Abstract
This paper reports on a semester-long study that explored the
experience of a group of local and international students from multiple
disciplines, and their teachers, in a core Intercultural Communication
undergraduate course of 550 students in which there is an orientation to
learning, teaching and assessment that seeks to develop students’ intercultural
learning capabilities. To capture the experience of learning, teaching and
assessment in a highly diverse Australian university, data were collected over
the life cycle of the course. The research design was ethnographic and
collaborative, involving the research team, members of the teaching staff, and
members of the university’s learning and teaching unit. The data include
interviews with students and teachers, students’ written assessments, and
observations of weekly teaching staff meetings. The overarching finding of the
study is that, to enable students to develop their intercultural learning
capabilities, there is a need to rethink notions of experience and engagement,
specifically to attend to the central role of language/s and culture/s in all
students’ experience of learning, teaching, and assessment. Analysed examples
from the data are used to illustrate four specific guiding principles
underpinning this (re)orientation to learning. The study was one of two case
studies funded by the University of South Australia as part of a larger project:
Developing English Language and Intercultural Learning Capabilities.1
Shared Decision Making – A Key Competence of All Health Care Professionals. Evaluation and Adaptation of a Digitally Enhanced Learning and Teaching Unit