Teaching and learning in a globalised university

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Teaching and learning in a globalised university

• Jude Carroll
• 15 November 2006

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What helps?

• Recognising difference(s) in academic cultures
• Identifying the skills students need to succeed
  helping those without to develop those skills
• Support and guidance before, at the start, during
  
• Support / guidance for all in cross-cultural
  communication
• Teaching methods to encourage participation
• Identifying and using students cultural
  capital
• Paying special attention to problem areas

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Your current provision / activity?

• Individually, audit your own and your own
  institutions practice.
• Is there any evidence of positive or negative
  interest in these areas?
• Where has practice already started to change?
• What resources are in place?

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approaches?

• Denial. Blind to or ignoring difference
• Repair. Deficits noted and remedied.
• Adaptation incoming student changing to meet
  new demands
• Adjustment each side changing to accommodate
  difference
• Internationalisation perhaps chimera?

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1. Academic cultures new game, new rules

• All students find University hard at first
• Some find it hard and strange.
• Some .hard, strange and in a new language
• A few hard, strange, in a new language and
  unacceptably wrong.
• Nearly all succeed

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Making academic culture visible..

• Using surprises and unexpected assumptions/behavio
  urs
• Turning the spotlight on ourselves . What do we
  expect?
• Helping others become meta aware what might
  work?

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.students questions

• What do I call teachers?
• What present should I give the teacher?
• What am I supposed to be doing when Im not in
  class?
• What counts as good work? gets good marks?
• Whats a seminar? what happens there?
• How much reading do I have to do?
• What am I supposed to learn from lectures?
• How does the teacher know what I need to be a
  good learner?
• Etc!

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Being explicit about what?

• Assessment
• Teaching methods (purpose, behaviour expected,
  how it contributes to learning)
• Writing and reading
• Relationships and teachers expectations

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Activity being explicit about assessment

• Look at the list of previous assessment
  experiences
• Identify where such students will have
  difficulties or surprises
• Task Make explicit statements about the UK
  situation that mirror those provided on the
  handout about others previous experiences with
  assessment

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2. identifying skills for success

• Thinking transition, not induction
• Front-ending resources
• Co-ordination w. specialists
  discipline-specific skill development
• Early diagnostic activities in the discipline
  area
• Examples of good work teacher feedback on work
• Practice, feedback, more practice, more feedback
• Early structure and get busy requirements

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2. (contin) teaching skills for success

• TEACHING..

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The melody

• 361. 3612
• 361. 3612
• 3523 6165
• 1652 6132

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3. Support and guidance

• Before coming to the UK
• On arrival
• In the first few weeks
• In the first semester
• At the crunch points

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Support for English

• Experiencing what its like to translate
• Understanding what test scores actually mean
• Taking into account the impact of new arrival
• Being realistic about how long it takes to
  learn..

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Early English strategies

• Tensions and troubles get focused around English
• High IELTS scores . but unready for real
  English or academic writing
• Extra needs around academic writing, especially
  if IELTS below 7.0

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Lighter language load some tips

• Plain English
• Straightforward language (common word,
  subject-verb-object sentences, plain texts)
• Finishing words
• Avoiding jargon, jokes and metaphors
• Using non-yes checking strategies
• And?

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Every student likes.

• Pre-warning and pre-reading
• Handouts and gapped notes
• Allowing tape recording
• In seminars, rehearsal in pairs before telling
  whole group
• Native-tongue discussion of ideas
• Early, safe feedback on academic writing
• Grammar buddies
• Creating a running glossary of discipline-specific
  terms
• Less thinking about process so more thinking
  about content

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4. Support guidance for all in cross-cultural
communication

• ..easier said than done!

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Building links between students how?

• Encourage social links and superficial inclusion
• Use all students cultural capital
• Model inclusive classroom behaviour take
  responsibility for inclusion in your classroom
• Consider assessing cross-cultural / diversity
  skills i.e. make competence a learning outcome
• Create tasks where global / diverse knowledge
  becomes an asset
• Design group tasks with care consider group
  membership
• Remove the threat (perceived or real) to
  stay-at-home students grades

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5. Encourage participation

• .not allowing the fast talking, confident ones
  to dominate..
• Ensure students know each other and know what
  they can get from each other
• Provide warning and rehearsal
• Model inclusion
• Use structured discussion formats

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6. Identifying and using students cultural
capital
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7. Attending to problem arease.g.

• Group based assessment
• Academic writing and plagiarism dissertation /
  thesis
• Ensuring equity and standards
• And?