Abstract
Group working skills are essential attributes for graduates in higher education, and are highly valued by prospective employers of home and international students. With increasing numbers of international students, with different social, cultural, and academic backgrounds, there is an opportunity to evaluate the students’ perceptions of, and the potential benefits for, student integration in multi-cultural group work. The research measured students’ attitudes towards multi-cultural group activities compared with different aspects of group work in general. The opinions of students in two departments, Chemistry and Geography & Planning, towards multi-cultural group work were generally positive, although international students had a better perception of the benefits, and were more likely to self-assign themselves to mixed groups, than home students. International students found the cognitive benefits of culturally mixed groups, and their effect on enhancing integration, more favourable than home students. Conversely, home students have a better overall perception of the benefits of the emotional aspects of the group work, how they will manage the assignment, the development of interpersonal skills, and group assessment than international students. In general, the results imply that tutors should deliberately assign students to multi-culturally mixed groups to encourage integration, and that the academic tasks for the assignments should be developed sensitively to encourage engagement with both cohorts of students. Keywords: Internationalisation; Integration; Group work; Home; international
Highlights
There are increasing numbers of international students choosing undergraduate study in the UK (HESA, 2015; UKCISA, 2015), including the University of Liverpool, with more than 7000 international students on campus
International students are more likely to have previous experience of studying or working in a different country compared to home students, they are much less likely to regularly socialise with friends from other cultures
This is an encouraging finding and may support enhancing student integration by expanding the use of multi-cultural group work to other modules. It does still leave the questions of why home and international students see group work differently, and why the student’s attitudes changed during the group work activities. Both cohorts of students are in agreement, the international students are more strongly in favour of this mechanism for group working than home students
Summary
There are increasing numbers of international students choosing undergraduate study in the UK (HESA, 2015; UKCISA, 2015), including the University of Liverpool, with more than 7000 international students on campus. International students choose study abroad to gain international experience, including improving their employability, language skills, the availability of subjects in demand in their home countries, and the personal benefits of increased freedom in the decision-making processes such as where they live, and the opportunity to pursue their own interests and hobbies (British Council, 2012, 2015b). They choose which country and institution by the reputation of the institution, the quality of the course, the international recognition of their final qualification, and on-campus facilities (British Council, 2015b). They provide us with the opportunity to evaluate the students’ perceptions of, and the potential benefits for, student integration in multi-cultural group work
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