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Directorate of Human Resources Teaching International Students: improving learning for all 24 April 2006 Jude Carroll Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development What helps? 1. Recognising differences in academic cultures 2. Identifying the skills students need to succeed; helping those without develop those skills 3. Support and guidance for ISs before, at the start, during study 4. Support and guidance for all students in crosscultural communication 5. Changes in teaching methods to encourage participation by all 6. Paying special attention to problem areas Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development ‘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 English and unacceptably wrong. Nearly all succeed Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Rooted in academic culture assumptions…… What do I call teachers? What present should I give the teacher? What am I supposed to be doing when I’m not in class? What counts as good work? …gets good marks? What’s a seminar and what happens there? How much reading do I have to do? How will I ever manage British academic writing? What am I supposed to learn from lectures? Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development ‘New game, old rules …….’ What kinds of surprises would you expect to see? What would you notice ISs doing that you would not expect in a UK student? Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development ‘Explicit about academic culture’ Assessment Teaching methods (purpose, behaviour expected, how it contributes to learning) Writing and reading Relationships and expectations of teachers Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development ‘curriculum’: overt and hidden Content Methods and activities Students’ experience ‘Everything linked to teaching, learning and assessment’ that a student might encounter at any time in their HE career that derives from the university….. Question: what in the curriculum might need to change to accommodate the needs of an increasingly diverse student body and to encourage a genuinely internationalised university experience? Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Internationalisation….what and why? • ‘. …..fostering global understanding and developing skills for effective living and working in a diverse world’ [ethos] • ‘operating in international surroundings, under international market conditions … an international professional orientation’ [activity] • ‘integrating an international/intercultural dimension into the teaching, research and service of the institution’ [content] • ‘…graduates solving problems in a variety of locations with cultural and environmental sensitivity’ [competency] Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Internationalisation: a process • Why move? • In what direction? By doing what? • How will that look here, locally, in my classroom? Our programme? Our discipline? Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Rationales for encouraging cross-border education / internationalisation OECD (2004) • Mutual understanding • Skilled migration (ensuring graduates stay in the host country as long term support to the knowledge economy) • Revenue generating • Capacity building (using others’ HE provision where local demands outstrip supply) (not mutually exclusive) Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development ….mean by internationalisation? What would an internationalised curriculum look like: in different disciplines? at the level of individual courses? in teaching and learning practices? How would internationalisation operate at the level of individual teachers? courses and programmes? departments? the university as a whole? What activities need to underpin a university-wide strategy for internationalisation? Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Back to ‘What helps’? identifying skills Early diagnostic activities in the discipline area Co-ordinated efforts between specialists and discipline-specific teachers Showing students examples of good practice, teacher feedback on good and poor practice Early structure and ‘get busy’ requirements for the first few weeks Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Front-ended support Realistic expectations of induction Early diagnostic tasks and activities Teach skills by doing, not by explaining Provide safe practice and feedback More structure than later on…….. Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development 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 Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Lighter language load Plain English Straightforward language (common word, subjectverb-object sentences, plain texts) Finishing words Avoiding jargon, jokes and metaphors Using non-”yes” checking strategies Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development 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] Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development methods to encourage participation by 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