The Practice
In order to have accreditation from the British Psychology Society (a requirement to continue studying psychology and/or practice) a course must include group work (it is also a valuable transferable skill which employers value). Currently a large proportion of UOB’s psychology curriculum involves group work; Y1 and Y2 laboratory classes (N=250/year), Y3 dissertations (N=250) and tutorials all require group work. Generally it seems this is the best approach for the majority of students which tend to have English as the first language and are attending HE in a familiar cultural environment to the one which they grew up in. International students may have cultural differences that make them appear to engage/contribute less to group work (Davies, 2009; Hsieh, 2007; Volet & Ang, 1998 ) and may have difficulty understanding colloquial language (Robertson et al., 2010). With the projected increase in international students intake, coupled with the requirement of group work in Psychology for BPS accreditation, which contributes to a significant part of a students degree, it is imperative we investigate both international and home students experiences to ensure with the projected increase of intake of international students we are offering the same excellence in teaching and learning and wellbeing to international students as we are home students.
Findings
The data analysis yielded eighty-five codes which were categorised according to four superordinate themes: (a) barriers to international student participation in group work, (b) increasing international student engagement in group work, (c) cultural and language factors affecting international student experiences at university and (d) increasing international student well-being at university. See Figures A-D for a visual representation of the codes and themes.
Figure A:
Figure B:
Figure C:
Figure D:
- It is interesting to note that many of the issues are not unique to international students
- The international students wanted a ‘cultural similarities’ ice breaker similar to what they did in the foundations course.
- The benefits that International students found in group work benefit all students
- Are our students siloed in that they think issues are specific to them but actually are applicable.
The Impact
We have learnt more about how the international students perceive labs and what they would like to be implemented. It was also really interesting to learn that most of the perceived issues or worries from international students are exactly the same as home students.
Next Steps
We have included a ‘cultural similarities’ intervention in the lab classes this year. We will be empirically testing the benefits of this (comparing this to a more general ice breaker activity) to see if this improves students attitudes towards group work, if it creates better bonds to the group and improves attitudes towards research methods.
