ASET-HERDSA 2000: Leask - internationalisation - implications for teaching, learning and assessment

[ Proceedings ] [ Abstracts ] [ ASET-HERDSA 2000 Main ]

Internationalisation: Changing contexts and their implications for teaching, learning and assessment

Betty Leask
University of South Australia

Changes in government policies and the social and economic context within which universities operate has resulted in increasing pressure for them to attract more international students and to internationalise their curricula. This, in turn, has put pressure on staff development units to develop strategies to assist staff to support student learning and achieve institutional goals.
This paper describes some of the professional development programs and resources developed at the University of South Australia to support the internationalisation of teaching and learning.
The first section describes resources that have been developed to assist staff to internationalise their courses. These include guidelines on structural options and pathways for course design and strategies for broadening the scope of the subject to include international content and contact. It also includes a description of a range of teaching and learning processes developed to assist all students to develop international perspectives; processes which value and include the contributions of international students.
The second section of the paper looks specifically at qualitative differences in the development of international perspectives in graduates. It describes a range of assessment strategies designed to assist students to focus their energies appropriately across a course and to develop international perspectives as professionals and citizens.
This approach is designed to maximise the reciprocal benefit and value of internationalisation in the short term and, ultimately, to embed internationalisation into the culture of the institution.

Introduction

A number of changes in society in recent years have modified society's perceptions and expectations of universities. Universities have become mainstream in society at a time of decreasing government funding to the sector. They are expected to be more entrepreneurial and self-funding and many have responded to this by internationalising their programs and actively and successfully recruiting more international students. This has, in turn, created pressure on teaching and administrative staff who must manage greater student numbers and a more diverse student population (Adams, Marshall and Cameron 1999). Simultaneously, the rapid development of information and communication technologies and their increasing use in the construction of interactive on-line learning environments, has created both opportunities and challenges for academic staff. Staff development units are faced with the task of assisting staff to design and deliver programs that will meet the needs of a changing student population in a context which is in itself subject to rapid change.

The professional development program and resources developed at the University of South Australia to support the internationalisation of teaching and learning is a case study of how one staff development unit has approached this task.

Internationalisation at the University of South Australia

Internationalisation is clearly embedded in the policy, mission statement and goals of the University of South Australia. It is also embedded in its administrative systems and in a range of published guidelines, which interpret and support policy (Leask, 1999a). A process approach to internationalisation, which employs a range of 'organisational' and 'program' strategies (Knight and deWit, 1995) has been implemented. However, embedding internationalisation policies into the academic practices of the institution at all levels, has proved to be a major challenge requiring a strategic, staged approach over a number of years. As the academic community has tackled this major challenge, a number of other related challenges have emerged. A range of strategies have been developed and implemented to overcome them.

The first challenge - putting policy into practice

The University of South Australia's vision in relation to internationalisation of the curriculum is focussed on learning processes and on the development of skills and attitudes within students as much as on curriculum content and the development of knowledge in students. This is evident in the Report on the Internationalisation of the Curriculum (Luong et al; 1996) which describes an internationalised curriculum as one which values 'empathy and intellectual curiosity through which ... learners participate in a mutually beneficial, internationally and multi-culturally aware learning process, engaging with and constructing global 'state of the art' knowledge, developing understanding and useful skills, and preparing themselves to continue learning throughout personally and vocationally fulfilling lives' (p1). The focus is clear and is entirely consistent with the University's policies relating to inclusivity and anti-racism; the challenge is still, however, to put the policy into practice - to develop curricula which, in methodology and content, are culturally inclusive and which develop multi-cultural awareness and cross-cultural communication skills while achieving the specific skills and knowledge objectives appropriate to the discipline area.

The second challenge - staff development for internationalisation

In response to this first challenge the university has taken an 'infusion' approach to internationalisation of the curriculum (Knight 1996) and has faced the second major challenge.

