the professional identities of learners in a

transnational higher-educational setting. Learning & Teaching 8(1), 30–49.

Haines, Kevin, Franka Van den Hende and Nico A. Bos. 2015. From Training Initiative to Fully-Fledged Innovative

International Programme: A Story of Staff and Student Cooperation at the university of Groningen’s Medical

School. In Wendy Green & Craig Whitsed (Eds.), Critical Perspectives on Internationalising the Curriculum in

Disciplines: Reflective Narrative accounts from Business, Education and Health, 159–174. Rotterdam: Sense

Publishers.

Leask, Betty. 2015. Internationalizing the Curriculum. Abingdon: Routledge.

Moschkovich, Judit. 2012. Mathematics, the Common Core, and Language: Recommendations for Mathematics

Instruction for ELLs Aligned with the Common Core. In Kenji Hakuta and Maria Santos (Chairs),

Understanding Language: Commissioned Papers on Language and Literacy Issues in the Common Core State

Standards and Next Generation Science Standards, 17-31. Stanford: Stanford University.

Useful references and resources

Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. 2017. Nederlands en/of Engels: Taalkeuze met beleid in

het Nederlands Hoger Onderwijs (English summary). https://www.knaw.nl/nl/actueel/publicaties/nederlands-

en-of-engels

Welikala, Thushari. 2013. Inter-Perspective Pedagogy: rethinking Culture and Learning in Multicultural Higher

Education in the United Kingdom. In Lixian Jin & Martin Cortazzi (eds), Researching International Learning:

Investigations in Language and Education, 37–57. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.

Westerholm, Kirsi & Anne Ra sa nen. 2015. Sharing and promoting disciplinary competences for university

teaching in English: voices from the University of Jyvaskyla language centre’s TACE programme. In J.

Jalkanen, E. Jokinen & P. Taalas (Eds), Voices in pedagogical development – Expanding, enhancing and

exploring higher education language learning, 131–157. Dublin: Research-publishing.net.

Wisniewski, R. 2000. The Averted Gaze. In Anthropology & Education Quarterly 31(1), 5–23.

The EQUiiP Project

Workshop

University of Oslo

Dr Kevin Haines

University of Groningen

The Netherlands

Line up

I recognise the diversity in our international classrooms.

Agree Disagree

Line up

I am aware of how diversity can be used as a resource for teaching and

learning in our international classrooms.

Agree Disagree

Promote inclusive behaviours

This includes ensuring reciprocity by

mutually generating and exchanging

knowledge, ideas and resources within

and across cultures and intellectual

traditions.

scenario

Class debate on water management

To engage all students in an international classroom, a

lecturer organised a debate on the following question:

“How can you critique existing practices of water

management?”

He/she allowed the debate to continue without

intervening. However, only a few students were

debating. After about 10 minutes, the lecturer pointed

directly to the silent students and asked about their

opinions. This led to embarrassed silence.

How could this activity be adapted…

… to ensure reciprocity and mutually generating and exchanging knowledge, ideas and resources?

Some possible didactic interventions

o Give students the opportunity to reflect and discuss in pairs or groups first. Own language?

o Start with a simpler question, e.g. How would this work in your culture?

o Explore students’ previous educational experience at the start of the semester.

o Organise social activities to ensure students are comfortable with each other.

Outline of today’s workshop

1. The line up on diversity

1. Opportunities and Challenges in the International Classroom

2. Good Practice Principles

3. Learning Support Strategies (Role of Language)

4. Wrapping up

Introduction to the International ClassroomActivity 5 (1)

Individually, consider the following questions:

Opportunities: What are for you the most significant opportunities in the international classroom?

Challenges: What are for you the biggest challenges in the international classroom?

Challenges?

Opportunities?

Introduction to the International ClassroomActivity 5 (2)

At your tables:

Identify the opportunities and challenges as you see them.

Write one opportunity or one challenge per PostIt note.

Opportunities?

Challenges?

Introduction to the International ClassroomActivity 5 (3)

On the white boards, place the PostIt notes in the most appropriate category:

The learning goals and content of your course

Teaching diverse student groups: interaction in the classroom; group dynamics among students

Students’ language and communication issues

Other

Introduction to the International ClassroomActivity 6 (1)

1: Focus on students as learners [transition]

2: Respect and adjust for diversity

3: Provide context-specific information and support

[manage expectations]

4: Enable meaningful intercultural dialogue and engagement

[designed interaction]

5: Be adaptable, flexible and responsive to evidence

[meaningful evaluations]

6: Prepare students for life in a globalised world

[graduate attributes & employability]

(Leask 2015: 96-103) [see also Carroll 2015: 113-117]

The Role of Language: Activity 5

Learning Support Strategies:

• What strategies can / do lecturers use to manage language load for learners?

• Brainstorm in groups / write down a list.

• Have a look at the post-its / add your strategies on post-its.

reduce the amount

of content you

deliver through

lectures

get students to

compile a

glossary of key

terms

put key terms /

new terms /

content

vocabulary on

your slides

when lecturing,

slow down and

plan breaks

allow moments

for “think / pair /

share”

use examples that

are universal and

not specific to the

local culture

avoid highly

colloquial

expressions /

metaphors

make your

pedagogical

approach explicit

use your learners

to rephrase or

translate

use group

discussions and

quizzes during

lectures

plan and use

clear signposting

language

use images on

your slides to

illustrate what

you are saying

flip your class

make your

lecture handouts

more detailed

than they usually

are

compile a

glossary of key

terms for

students

deliver lectures

by video

read out text on

your slides

provide

multilingual

translations of

your documents

group students

according to

language

proficiency

get students with

the same first

language to work

together

seek

opportunities for

group and project

work

allow students

time to formulate

their questions

ask students to

prepare/read

sections before

lectures

TEACHER INVESTMENT

LE

AR

NE

R G

AIN

S

LOW HIGH

HIGH

LOW

The Role of Language: Activity 5

Learning Support Strategies:

• What strategies can / do teachers use to manage language load for learners?

• Brainstorm in groups: Write down a list

• Have a look at the post-its / add your strategies on post-its

• Plot the strategies on the graph

Wrapping up

Write down one idea you will take away from today’s sessions which will influence the way you work on the ISS 2019.