Exploring students’ group work needs
in the context of internationalisation
using a creative visual method
A.M. Cox
Information School, University of Sheffield
P. Chiles and L. Care
School of Architecture, University of Sheffield
Starting point 1: Chinese students’
experience in the UK
• Anecdotally we notice them sitting and working apart
• Only 15% of Chinese students have UK friend (UKOSA,
2004)
• Avoid assumption of unitary, “other” Chinese student
(Clark and Gieve, 2006) or recreating a problem in the
research
Culture shocks
• Drinking and party culture among students; dress
codes; food and drink (Philo, 2007; Tian and Lowe,
2009)
• Academic culture shock (Edwards and Ran, 2006)
•
•
•
•
•
Marking systems
Use of evidence and “unfair means”
Expectation about tutor’s role
Class room participation
Stress on group work
Becoming enclaved
• Largest group of international students on campus
• Some cultural norms about behaviour of the
group; the greater importance of networks with
fellow Chinese than UK people
• Accommodation enclaves
• Time zone
• Use of QQ or a weibo not Facebook and Twitter
Students prefer group work
with co-nationals
Why?
• Cultural-emotional
connectedness
• Language
• Pragmatic reasons
• Negative stereotypes
• UK students feeling
“swamped” and
exhibit “passive
xenophobia”
(Peacock and
Harrison 2009)
Why do we still use
group work intensively?
• Enriches the group
work experience
• Cultural agility is a
good learning
outcome for
ethical/citizenship
reasons and
employability
“Completion of collaborative learning activities in culturally diverse small groups is a
highly complex, socially and emotionally demanding experience” (Kimmel and Volet, 2010, p.3)
Starting point 2: Space and place
• Spatial design and use embody structural
features of HE
• A lecture theatre or seminar room embodies
assumptions about how learning will take
place
• University as mass institution
• Hidden curriculum is visible (Costello 2000)
New learning spaces
• Information Commons concept
• “Flexibility, comfort, sensory stimulation,
technology support and decentredness”
(Chism 2006)
HOW WOULD YOU ENHANCE
CAMPUS DESIGN TO PROMOTE
EFFECTIVE GROUP WORK?
Method of our study
• Participants given material to
design a small model of good
group work space
• Written reflections
• Focus group
Why “creative methods”?
• Appropriate to spatial question
• Language skills less central
• Can explore emotional and
controversial issues safely
• Participants were iSchool
students from China and home
students
• Model making must be
understood as a process of
representation – requires
analytic method
• May produce anxiety around
design skill
Findings
• No stark contrasts in the representations
• Natural light
• Pleasing aesthetically
Anxiety control and task focus
Chinese students
• Simplicity = stress free
UK students
• Task focus
•
•
“My ideas come about making people
peaceful and calm[ed] down especially
for groups of four people [or] above. This
is because when more students get
together, they tend to talk [about]
something else rather than their work.
Therefore, simpl[e] colours and furniture
are used, which may cause less
distractions.”
“The idea here was [...] you just had
different sorts of spaces for different
points of time of group work. So you
might obviously need to get around a
table. It might be to break out or you just
go and relax. [...] If one was doing a long
session where you were getting together
and then going off individually. [...] Or
people just need to get in touch with
something they have to get on with but
being in a space that let’s you just get
together again.”
Emergence of a punitive discourse, that “privileged emotionally restrained,
task focussed, competitive behaviours”(Turner 2009, p.252)
Conservative designs?
• Did not offer radical proposals
• Designs were often office-like
• They were not personalised, marked or
owned
• Links to students lacking a home on campus
(Cox 2012)
SHOULD WE DO MORE TO
CELEBRATE DIVERSE CULTURES
ON CAMPUS – AND HOW?
Reflections on the method
• Very narrow sample;
• Should have captured the discussion and
process more;
• Would a practice-based approach (such
as walking tour or shadowing) be better?
Reference and contact details
• Cox, A.M., Chiles, P. and Care, L. (2012)
Exploring Students’ Group Work Needs in the
Context of Internationalisation Using a
Creative Visual Method, International Journal
of Higher Education, 2 (1)
http://www.sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/ijhe/ar
ticle/view/1065
• Andrew Cox, [email protected]
WHICH GROUP WORK TASKS
HAVE YOU FOUND INTEGRATE
STUDENTS WELL?