The infusion approach focuses on the development of strategies designed to ensure that international perspectives permeate both the teaching methodology and content of subjects and the structure and organisation of courses. However, as Knight pointed out, an 'infusion' approach requires university teaching staff to develop new knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. Staff development strategies are therefore an important and integral part of the process of internationalising the curriculum. The challenge for staff developers has been to assist academic staff from a vast range of disciplines to understand what internationalisation and an internationalised curriculum means for how they teach and what they teach. This requires exploding some of the myths associated with internationalisation - that it is:

an event in time, such as a multi-cultural food fair,
someone else's responsibility and therefore they don't need to know anything about it or do anything about it,
mainly about attracting more international students whose presence will automatically benefit Australian students.

None of these perceptions of internationalisation are consistent with University policy or interpretations of internationalisation found in the literature (Knight and deWit 1995). The third is not supported by research (Volet and Ang 1998).

Such 'myths' need to be exposed and confronted before it is possible to move on to explore what internationalisation of the curriculum really means for both individual staff members and teaching teams.

The third challenge - changing teaching practices

The third challenge is closely related to, and in some ways has emerged from, the response to the second challenge. In order to assist staff to understand how they might internationalise their curriculum it is necessary to challenge the way they think about teaching. Ramsden (1992; p 16) says that the improvement of teaching is related to the extent to which academics are prepared to conceptualise teaching as a process of helping students to 'change their understanding' of the subject matter they are taught. In relation to internationalisation of the curriculum 'good teaching practice' can therefore be described as the implementation of a range of teaching processes designed to assist all students to learn about and understand the international context of their studies, and to operate effectively in international professional environments. Changes to the cultural profile of the student population resulting from increasing numbers of international students on campus have also raised educational issues and challenges for academic staff as they strive to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse group of students (Biggs 1997). Internationalisation requires more than the transmission of knowledge in traditional ways. It requires a focus on teaching and learning processes as well as content. Traditionally, however, academic staff in universities have focussed their energies and effort on the transmission of knowledge rather than on the processes by which students come to understand the subject matter being transmitted. Changing this emphasis, and thus teaching practices, was the third major challenge.

A framework for curriculum change

These challenges have all been tackled, for the most part simultaneously, using a range of strategies developed within a strategic framework for curriculum change. For although the challenges have been presented and defined here in a linear way, as if one emerged from the other, they are in reality intertwined and related. The Graduate Qualities provide a strong framework for curriculum planning and change. They have been particularly useful in assisting staff to understand what internationalisation means for their teaching practices by focusing attention on students and on what they will understand and be able to do at the end of a course of study as well as on what they will know.

The Graduate Qualities Framework

There are seven Graduate Qualities. Graduate Quality #7 relates specifically to internationalisation. A range of strategies have been developed to assist staff to understand and implement the full range of Graduate Qualities. A specific set of strategies have been developed in relation to Graduate Quality # 7.

The Graduate Qualities were introduced to the University of South Australia in 1996, after a twelve-month period of consultation with stakeholders. They indicated a significant shift in the way the university defined 'quality' - a shift from an emphasis on inputs (such as funding, academic staff qualifications and student entry scores) to an emphasis on educational outputs. They also indicated a significant shift in what was valued about the education provided at the University of South Australia. The focus of the Graduate Qualities is very clearly on the student and what the graduating student will have achieved during a course of study. They are used as a framework for curriculum development and evaluation in all undergraduate courses as well as for quality assurance and improvement processes. By their very nature they focus all of these processes on students.

