Abstract
Cross-cultural collaborative learning in different learning domains is the road to the sustainability of economic, social, and environmental development. It creates the appropriate environment to acquire cross-cultural communication and collaboration skills for the 21st century. This study conducted a systematic review of 54 articles on cross-cultural collaborative learning published from 2011 to 2020. Based on the proposed analysis framework, the major elements of cross-cultural collaborative learning are revealed, including learners, group composition, learning environment, cross-cultural learning content, collaborative learning strategies, and research designs. The results indicated that most studies engaged learners at the university level and adopted small group sizes in cross-cultural collaborative learning activities. The online learning environment and social science learning content were widely employed in the past 10 years. Most studies adopted multiple collaborative learning strategies and lasted for 9 to 24 weeks. Most studies targeted mixed research purposes and adopted the qualitative analysis method. The findings and relevant suggestions for future studies are discussed in depth.
Highlights
Globalization, world economics, the internationalization of educational institutions, and the rapid development of telecommunications technology have turned the world into a global village [1]
In another study by Strickland and co-authors [17], students from Finland, the USA, and Scotland were involved in a cross-cultural collaborative learning activity to provide international experience for students enrolled in a nursing program and the results indicated that students were satisfied and the activities promoted learning together thereby removing cultural barriers such as mistrust
The search keywords and Boolean connectors applied to the literature search included AND AND
Summary
Globalization, world economics, the internationalization of educational institutions, and the rapid development of telecommunications technology have turned the world into a global village [1]. There is pressure on educational institutions to educate and help students develop skills required in the 21st century working environment by adjusting education curricula [2]. Learning and innovation skills made up of collaboration, communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity and innovation [4], social and cross-cultural skills, and information and communications technology skills [5] are referred to as 21st century skills. These skills are necessary for driving a sustainable development mindset among learners. Different frameworks and strategies, such as collaborative learning and cross-cultural learning, have been adopted to create and engage learners in real world scenarios and environments
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