Project Information: Project Stages
The project adopts both qualitative and action-based methodologies, and will entail generating and refining a curriculum model through pilot implementation. The project commenced in May 2010 and moves through four phases over twenty-one months.
The first phase started with consulting the reference
group and International Offices (IOs), inviting continuing engagement
with the project. The investigators will jointly research literature
on intercultural competence, workshop preliminary designs and consult
on different approaches to student exchange orientation and return. The
focus is on pre-departure preparation and in-country support, design
of the teaching module with investigators and peers, and implementation
of pre-departure workshops and a survey of student cultural competence.
The second phase will coincide with students’ journeys
overseas in second semester 2010. Investigators will establish on-line
support networks to enable participating students to create reflective
journals and participate in a blog in an e-portfolio system while abroad,
with a view to encouraging and directing reflection on student learning
experiences. Investigators
will continue developing a set of learning and teaching materials for
use on re-entry, drawing on existing re-entry educational models and
on tested experiential learning principles, especially active review
and reflection. Proposed teaching and learning
materials for use on re-entry will be discussed and critiqued by reference
group and IOs.
The third phase will be first semester 2011, when students return from abroad. Investigators will conduct re-entry workshops with students based on principles of reflective practice, while also working closely with returned students and interested academic staff, to tease out ways of incorporating international student experience into local curriculum. The outcomes are presented in oral, poster and other forms at faculty and student workshops. Video clips of the process and presentations will be disseminated via the project website as examples of possible approaches. Student participants will be surveyed for a second time, to better understand the impact of study abroad and re-entry programming on their emerging intercultural skills and self-understandings. Teaching staff will be surveyed regarding the effectiveness of the project in integrating international experience into Australian classrooms. Surveys will allow the research team to evaluate the design of the pilot teaching module.
The final dissemination and sustainability phase will be an opportunity to develop the generic teaching module in response to research findings across all three institutions. The website will be a repository for research results and teaching materials, examples of student work, researchers’ commentaries and suggestions for tailoring the modules. Classroom outcomes will be showcased in video clips, online posters, presentations and reports. To facilitate access across the higher education sector, the site will be linked to the ALTC Exchange. Investigators will work with IOs, teaching-learning representatives and faculty stakeholders to embed the trialled module and collaborate with the reference group, professional study abroad organisations and DEEWR’s Australian Universities International, on disseminating the findings through workshops, conferences and articles in refereed journals.