Graduate Quality Seven states that graduates will demonstrate international perspectives as professionals and as citizens. Nine indicators are provided to staff as a guide to the general sorts of characteristics that graduates who have achieved the quality might exhibit. As part of the course planning process, course and subject writers develop more elaborated or different indicators, which relate specifically to their subject area. The generic indicators for Graduate Quality 7 are detailed in Table 1:

Table 1: Graduate Quality #7: Generic Indicators

Indicator code	A graduate who demonstrates international perspectives as a professional and a citizen will...
7.1	display an ability to think globally and consider issues from a variety of perspectives
7.2	demonstrate an awareness of their own culture and its perspectives and other cultures and their perspectives
7.3	appreciate the relation between their field of study locally and professional traditions elsewhere
7.4	recognise intercultural issues relevant to their professional practice
7.5	appreciate the importance of multicultural diversity to professional practice and citizenship
7.6	appreciate the complex and interacting factors that contribute to notions of culture and cultural relationships
7.7	value diversity of language and culture
7.8	appreciate and demonstrate the capacity to apply international standards and practices within the discipline or professional area
7.9	demonstrate awareness of the implications of local decisions and actions for international communities and of international decisions and actions for local communities

It is significant that these indicators focus not only on the acquisition of skills and knowledge related to professional areas but also on the development of values and cross-cultural awareness. There is also a strong focus on the application of skills and knowledge, on taking action rather than on passive development. Thus these indicators signal that the emphasis in the development of this graduate quality will need to be on more than content.

Subjects and courses are required to provide a Graduate Quality Profile in all formal course documentation, indicating the 'weighting' of each quality within each subject and within the whole course. The requirement was introduced as a mechanism for ensuring that the Graduate Qualities informed subject and course planning and decision-making and that they were reflected in the objectives of the subject, in the teaching and learning arrangements and in the assessment tasks and practices. A subject which gives any weighting at all to Graduate Quality #7, must be able to demonstrate how it develops international perspectives in all students and thus it focuses attention on both Australian and international students. As all students are assessed in the same way, according to the same criteria and the curriculum must develop the same graduate qualities in all students, the focus of internationalisation is moved from 'international students' to all students.

However, the implementation of graduate qualities involves not only staff, but also students. Students are becoming increasingly aware of the significance of the Graduate Quality profile of the subjects and courses they study. A series of information leaflets and activities designed to introduce students to the meaning and significance of Graduate Qualities have been developed. Students will soon be actively encouraged to select subjects and courses based on their Graduate Quality profile. This will enable students to develop a substantial portfolio of evidence related to their graduate qualities to present to prospective employers. In relation to internationalisation this means that any student wishing to pursue an international career or to demonstrate an understanding of international issues or cross-cultural communication skills will have the power to select subjects and courses which will develop and assess the sorts of attributes that their prospective employers are seeking.

One of the most significant means of influencing the curriculum is through students and some of these strategies may result in pressure to internationalise coming from the student body as well as from management.

Professional development for curriculum change

Farkas-Teekens (1997) identifies key knowledge, skills and attitudes for teachers in higher education delivering an internationalised curriculum to an international audience. She highlights the need for ongoing training and development as 'most lecturers in higher education have little knowledge of theories of education. They teach their subject from experience, based on how they were taught themselves' (p21). Farkas-Teekens suggests that this means lecturers need:

knowledge of different teaching and learning styles and understanding that 'procedures and standards for assessing student performance are to a large extent culturally and nationally defined'
skills in' involving students from different national traditions in the learning process by using examples and cases from different cultural settings'
the ability to assess student performance with due respect for different academic cultures
a 'flexible attitude towards various styles of student behaviour' (ibid p22-23).

These are the basics only of the 'profile of the ideal lecturer' for the international classroom. The total package is comprehensive and includes not only the area of teaching style, but also specific requirements related to the academic discipline, using media and technologies, knowledge of foreign education systems, knowledge of the international labour market and personal mastery.

Peters (1997) outlines selection criteria which she sees as important when hiring staff to teach on international programs. She argues that staff teaching on international programs must have certain basic skills and knowledge needed to be a successful teacher in any environment such as knowledge of the area, classroom management skills and the ability to clearly define learning goals and design good curricula. But they must also be culturally aware, have the ability to make use of international information and examples and have the skills to manage a group in which a broad range of communication and learning styles are present.

