Copy - Group Work with International Students

For more information, please consult the Education Tip on ‘How to Assess Group Work?’

Intensity

• collaboration with international peers lends itself to peer feedback (based on a rubric, or not). The same rubric can be used by the lecturer to assess the students. You can assess the end product (e.g. the extent to which the different perspectives are represented) as well as the collaboration process (e.g. a reflection on how to function in an international team);

• through direct observation during the group work you can monitor each student's input. You can combine that observation with an oral assessment.

Assessment

FCI (I@H)

For more information, please consult the Education Tip on ‘How to Organise Group Work?’

Blend@UGent

Internationalisation@Home

Funding

Practical Examples

Working in heterogeneous groups with international students can be a highly enriching experience, with a significant added value to the learning process of all the students. This type of group work is an important opportunity for the students to practice their collaborative skills in an international context, and to hone their intercultural competencies.

• give clear information and instructions in advance about the content of the assignment, the type of collaboration, the supervision and the assessment. Clearly explain the added value and significance of working together with international students;

• gain insight into the prior knowledge of all the students. Ask them about the specific knowledge, skills or perspectives they can contribute during the group work;

• do not let the students choose their groups. Mingle local with international students, and assign (at least two) international students to each group. Not only does this result in heterogeneous groups, it also reduces the risk of isolation among international students;

• organise a moment during which the group members can get acquainted with each other. Give them some icebreakers to work with as well as a warming-up exercise;

• provide a specific division of roles. You can reshuffle the roles during the different stages of the group work. Let the students make up rules on how they want to collaborate;

• organise contact moments for supervision and give interim feedback;

• delineate the circumstances in which students can turn to you for help (e.g. in case of dysfunctional groups).

What?

How?

Group Work with International Students

Group Work with International Students

In a 'design studio' on circular circular construction, Architecture students were asked to design a circular pavilion in group. The lecturer purposely mingled international students with Flemish students. The international students were able to share their own skills and expertise in e.g. design experience and graphic representation, elements the Flemish students were still lacking. According to the lecturer, the level of the end result was higher thanks to this cross-pollination of expertise and experience.

Group Work with International Students

In the Economics B course unit, Ghent University students in the Business Engineering, Business Economics, Economics, and Business Administration programmes engage in an online collaboration with first-year students from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). They constitute heterogeneous groups of four and work on an assignment on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an indicator. The effects of the intercultural group work are measured by means of a survey prior to, and at the end of the collaboration.

Group Work with International Students

The Master of Science in Global Health programmes an ‘Integrated Project’, which runs across four different course units. Students are divided into three- to four-member groups based on their prior knowledge and expertise. The student population in the Global Health programme is a fifty-fifty mixture of international and Belgian students, coming from highly diverse education backgrounds (Law, Medicine, Political & Social Sciences, Economics,...). We try to make each student group as diverse as possible. Each group is assigned a specific disease burden, while all the groups work on the same region or country throughout the academic year. In each course unit, the students apply their knowledge and insights by developing a case study on the disease burden that has been assigned to them in the chosen country.