Carmen Neghina

5 steps to prepare your students for an increasingly interconnected world

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Having a diverse campus and classrooms is a goal of many universities, especially for those involved with international marketing and student recruitment. However, it doesn’t stop after seeing an increase of international students enrolling at your university. Instead, a next important challenge follows to achieve further growth. How do you ensure that students with all these different backgrounds feel comfortable at your university when interacting with teachers and other fellow students? For example, students who arrive from different educational backgrounds may require specific accommodations or support.

The phenomenon of growing popularity of high diversity in classrooms also bring a certain responsibility to prepare graduates to live and work in a global society – a world where the local and the global are increasingly connected. So how can universities prepare students to become global citizens and think locally, nationally and globally? This practice is often referred to as ‘diversity-sensitive teaching and learning’ or ‘internationalisation of the curriculum’, where both students and teachers take part.

According to Sarah Taylor, PhD, Assistant Professor at California State University:

“Becoming a diversity-sensitive educator is about being in a state of constant learning. Even after many years of experience, I still make mistakes, and that is okay. The goal is to be self-reflective about teaching, so that mistakes are opportunities to hone skills and to engage the class in a discussion about lifelong learning and cultural humility. My mistakes, and transparency about them, have led to critical dialogues that have allowed students to share their own experiences in interacting with diverse individuals without feeling judged.

Culturally inclusive, responsive, and accessible teaching is more about pedagogical practices than about the content being taught. Integrating articles, films, activities, and books related to diversity is necessary, but not sufficient, for reaching diverse learners. If the overall teaching approach stifles dialogue, leaves some students unable to access the content, and inhibits self-reflection, it is unlikely that deep learning will take place, regardless of the content of the course.”

Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IoC)

With the IoC, teachers provide an important contribution to the development of students’ ability to live, study and work effectively and ethically in an increasingly interconnected world. Having an active role in helping students to become a global citizen, however, should be planned carefully. The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam developed a process which makes it easier for universities to support students in becoming global citizens. Below, we’ve summarised the results from their insightful e-book and we’ll take you through the five phases of designing a diversity-sensitive teaching and learning curricula.

Before you start and ensure that the planning process is running smoothly, putting a strong team together is essential, for example consisting of (but not limited to):
• Head of the study programme
• Course coordinator(s)
• Teaching staff
• Students
• An expert on IoC for professional support

The 5 steps of IoC

Source: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 

1. Scan

Teaching students that developing talent to interact with other people from different cultural backgrounds can increase their ability to better participate in a diverse society. However, it is important for your team to first get an overview of the reasons why you would like to develop and implement diversity-sensitive teaching and learning in your chosen study programme. Your initial meetings will help to decide how big and important the project is for the institution. Elaborating which factors in the classroom and campus environment you want to improve with this approach can help to get a clear picture of the preparations needed and the impact of the project.

2. Current and desirable situation

In the second phase, attention needs to be drawn to the following two aspects:

Analysis of student experience – To gain an insight of how students think about your project and what kind of improvements and suggestions they have for the current teaching style in your study programme, interviewing students is the best option. Small focus groups or individual interviews can help you to personalise the interview questions and get more in-depth information. When choosing the student interviewees, make sure to create student profiles first and then select the participants that match the profiles to ensure high-quality results.
Analysis of degree programme – Not only students should be asked for input, also the course coordinators can give you valuable insights into the extent to which individual courses within the programme already offer diversity-sensitive teaching and learning and what their potential is to offer it in the future. On the basis of the course reflections, an overview of the situation and the point of improvements for the whole programme can be created.

After analysing the students’ experiences and the degree programme, the feedback of students and the course coordinators can easily be combined to get a general overview.

3. Drafting a plan

Gathering and analysing the feedback from the students and course coordinators defines the foundation of your plan. How can the feedback be implemented to create diversity-sensitive teaching and learning? How can the new style of teaching be realised? Which competencies do you want your students to gain? Which learning objectives could be assigned to the programme? All of these questions will help you in creating your ‘Superplan’ to foster diversity in your classroom. However, it is about the quality of ideas, not quantity. Set priorities to overcome the hassle of wanting to implement every aspect immediately.

4. Implementation

After a lot of planning, adjusting and making sure the teaching staff has enough time to prepare, the time has come to put your ‘Superplan’ into practice. The newly designed courses can start to be taught and you can prepare and teach your students to become global citizens.

5. Evaluation

Looking back at phase one in which you set the goals for the implementation of the diversity-sensitive teaching and learning, you can start to evaluate which goals you have reached and what you have achieved. Evaluating your goals will help you to make recommendations on how to continue the development of your newly designed programme. Implementing diversity-sensitive teaching and learning takes a lot of work, time, and a strong team to finally get to the point of successfully integrating it into your programme. But the outcome of teaching students essential intercultural skills that prepare them for a diverse society is worth the effort.

Going through the five steps of integrating an IoC into your study programme requires time and energy. But the outcome of teaching students essential intercultural skills that prepare them for a diverse campus and society is worth the effort.

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