Both Peters and Farkas-Teekens describe a broad range of skills that it would be unusual to find or develop in any one lecturer. Thus Farkas-Teekens advocates team teaching and working in groups as the best way to develop a curriculum for international teaching. At the University of South Australia we are increasingly using a model of staff development based on small group reflective practice. The model has been used successfully for the past three years. The approach involves six stages in which staff from a number of different areas of the University bring together their particular expertise to address specific issues within a given subject (Hicks and George 1998). The approach is student-centred and the group involved in the review of the subject always involves a subject specialist, a learning adviser who works predominantly with students and a professional/staff developer who has particular expertise in the area of curriculum design. In international contexts at least one of these people should have experience or specific skills and attitudes applicable to an international teaching context. These people work together and, within the shared framework of the Graduate Qualities, empower individual academics to make informed decisions about the objectives of the subject, the assessment and the teaching and learning activities (Leask, Medlin and Feast 1999).

In relation to achieving Graduate Quality #7 this process has resulted in a clarification of what internationalisation means in different subjects within a discipline area and the implementation of significant changes to the content, teaching and learning and assessment arrangements in subjects. For example, in a large core subject, Economic Environment, this process resulted in the following changes (documented in Feast 1998 and Feast 1999) being implemented:

an emphasis on process as well as content in teaching
more attention to graduate qualities, internationalisation and inclusive curriculum issues
the adoption of a new textbook which has a much more international perspective than the book it replaced
the adoption of a textbook supplement which includes a large number of international applications of economic theory
encouragement to use articles drawn from the foreign press as part of the media watch assessment
establishment of student work groups with mixed ethnic background
introduction of one topic (out of a total of seven) on international issues and linking of this topic to the rest of the course in lectures and workshops

Small group reflective practice in staff development within the graduate qualities framework interrogates and explodes the myth that internationalisation of the curriculum is someone else's responsibility. It is understood that if the graduate quality profile of the subject includes any weighting for Graduate Quality #7 it must be addressed in the assessment, in the teaching and learning arrangements and in the objectives of the subject. The responsibility for course and subject design to develop graduate qualities rests with academics so it is clearly their responsibility. They are however, assisted in the process of developing international perspectives in their students by the team of staff developers and learning advisers who work with them and give advice and guidance on ways to assist students to achieve course objectives and graduate qualities through careful structuring and timing of assessment activities and teaching and learning arrangements.

Schön (1987, pp5-6) described reflective practice as a strategy for dealing with a 'problematic situation' - one which 'presents itself as a unique case', which cannot be solved by applying any one rule of professional knowledge. The implementation of Graduate Quality #7 can be defined as a 'problematic situation'. Alderson (1996) described academic staff development for internationalisation as a journey which at each stage requires 'exploration and negotiation of understandings, re-examining of currently held beliefs, reflection on current practice, gathering and learning information from a variety of resources, and opportunities for the social construction of knowledge' (p6). She advocates that staff development consultants work more closely with schools rather than providing generic courses for academics across the university. The strategies described here are consistent with Schön's and Alderson's views and have been proven to be effective in implementing curriculum change by assisting academic staff to 'merge thinking and doing' (Ramsden 1992; p16).

Graduate Qualities, as a framework for curriculum planning, was initially resisted by many academic staff, who saw it as imposed by management and irrelevant to their daily practice. The most significant gains that have been made in relation to the permeation of all Graduate Qualities into the curriculum, including Graduate Quality #7, have been as a result of a model of staff development based on small group reflective practice.

Resources to support change

In order to assist staff to understand how to design courses in which students can achieve Graduate Quality #7, it has also been necessary to develop a number of support resources for staff which make clear links between policy and practice. These resources are available on the web and in a small booklet for staff entitled 'Teaching international and NESB students at the University of South Australia' (Leask 1999b). The resources do two things: they describe structural options and pathways for internationalising courses and they describe teaching and learning strategies for internationalisation. They are a response to all three of the challenges described in this paper - they describe how policy can be put into practice at both course and subject level, they describe a broad range of strategies for internationalising curriculum which can be applied to a range of discipline areas and they deliberately focus more on process than on content.

