Sue Robson

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Can a Community of Enquiry support the
internationalisation of teaching, learning and
the student experience?
Sue Robson School of Education, Communication
and Language Sciences
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internationalisation

• many UK HEIs have begun to internationalise from
  a business focus
• a marketization discourse steers thinking away
  from a radical reassessment of HE purposes,
  priorities and processes that student diversity
  and multicultural interaction require (Caruana
  and Spurling, 2007)
• how can we support a cultural shift to develop
  long-term sustainability?

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Supporting long-term sustainability as
internationalised institutions

• develop a holistic approach in which universities
  become internationally-minded communities, not
  simply institutions with increasingly large
  numbers of international students (Volet, 1999
  Marshall Martin, 2000 MacKinnon Manathunga,
  2003)
• transformative internationalisation is individual
  not institutional, involving personal and
  collective ideological commitment (Bartell, 2003
  Sanderson, 2004 Robson, 2011)

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The EquATE Programme

• A Community of Enquiry with
• participants from a range of
• disciplines and service units
• researching their own practice
• Research Centre for Learning
• and Teaching (CfLaT) members
• as co-enquirers in this process

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EquATE
SCHOOL Cohort 1 PARTICIPANTS Cohort 2 PARTICIPANTS
MEDIC Dentistry, Medical Sciences, Medical Education, Psychology 8 2
SAGE Computing Science Chemical Engineering Agriculture, Food and Rural Development 3 4
HASS Modern Foreign Languages Education, Communication and Language Sciences Architecture, Planning and Landscape Historical Studies Business 5 10
Services Library, Career Service, Language Centre 4 2
TOTAL TOTAL 20 18
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Enquiry questions

• How can I use technology to foster a community of
  enquiry in my classroom?
• What are academic staff and international
  students understandings of the academic role and
  expectations of each other?
• What impact will the introduction of an
  autonomous learning programme have on the
  development and learning experience of modern
  languages students?
• How can I improve international student
  satisfaction through setting, managing and
  explaining expectations during recruitment,
  marketing and conversion?

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EquATE cohorts 12 teacher-led professional
enquiry through action research
FACULTY/ SERVICE SCHOOL Cohort 1 Cohort 2 Examples of case studies
MEDIC Dentistry, Medical Sciences, Medical Education, Psychology 8 2 Dentistry students experience of managing their emotional intelligence during oral surgery
SAGE Computing Science Chemical Engineering Agriculture, Food and Rural Development 3 4 Understanding internationalisation of home students for improvements to curriculum design
HASS Modern Foreign Languages Education, Communication and Language Sciences Architecture, Planning and Landscape Historical Studies Business 5 10 Impact of an autonomous learning programme (ALP) on language students development and learning
Services Library, Career Service, Language Centre 4 2 The impact of targeted sessions on international students conceptions of assessment
TOTAL PARTICIPANTS TOTAL PARTICIPANTS 20 18  
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The EquATE model professional enquiry through
action research
Share findings
Negotiated/ Deductive Cycle
Exploratory/ Inductive Cycle
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Methodology
McKernans Action Research Model (1996)
Make the findings public
Systematically collected evidence
Systematic enquiry made public (Stenhouse 1985)
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Methodology

• Scoping study
• Mixed method design
• Poster presentation
• Second cycle
• Conference paper
• Journal papers

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Sources of evidence
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(No Transcript)
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HEA and Newcastle University joint seminar
Working towards transformative
internationalisation an enquiry-based approach

• 1st June 2012, 10-3.30, Newcastle University
• Research Beehive, Old Library Building
• The seminar explored the potential of an enquiry
  based approach to contribute to transformative
  internationalisation and provide the impetus for
  a collaborative research network focusing on
  transformative internationalisation in relation
  to teaching, learning and student support.
• If you are interested in the network, please
  contact Sue.Robson_at_ncl.ac.uk