In this study it was hypothesized that collaborative learning in international higher education contributes to the development of intercultural competence. Two hundred and fifty-two students of an international business and management study programme of a Dutch university participated in two surveys on collaboration in a group learning activity and one survey on their development of intercultural competence. Additionally, three groups of four to six students took part in focus group interviews. The results indicated that when students perceive that the group process improves, the quality of the collaboration in terms of verbal interaction and equal contribution will also improve. Furthermore, the results revealed that a higher perceived quality of the collaboration relates to an increasing development of intercultural competence. The findings are discussed and related to implications for the use of group learning activities in international higher education. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315319826226
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In this study we measured the effect of COIL on intercultural competence development using a quasi-experimental design. Our sample consisted of 108 undergraduate students from two universities, one located in the Netherlands (NL) and one in the United States (US). Students’ self-reported intercultural competence was measured using a pre-post survey which included the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) and Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). Qualitative data were collected to complement our quantitative findings and to give a deeper insight into the student experience. The data showed a significantly bigger increase in intercultural competence for the US experimental group compared to the US control group, supporting our hypothesis that COIL develops intercultural competence. This difference was not observed for the NL students, possibly due to the NL control group being exposed to other international input during the course.
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Collaborative learning is not a new teaching and learning approach; it has been around since the 1970s and is an evidence-based practice that has been proven to be effective time after time. Therefore, instead of reinventing the wheel or only relying on best practices or anecdotal evidence of what works and what doesn’t, especially when designing Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) environments, educators might find it useful to make use of existing collaborative learning instructional design elements. These elements have been scientifically proven to be effective and can be applied in both the physical and online international classroom.
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Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is often framed as an example of a broader practice known as Virtual Exchange (VE). The term Virtual Exchange has increasingly been used as an attempt to unify a fragmented field of Higher Education practice and is often used interchangeably with the term COIL. However, the design of COIL, with its strong focus on collaborative and intercultural learning, is often very different to other VE initiatives. Labelling all VE initiatives, including COIL, generally as VE, can lead to both educators and researchers having difficulty identifying and distinguishing COIL. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of VE and define COIL and its key characteristics. This article also describes how theory can inform practice and explains why continued interchangeable use of the term COIL with the umbrella term Virtual Exchange is unhelpful for future research and practice.
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This study aims to map VE teachers’ perceived importance of assessment competence. The study was conducted in the Netherlands among teachers of professional studies in Universities of Applied Sciences. A large-scale study was conducted to represent a broad population of teachers, including various vocational fields, roles, and situations, allowing for the exploration of differences across these contextual variables.
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Educational innovations often tend to fail, mainly because teachers and school principals do not feel involved or are not allowed to have a say. Angela de Jong's dissertation shows the importance of school principals and teachers leading 'collaborative innovation' together. Collaborative innovation requires a collaborative, distributed approach involving both horizontal and vertical working relationships in a school. Her research shows that teams with more distributed leadership have a more collaborative 'spirit' to improve education. Team members move beyond formal (leadership) roles, and work more collectively on school-wide educational improvement from intrinsic motivation. De Jong further shows that school principals seek a balance in steering and providing space. She distinguished three leadership patterns: Team Player, Key Player, Facilitator. Team players in particular are important for more collaborative innovation in a school. They balance between providing professional space to teachers (who look beyond their own classroom) and steering for strategy, frameworks, boundaries, and vision. This research took place in schools working with the program of Foundation leerKRACHT, a program implemented by more than a thousand schools (primary, secondary, and vocational education). The study recommends, towards school principals and teachers, and also towards trainers, policymakers, and school board members, to reflect more explicitly on their roles in collaborative innovation and talk about those roles.