The ways in which Australian universities are internationalising curriculum has been the subject of a several studies (Back and Davis 1995; Back, K., Davis, D. and Olsen, A. 1996). In 1995 a typology of internationalised curriculum was published (IDP Education Australia 1995). The typology is 'mixed', in that it uses overlapping rather than mutually exclusive categories. This is 'symptomatic of the multidimensional nature of international education' (Mestenhauser, 1997) and reflects the complexity of internationalisation. To assist academics at the University of South Australia to relate this typology to the achievement of Graduate Quality #7, the generic indicators associated with this quality (see Table 1) were linked to the OECD typology (see Table 2).

Table 2: Internationalised curricula and graduate quality indicators

Internationalised curricula typology G.Q.7 Indicators

Curricula which prepare graduates for defined international professions. 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.8, 7.9

Curricula leading to internationally recognised professional qualifications. 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.8, 7.9

Curricula leading to joint or double degrees in international and language studies. 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9

Curricula in which compulsory parts are offered at or by universities abroad, staffed by local lecturers (including exchange and study abroad programs). 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.9

Curricula with an international subject or area/language studies. 7.1, 7.2, 7.7.6, 7.7

Interdisciplinary programs, such as region and area studies, covering more than one country. 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9

Curricula in which the traditional/original subject area is broadened by international cross-cultural/intercultural approaches. 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9

Curricula in foreign languages or linguistics which explicitly address cross-cultural communication issues and which provide training in intercultural skills. 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8

Curricula in which the content is especially designed for overseas students. 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8

A successfully internationalised curriculum will need to emphasise a wide range of teaching and learning strategies designed to develop graduates who demonstrate a range of international perspectives as professionals and as citizens through:

broadening the scope of the subject to include international content and/or contact,
approaches to teaching and learning which assist in the development of cross-cultural communication skills.

While the description of structural options and pathways assists senior academic staff to organise their courses so that students have the opportunity to develop international perspectives, it does not describe concrete ways in which all staff can internationalise their teaching practice - in particular teaching and learning arrangements and assessment tasks and activities. It provides the big picture, rather than the fine detail. Yet it is the fine detail that many academic staff have most control over and in which they are most interested.

In order to provide this guidance for academic staff, the Code of good practice: teaching and learning at the University of South Australia was used as a framework for describing teaching and learning strategies to achieve the graduate quality on international perspectives. The code describes a broad range of 'good teaching practices' in fairly general terms. By 'internationalising' these practices it is possible to internationalise both content and teaching and learning arrangements and to assist students to develop the characteristics associated with Graduate Quality 7.

For example, the Code of Good Practice states that teachers should communicate their own enthusiasm for the subjects they teach and arouse students' curiosity, interest and creative endeavours in the subject, including making adequate time available to advise individual students. How can this exemplar of 'good practice' be internationalised? It is suggested that this could be achieved by:

developing international contacts in the professional area
being informed on international issues, standards and practices in the discipline and professional area
referring to international examples and perspectives from the discipline or professional area
making time available specifically to meet with individual international students to discuss professional and study-related matters

The strategies achieve a level of detail which is of practical assistance to academic staff and therefore, ultimately, of benefit to students. They are presented as concrete examples. They are relatively easy to implement and can be adopted and adapted by individual staff to different discipline and professional areas. They also focus on process as well as content, and at times it is difficult to separate the two. For example, when selecting content, teaching and assessment methods staff are advised to:

include a range of group and individual projects in the assessment profile of the subject so that students are required to work with others, consider the perspectives of others and compare them with their own perspectives
set small group tasks which require the development of skills in group dynamics and the establishment of working relationships with fellow students from diverse backgrounds and cultures - eg. tasks requiring analysis of media reports from international newspapers, interviews with international students and/or professionals who have worked internationally.

