Ideas on designing International Learning Outcomes

International learning outcomes You could create new ones….. ….. but this is usually not necessary. The most common approach? ….Make the learning outcomes you have more international

….but which outcomes to make more international? Start by defining the characteristics of your graduates. Are you making them fit for working and living in a globally connected, interdependent and culturally complex world? What do they need to know? What should they be able to do? What values and beliefs do they need? This will be different for each program.

Ask students to have a global outlook Business: able to watch trends from around the world To make LOs international, think about how graduates need to be international…. Ask students to have a global outlook Include students’ intercultural communicative competence Choose problems that are global, interconnected. Help students see that people and ideas are connected. and …. Childhood education: communicate with parents from diverse backgrounds Biology: solve the Big Problems of the world – like global warming History: Compare how people in two apparently similar national contexts acted/reacted differently

Making LOs more international (continued) Train students to think and act with awareness of the context …. and help them learn to be context-sensitive Make your values explicit: ‘We believe people should be inclusive, open, tolerant.’ Cultural differences should be ‘heard and explored’ (Webb 2005) Using and valuing the diversity and experiences of all students. Computer science: Develop systems that are appropriate to the local context (social, economic, cultural and political) – design systems that will work in a specific context

Tools for making LOs more international refer to diverse contexts, people and/or perspectives & specify culture, language, and national background. make an explicit requirement for intercultural interaction. add the word ‘global’. require several contexts; make comparisons with specific attention to culture, language, nationality or globalisation evaluate from a perspective relevant to internationalisation or globalisation. specify diverse recipients where internationalisation, globalisation or intercultural capability are relevant use data, research or ideas from a number of contexts / situations / perspectives

How LOs become international original Learning Outcome International Learning Outcomes Analyze [subject x] Critically review [subject x] Solve [problem x] Create [thing x] Investigate [situation x] List the components of [topic x] Do not change the verb.... How LOs become international

LO = action + object of action + how well original LO ILO Analyse the Dutch flower growing industry Critically review the management of hospital infection Solve the problem of traffic flow in central Amsterdam Create a marketing strategy Investigate the ethics of [experiment x] List the components of being physically fit and relate fitness and functional capacity

Analyse flower growing in at least two different countries Analyse the Dutch flower growing industry Analyse flower growing in at least two different countries Change the context

Focus on diverse recipients Critically review the procedures for managing hospital infection Critically review the management of hospital infection .. with particular attention to globally mobile patients Focus on diverse recipients

Make comparisons (to raise context- awareness) Make three recommendations to solve the problem of traffic flow in central Amsterdam Compare solutions to traffic problems in both a European and a non-European setting. Make comparisons (to raise context- awareness)

Add ‘global’ Create a marketing strategy .....a marketing strategy for a globally active company Add ‘global’

Add intercultural …. make intercultural skills explicit Investigate the ethics of [experiment x] [Investigate the ethics of replacement sibling IVF] Investigate the ethics of doing experiment x in a multicultural, multi-faith society Add intercultural …. make intercultural skills explicit

Make diversity important and explicit List the components of being fit and relate them to functional capacity List the components of being fit and relate them to functional capacity .... with appropriate reference to issues of race, gender and cultural contexts Make diversity important and explicit

Have a look at 2 VU examples

Learning Outcomes: what to avoid Assuming everything/everyone is the same looking at things only from your own perspective; only making comparisons outward – seeing yourself/your context as normal making the context implicit or invisible making ‘international’ stand for ‘intercultural’ Assuming that being diverse means automatically being inclusive trying to make everything ‘international’

Learning outcomes: include Mention diverse contexts, diverse people, diverse perspectives Require intercultural interaction [amongst students, in problem solving etc] Use ‘global’ where it matters Use several different contexts: How would it look from someone else’s perspective? State diversity characteristics in the recipients Use comparisons, collections Active steps to include and value the diverse backgrounds and knowledge that students bring.