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Horizontal collaborative purchasing (HCP) has often been cited as a way for hospitals to address the challenges of the rising healthcare costs. However, hospitals do not seem to utilize horizontal collaborative purchasing on any large scale, and recent initiatives have had mixed results. Focusing on Dutch hospitals, in this paper we present major impediments for collaborative purchasing, resulting in a first component of our proposed electronic horizontal collaborative purchasing model for hospitals; as a second component it contains a collaborative purchasing typology. A first validation round with hospital purchasing professionals, described separately in Kusters and Versendaal (2011), confirmed four applicable purchasing types and fourteen salient collaborative purchasing impediments. The model is operationalized by including possible information technology (IT) solutions that address the specific fourteen impediments. This model is validated through methodological triangulation of four different validation techniques. We conclude that IT has the potential to support, or overcome, the impediments of HCP. The validation also reveals the need to distinguish between more processrelated, as opposed to social-related, obstacles; the immediate potential for IT solutions is greater for the process-related impediments. Ultimately, we conclude that the collaborative epurchasing model (e-HCP) and implementation roadmap can be used by healthcare consortia, branche organizations, partnering healthcare institutes and multi-site healthcare institutes as a means to help identifying strategies to initiate, manage and evaluate collaborative purchasing practices
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Collaborative learning in a culturally diverse secondary vocational education. By K. Tielman (Fontys), P. den Brok (ESoE), S. Bolhuis (Fontys) and R. van de Sande (Fontys) This contribution discusses a descriptive study on the experiences of students and teachers in secondary vocational education regarding collaborative learning (CL) in a culturally diverse context. The study bridges two domains of research: research on culturally diverse learning environments - which has mostly concerned primary and general secondary education (e.g. de Haan (2005), Hajer (1996), Radstake (2007) and studies on CL. The present study adds to the existing literature not only by integrating these two domains, but also by its specific focus on Dutch secondary vocational education and by focusing on multiple sources of evidence (both cognitions and actions; both student and teacher perspectives). The study analyzes current practices and perceptions of teachers and students with CL in a culturally diverse, competence-based learning environment. The sample consisted of 27 students (with 12 different cultural backgrounds) and two of their teachers (a mentor and a coach/tutor). Teachers and students were followed while working on a project-based series of lessons. Data collection consisted of two steps. In the first step, small groups of students and their teachers were observed and videotaped (allowing for simultaneous analysis of both verbal and non-verbal behaviors) during collaborative learning tasks. Based on these observations, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 groups of 3 students and the two teachers, focusing on topics of collaboration, communication, participation, coaching and conflicts, all of which derived from CL characteristics mentioned by Johnson & Johnson (1994). In the second step, video-stimulated (recall) interviews were conducted with both teachers. The interviews were based on a-priori defined moments selected by the teachers themselves and/or the researcher. The data was qualitatively analyzed in an interactive process between theory and data using the computer program Atlas-Ti. Codes were partially based on CL characteristics from the literature (Johnson & Johnson, 1994) and partially on focal points emerging from the observations/interviews. To establish reliability of the coding process, parts of the data were coded by a second researcher, leading to an inter-rater reliability (Cohen's kappa) of 0.87, and a percentage of agreement between both researchers of 81.5 on 54 valid fragments. The findings suggest three major themes behind the data: 1) individual accountability of the students; 2) the importance of the teacher/coach role; and 3) the aspect of (absence of) cultural consciousness. The results of the study suggest that on the one hand students are mostly focused on their individual performance and that there is poor collaboration among classmates while working on collaborative learning tasks, while on the other hand teachers seem unaware of their own role in affecting students' behavior and the influence of cultural backgrounds of students in the CL process. Despite the limitations of this study (a small number of participants, one single school and only one sector of secondary vocational education), the results of the study suggests that teachers of culturally diverse classrooms of the secondary vocational education must become more aware of their own roles as adaptive coaches and models and of the influence of multiculturality on CL. The full paper discusses the results and suggestions in detail.
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From the article: "The vast amount of previous research on project management competence does not provide a basis for educational needs. Analyzing previous research poses two challenges: the lack of a uniform list of competences, necessitating a taxonomy, and the use of importance as a criterion, favoring general important competences. Criticality is introduced as the competence a project manager adds to the team. Validation research using criticality and the taxonomy among experienced Dutch project managers is more comprehensive and provides a less focus on general important competences than previous research. Criticality focuses more on the essence of the profession."
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Abstract This research presents a descriptive study regarding collaborative learning in a multicultural classroom at a vocational education school in The Netherlands. The study bridges two domains of research: research on culturally diverse learning environments - which has mostly concerned primary and general secondary education - and studies on collaborative learning. It analyzes current practices and perceptions of both teachers and students applying collaborative learning in a culturally diverse, competence-based learning environment. The results suggest that in a multicultural classroom, students, on the one hand, are mostly focused on their individual performance, resulting in poor collaboration among classmates. On the other hand, teachers seem unaware of their own role in affecting students' behavior and the influence of the cultural backgrounds of students on collaborative learning processes.
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