In these strategies the group processes and tasks are an integral part of internationalising the teaching and learning. The requirement that students work across cultures is designed to assist the development of cross-cultural communication skills and understanding on both a personal and a professional level. The focus on both the teaching and learning arrangements and assessment tasks, is to ensure that both students and staff recognise the importance of these skills, and focus their attention on their systematic development. Collectively, these measures indicate that the university recognises that the successful internationalisation of the curriculum relies on teaching and learning processes as well as content.

Some of these teaching and learning strategies for internationalisation focus on improving the quality of teaching and learning for all students from all educational and cultural backgrounds but pay particular attention to the needs of international students. They represent 'good teaching practice', although many have been identified in the literature relating to the effective delivery of courses to international students (Ballard and Clanchy, 1997). Thus, staff are advised that in order to assist in the development of students'' communication skills they should model effective communication strategies such as:

presenting information in ways which are inclusive of international students in the group - using advance structuring, coherence and extension strategies (Ballard and Clanchy, 1997, p33).
using lecture outlines and simple overheads (as visual backup, to support aural comprehension) and issuing concise lecture notes as visual aids to aural comprehension.

The strategies also value and include the contributions of international students, validate the points of view of others and promote cross-cultural and international understanding. They do this by encouraging staff to make explicit the cultural foundations of knowledge in the discipline and the relationship between cultural beliefs and values and actions. Staff are advised to:

explicitly outline the thinking processes used in the discipline and analyse any cultural aspects of these
discuss cultural and regional differences in values and assumptions affecting the discipline and how these might impact on the actions of individuals
discuss the 'cultural foundations' of the thinking underlying arguments and answers to questions
set and assess tasks and activities that require students to reflect on their own culture as well as engage with other cultures.

In practice, all of the strategies described (over 50 in total) not only broaden the scope of the subject to include international content and contact but also assist in the development of cross cultural communication skills and an understanding of intercultural issues. Many of them require that academic staff step out of their traditional role as the authority in authority and learn from the international students in their classes. This cultural exchange can only benefit all involved, but is a significant culture shift in itself that needs to be carefully managed, in a supportive professional environment.

Internationalisation in an online environment

The online environment challenges academics to teach a more diverse range of students in a teaching and learning environment with which many do not feel familiar or comfortable. While the online environment provides many opportunities to extend the range of resources and learning tasks available to students it also adds another layer of complexity to the teaching and learning process. The indicators for Graduate Quality 7 can be used to shape the teaching, learning and assessment arrangements of subjects and courses taught online and to give some guidance to academic staff on appropriate learning and assessment tasks to develop international perspectives in students.

Table 3: Online strategies to achieve GQ7

A graduate who demonstrates international perspectives as a professional and a citizen will... Online learning tools/tasks/activities to achieve this outcome

display an ability to think globally and consider issues from a variety of perspectives Participation in online discussions and debates in which they must take different roles and give perspectives other than their own.

demonstrate an awareness of their own culture and its perspectives and other cultures and their perspectives Students required to explain their point of view on an issue 'online' from a cultural perspective.

appreciate the relation between their field of study locally and professional traditions elsewhere Web research into professional traditions in other cultures.

recognise intercultural issues relevant to their professional practice Scenarios with obvious intercultural issues embedded within them presented as problems to be solved by an online tutorial group.

appreciate the importance of multicultural diversity to professional practice and citizenship Multicultural teams formed online and set problem-solving tasks related to the professional area

appreciate the complex and interacting factors that contribute to notions of culture and cultural relationships Students from different cultural groups interview each other online and post a report on key aspects of the other students culture to an online forum.

value diversity of language and culture Research project into contributions made to the professional area by different cultural groups. Results posted by students to an online discussion group or seminar.

appreciate and demonstrate the capacity to apply international standards and practices within the discipline or professional area Comparison of international standards based on collaborative research and analysis undertaken by students from different cultures

demonstrate awareness of the implications of local decisions and actions for international communities and of international decisions and actions for local communities Appropriate case studies related to professional area included in course and analysed by students.

