Events
Join-the-Conversation
Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IoC): How Can We Integrate Global and Local Dimensions?
Date: 30 May 2018 (Wednesday)
Time: 12:15pm – 1:45pm
Venue: ACC209, 2/F Jockey Club Academic Community Centre, Baptist University Road Campus, HKBU
Speaker:
Dr. L. H. Li (Associate Professor, Department of Real Estate and Construction, HKU)
Prof. Julian Groves (Associate Professor of Social Science Education, HKUST)
Facilitator:
Dr. Beatrice Chu (Head, Professional Development Team, Center for Education Innovation, HKUST)
Dr. Lisa Law (Senior Teaching and Learning Officer, Centre for Holistic Teaching and Learning, HKBU)
Organiser: Centre for Holistic Teaching and Learning, HKBU
Co-organisers: Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, HKU & Center for Education Innovation, HKUST
Abstract
Internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC), in its broad definition, encompasses not only the design of content materials, pedagogy and assessment that foster understanding of global perspectives, but also notions of how these elements interact with the local context. Taking a point of departure at the intriguing connection between the concepts of “global” and “local” in IoC, this workshop investigates how global-local interactions are actualised in teaching and learning; why they are crucial to developing graduates as responsible professionals and citizens in our interconnected world.
Our speakers from HKBU, HKU, and HKUST will share their different approaches to connecting the “local” with the “global” in their classroom teaching. You will hear how various approaches were selected or tailored to achieve specific education purposes and/or learning outcomes across multiple disciplines. Upon reflecting on the effectiveness and limitation of the different attempts together with our speakers, you would be able to shape your own approach(es) to cultivating students’ global-local awareness through the design of courses, teaching and learning activities, and assessment methods.
The Join-the-Conversation event will begin with a brief introduction of the UGC-funded cross-institutional project on internationalising teaching and learning and the latest development of its related community of practice, followed by a panel discussion led by teachers from the three partner institutions.
Mark your calendar. For details and registration, please navigate to http://chtl.hkbu.edu.hk/main/workshop/tales-2017-18-2nd/#w13.
The third Join-the-Conversation event led by the Community of Practice – Internationalisation of Teaching and Learning (CoP – ITL hereafter) was held on 30 May 2018 at HKBU. Co-organised by the teaching and learning development arms of HKBU, HKU, and HKUST, the event brought together three speakers and more than forty participants to a fruitful discussion on the approaches to the facilitation of global-local interactions in curriculum design.
The event commenced with Dr. Lisa Law’s warm welcome to all participants and a brief introduction of CoP – ITL. Dr. Tracy Zou moved on to share with us details of the aims, approaches, focal areas, and the latest development of CoP – ITL. This was followed by presentations of the three speakers who exemplified how global-local interactions could be enhanced in disciplinary or interdisciplinary courses.
Our first speaker, Prof. Kara Chan, explicated how she captalised on students’ cultural and disciplinary diversity to internationlise her popular General Education course “Children as Consumers”. Prof. Chan incorporated learning materials from her book, Youth and Consumption which comprises global and local content at a ratio of 4:6, into her class. The literature review generated from a global context was delivered to students as theory inputs while the Hong Kong-based findings and analysis of case examples consolidated discussions. Apart from the diverse teaching materials, students were asked to introduce their favourite childhood media to their peers and discussed how much they knew about the famous cartoon figures worldwide. In terms of assignments, students were asked to form mixed groups to conduct research on the parental socialisation of money management in which face-to-face interviews with Hong Kong parents were required. The non-local students were thus given a chance to have a deep conversation with local parents whereas the local students could collaborate with peers of diverse backgrounds in qualitative data analysis.
Our second speaker, Dr. Li, presented his Teaching Development Grant project about creating a collaborative learning environment that enhances the interdisciplinary learning of students from Hong Kong and Mainland China. Students of the HKU Real Estate programme, which comprises mainly Hong Kong locals, were presented with a scenario on developing a settlement. Law students including a number of international students from HKU were brought to act as legal counsellors for the Real Estate students. The interactions between the students of the two programmes were carried out via an online discussion platform, RealtimeBoard, under teacher supervision from both faculties. Although the interactions looked messy and incomprehensible at the beginning, students gradually organised their ideas into themed conversations by implementing basic structural management over the discussion platform collaboratively. Construction Management students from a Guangzhou university were invited to join the online discussion at the second phase of the project. A borderless communication between students from the three programmes across two universities was further exemplified in the Chinese New Year when students scattered all over China.
Our last speaker, Prof. Groves, talked us through the rationale behind internationalising his Sociology course at HKUST. As Sociology is a European/American discipline by tradition, it is important for Sociology students in Hong Kong to understand how the disciplinary concepts fit in the Hong Kong society. Prof. Groves shared a variety of strategies he employed in the “Hong Kong Society” class. Community outreach and exposure were keys to enhance their local awareness. Students were sent to interview shop owners and residents in old public housing estates. They were brought to translate the words of old Cantonese pop songs and TV dramas in the mixed classroom. To increase their global awareness, students were asked to share the origin of their names. Prof. Grove was generous with sharing how a global story was embedded in that of his own. To introduce a comparative perspective on gender teaching, students were asked to complete a short questionnaire by filling in the terms for sexually (in)active males and females in their mother tongues and explain to the class.
The event ended with a lively discussion about the major challenges they encountered while helping students make sense of the local-global connection. Detailed questions and responses will be shared in the coming CoP – ITL Buzz No.3. Stay tuned with us.