HEIS Newsletter - March 2015 (Plain Text Version)
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In this issue: |
SUPPORTING DIVERSE LEARNERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION Review
As part of Routledge’s Internationalization in Higher Education series, Tools for Teaching in an Educationally Mobile World contributes by serving as a resource for university instructors striving to meet the needs of their linguistically and culturally diverse students. This resource may also aid those who are involved in curriculum development, instructional design, and internationalization administration, as it provides background and context for mobile education in a global economy. For TESOL professionals, Tools for Teaching may serve as an approachable resource for informing non-TESOL colleagues about mobile learner academic needs as well as an advocacy tool for linguistic and cultural support services. Tools for Teaching is organized into 13 chapters under three sections including “Teaching Across Cultures” (chapters 1 through 5), “Developing Students’ Skills for Intercultural and Communicative Competence” (chapters 6 and 7), and “Intercultural Teaching, Learning and Assessment” (chapters 8 through 13). Changes in student mobility and tertiary teaching, the focus of chapter 1, include distinguishing ‘international students’ from ‘educationally mobile students’ because “the characteristic that sets their learning challenges is their mobility, not their nationality” (p. 3). Students who travel for their education often differ from their non-mobile classmates in their educational experiences and expectations as well as in their language proficiencies. Mobile learners may also differ in their community commitments depending on the length of their stay in the host country and their plans upon graduation. Carroll continues the chapter by addressing educators at Anglo-Western universities, defining key terms, addressing contested arguments, and offering tips for utilization of the text. Section 1, chapter 2, describes mobile learner demographic trends and university initiatives. Populations of mobile learners have rapidly increased, resulting in changes in recruitment, enrollment, and funding. In 2010, the majority of the 3.6 million mobile learners (OECD 2013, as cited in Carroll, 2015, p. 12) chose to study in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Statistics do not illustrate the diversity of the educationally mobile student population in terms of their valuable linguistic, cultural, pedagogical, and knowledge backgrounds. Nor do statistics illuminate the similarities in mobile learner academic needs. Carroll lists six common learning needs including negotiation of new academic assumptions and expectations, language issues, instructional practices, peer collaborations, advising services, and transferable skills. Chapter 3 continues by assigning teachers as the mediators of pedagogic variation and instructional diversity. By comparing academic practices in various locations, Carroll highlights the local element of educational systems and how these elements cause challenges for students with diverse backgrounds. She also recommends programmatic, pedagogic, and curricular techniques that make learning more accessible to diverse learners. Introducing linguistic concerns for students and teachers learning or instructing in English, chapter 4 highlights debates around English language entrance scores and techniques for effectively using language-based data in teaching and learning. As a bridge between Section 1 and Section 2, chapter 5 introduces inclusive strategies in teaching and learning to allow educationally mobile learners to feel welcome in their new communities. Section 2 focuses on strategies for increasing students’ English language proficiency and will be most familiar to readers with backgrounds in TESOL. The chapter identifies options for instructors including self-moderating, actively teaching academic language along with content, encouraging domestic and international student interactions, and collaborating with TESOL professionals. The section then concludes with developing intercultural competence in all students regardless of language or geographic origins. Intercultural competence is frequently discussed in terms of individual students traveling abroad and infrequently from the point of view of a class receiving mobile learners. Yet, as Carroll points out, for mobile and domestic learners to gain the most from each other’s diverse backgrounds, the two groups need to be able to collaborate successfully in class activities. The final section of Tools for Teaching focuses on issues of teaching, learning, and assessing diverse learners. For program administrators and curriculum designers, chapter 8 offers insights into creating programming with international perspectives. Instructors will find chapters 9 and 10 of use as they outline ways to increase student participation in lectures and seminars through interactive and student-centered pedagogy. Chapter 11 focuses on the challenges and scaffolding necessary for successful intercultural group work. In courses with students of mixed English proficiencies, group work can be especially intimidating and isolating for mobile learners who struggle with slang used by their domestic peers. Domestic students may find communicating with their English as an additional language colleagues challenging and take over group work, resulting in frustrations and dissatisfaction for all participants. Chapter 11 and its companion chapter on intercultural competence, chapter 7, add practical recommendations for increasing student-to-student interaction and ensuring group work is a valuable tool for all students. An exploration of diverse learner assessments could be an entire book in itself, which is why chapter 12 only offers an overview of the subject. Carroll discusses plagiarism, a topic that often arises when discussing mobile learners and assessment, from an encouragement point of view rather than one more punitive. Through authentic assessment design that encourages students to show their production process, she argues, students are less inclined to practice intentional plagiarism. Chapter 13 continues the discussion with recommendations for creating accessible, authentic, and sustainable assessments. Tools for Teaching in an Educationally Mobile World has no discernible conclusion; as Carroll explains in the first chapter, “this story is unfinished” (p. 9). She suggests administrators listen to educationally mobile students and their teachers at their own institutions to create programming and policies that best serve their populations. This work does not place the responsibility of internationalization on one party but disperses it around all members of the international campus, for it is by working together that best practices for teaching in an educationally mobile world will be revealed. With degrees in music, film, and TESOL, Jillian Baldwin Kim has taught students of all ages and backgrounds in Shenyang, China and St. Louis, Missouri. She teaches Listening and Speaking Skills for the ESL program as well as learner diversity and ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom for the Education Department at Saint Louis University, where she is also a doctoral student in curriculum and instruction. Her current research interests center on the internationalization of education departments toward integration of international graduate students. |
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