Online delivery provides a range of opportunities for internationalisation of curriculum as well as for international delivery of the curriculum. Staff development strategies need to assist staff to us the full range of tools available to them to assist students to achieve desired learning outcomes.

Qualitative differences in achieving international perspectives as a graduate quality

The strategies described above are part of a strategic and planned program of staff development that recognises that if graduate qualities are to be acquired by students then:

experiences and opportunities conducive to their development will need to be provided during a course of study
the development, practice and assessment of the graduate quality is most effective if it is inextricably and explicitly linked with the learning of the disciplinary content
assessment practices align with course and subject goals and teaching and learning practices.

Bowden, Hart, King, Trigwell and Watts (2000: pp13-19) describe four qualitatively different approaches to the development of any generic capability:

Scoping level: defining the scope of the capability
Enabling level: developing certain skills related to the capability
Training level: elaborating or establishing meaning of the capability within a particular discipline or field
Relating level: developing understanding of the relation between the meaning and the context

If these levels are to be reflected in assessment practices within subjects and courses they require some interpretation. An interpretation of the levels in relation to the achievement of Graduate Quality #7 (international perspectives) is included in Table 4.

Table 4: Levels of development of Graduate Quality #7

Level International perspectives

Scoping Involves identifying the range and significance of cultural and national perspectives:
exploring different cultural and national perspectives on past and current issues
developing an understanding of the relationship between cultural and national perspectives and attitudes, values and actions
identifying ways in which students own cultural and national perspectives influence their attitudes, values and actions.

Enabling Involves the skills necessary for effective communication across national and cultural boundaries:
identifying ways in which others cultural and national perspectives influence their attitudes, values and actions
developing skills of cross-cultural communication and understanding

Training The general purpose and application of the enabling skills are elaborated and made more meaningful by relating them to the particular discipline or field:
developing an understanding of the relationship between different approaches within the discipline to their cultural and national contexts
developing awareness and understanding of international standards within the discipline area

Relating An expansion of the training level which involves adapting behaviour to deal with the particular context:

using cross-cultural communication skills to negotiate outcomes within the discipline area
reflecting on the relationship between international standards in discipline areas and their local and international contexts

As with any program of learning, students will not necessarily move in neat progression from one level to another. There may be movement backwards and forwards between levels as students' knowledge and skills develop. Students should, however, be assisted to move through the levels of understanding and achievement in relation to internationalisation during their course of study. More complex learning tasks designed to challenge students and assist them to demonstrate their level of achievement in relation to the Graduate Quality should be introduced to students in a planned and coordinated way. And the more complex the skills and knowledge being developed, the more complex the assessment tasks will need to be. Thus the complexity of the assessment tasks should grow at the same rate as the complexity of the learning tasks. Only when this happens will students be given valid feedback on their progress towards achievement of the desired learning outcomes of the subject and course in relation to the development of the Graduate Quality #7. This implies that learning experiences and assessment need to be planned and coordinated at the course level as well as the subject level.

The implementation of Graduate Qualities has provided a framework within which this can happen at the University of South Australia. It is supported by a team-based approach to staff development, which has facilitated some productive discussion at course as well as subject level.

Conclusion

The internationalisation of the curriculum in higher education is a notion that is challenging to put into practice. It requires staff to change their focus to include a greater emphasis on teaching and learning processes as well as content, if they are to provide a relevant educational experience for all students in an environment that is supportive and inclusive of all students. It requires them to be simultaneously more reflective and more outward looking, for they must be reflective as they review and interrogate their teaching practice but outward-looking and internationally and cross-culturally aware if they are to develop international perspectives in their students. They must simultaneously keep the big picture in focus whilst attending to the fine detail, developing student learning outcomes at the course level as well as the subject level. The Graduate Qualities framework is student-centred and focuses on outcomes, rather than inputs, includes and values the contribution of international students to the process of internationalising the curriculum and has assisted staff and students at the University of South Australia to look ahead and around whilst attending to the immediacy of day-to-day academic life; to attend to the changing context within which they work and consider ways in which they might use elements of it to assist students to achieve desired outcomes.

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Author: Betty Leask, University of South Australia
Phone (08) 8302 0618 Fax (08) 8302 0021 Email betty.leask@unisa.edu.au

Please cite as: Leask, B. (2001). Internationalisation: Changing contexts and their implications for teaching, learning and assessment. In L. Richardson and J. Lidstone (Eds), Flexible Learning for a Flexible Society, 389-401. Proceedings of ASET-HERDSA 2000 Conference, Toowoomba, Qld, 2-5 July 2000. ASET and HERDSA. http://www.aset.org.au/confs/aset-herdsa2000/procs/leask1.html

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Created 11 Oct 2001. Last revised: 29 Mar 2003. HTML: Roger Atkinson
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Internationalised curricula typology	G.Q.7 Indicators
Curricula which prepare graduates for defined international professions.	7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.8, 7.9
Curricula leading to internationally recognised professional qualifications.	7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.8, 7.9
Curricula leading to joint or double degrees in international and language studies.	7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9
Curricula in which compulsory parts are offered at or by universities abroad, staffed by local lecturers (including exchange and study abroad programs).	7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.9
Curricula with an international subject or area/language studies.	7.1, 7.2, 7.7.6, 7.7
Interdisciplinary programs, such as region and area studies, covering more than one country.	7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9
Curricula in which the traditional/original subject area is broadened by international cross-cultural/intercultural approaches.	7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9
Curricula in foreign languages or linguistics which explicitly address cross-cultural communication issues and which provide training in intercultural skills.	7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8
Curricula in which the content is especially designed for overseas students.	7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8

A graduate who demonstrates international perspectives as a professional and a citizen will...	Online learning tools/tasks/activities to achieve this outcome
display an ability to think globally and consider issues from a variety of perspectives	Participation in online discussions and debates in which they must take different roles and give perspectives other than their own.
demonstrate an awareness of their own culture and its perspectives and other cultures and their perspectives	Students required to explain their point of view on an issue 'online' from a cultural perspective.
appreciate the relation between their field of study locally and professional traditions elsewhere	Web research into professional traditions in other cultures.
recognise intercultural issues relevant to their professional practice	Scenarios with obvious intercultural issues embedded within them presented as problems to be solved by an online tutorial group.
appreciate the importance of multicultural diversity to professional practice and citizenship	Multicultural teams formed online and set problem-solving tasks related to the professional area
appreciate the complex and interacting factors that contribute to notions of culture and cultural relationships	Students from different cultural groups interview each other online and post a report on key aspects of the other students culture to an online forum.
value diversity of language and culture	Research project into contributions made to the professional area by different cultural groups. Results posted by students to an online discussion group or seminar.
appreciate and demonstrate the capacity to apply international standards and practices within the discipline or professional area	Comparison of international standards based on collaborative research and analysis undertaken by students from different cultures
demonstrate awareness of the implications of local decisions and actions for international communities and of international decisions and actions for local communities	Appropriate case studies related to professional area included in course and analysed by students.

Level	International perspectives
Scoping	Involves identifying the range and significance of cultural and national perspectives: exploring different cultural and national perspectives on past and current issues developing an understanding of the relationship between cultural and national perspectives and attitudes, values and actions identifying ways in which students own cultural and national perspectives influence their attitudes, values and actions.
Enabling	Involves the skills necessary for effective communication across national and cultural boundaries: identifying ways in which others cultural and national perspectives influence their attitudes, values and actions developing skills of cross-cultural communication and understanding
Training	The general purpose and application of the enabling skills are elaborated and made more meaningful by relating them to the particular discipline or field: developing an understanding of the relationship between different approaches within the discipline to their cultural and national contexts developing awareness and understanding of international standards within the discipline area
Relating	An expansion of the training level which involves adapting behaviour to deal with the particular context: using cross-cultural communication skills to negotiate outcomes within the discipline area reflecting on the relationship between international standards in discipline areas and their local and international contexts