Presentation made to the CBIE conference in Toronto on November 10, 2009, on Internationalizing the Curriculum.

1. A Practical Framework for
Internationalizing the Curriculum
Terry Fuller, Learning and Teaching Centre
Qin Liu, Institutional Planning and Analysis Office
CBIE Conference Toronto November, 2009

2. About BCIT

3. Institutional Context
• One of the largest post
secondary institution in BC
specializing in technology and
trades training
• Grants certificates, diplomas,
and bachelors degrees
• Career oriented and job
focused
• 5 major campus locations

4. Institutional Context
6 Academic Schools
• Business
• Computing and Academic Studies
• Construction and the Environment
• Health Sciences
• Manufacturing, Electronics and Industrial Processes
• Transportation

5. Faculty
• Faculty recruited from
business and industry
• Faculty development
opportunities (ISWs
e.g.)

6. Internationalization of the Curriculum
A Working Definition
A curriculum which provides
international and intercultural
knowledge, skills, and abilities, aimed
at preparing students (both domestic
and international) for performing
(professionally, socially, emotionally) in
an international and multicultural
context. (Nilsson, 2000)

7. Research Questions
• What is the understanding of faculty on
internationalizing the curriculum?
(Teaching Beliefs)
• What have faculty done to incorporate an
international or intercultural dimension to their
teaching? (Teaching Practices)
• What challenges do faculty face in incorporating
an international or intercultural dimension into
their teaching? (Challenges)
• What can be done to support internationalization
of the curriculum efforts of faculty?
(Institutional Support)
• To what extent have students achieved learning
outcomes with an international dimension?
(Learning Outcomes)

8. Conceptual Framework
• Strategies, approaches, learning outcomes
• Knight’s (2003) framework of internationalization
Internationalization at the institutional level:
- internationalization abroad
- internationalization at home

9. Methodology
Quantitative
• Faculty survey
– Sample size: 313; response rate: 17.7%
• Student survey
– Sample size: 328; response rate: 14.9%
Qualitative
• Individual interviews: 50 faculty members and 10
students

10. Summary of the Major Findings
• Tangible impact of student diversity on internationalization
• Greater challenges in internationalizing course content
• Teaching practices vs. beliefs
Add-on approach vs. transformative approach
• Institutional support
Role of the Learning and Teaching Centre
• International and intercultural competencies are to some extent
already being achieved
• Good news and challenges faced by non-university institutions

11. Recommendations – All Levels
• Engage the business community
• Support mobility programs for
both faculty and students
• Support faculty development
initiatives
• Interdisciplinarity across the
curriculum which facilitates those
disciplines like physics and math to
internationalize
• Cross disciplinary team teaching
• Internationally Hip Series

12. Recommendations – Program Level
Link curriculum reviews to
internationalizing the
curriculum – more
transformational than an add-
on or informal approach

13. Curriculum Reviews
Systematic method for
acquiring internal and
external feedback on the
relevancy and organization of
the program

14. Curriculum Reviews – Benefits
• Improved communication among faculty and between faculty and
industry
• Improved vision of the short-term and long-term purpose of a
program
• Improved understanding of the program and of the importance of
each course within it
• Increased opportunities and motivations to work together on related
teaching responsibilities
• Improved understanding of institutional support for integrating new
content, professional development opportunities, and opportunity to
try other teaching and learning strategies
• Opportunity to internationalize the curriculum at the program level
by linking the discipline to international issues or events
• Opportunity to internationalize by incorporating intercultural
competencies in to the learning and teaching practices

15. Curriculum Reviews
• Learning outcomes
• Assessment
• Content
• Learning strategies/activities
• Resources

16. Curriculum Reviews
Encourage instructors to include those learning
outcomes in revised courses which reflect an
internationalized curriculum, such as:

17. Curriculum Reviews
Intercultural Outcomes
Students will learn to:
• Work effectively in a cross cultural team environment
• Resolve conflict in a team environment with multiple perspectives
• Complete projects/assignments in which all perspectives are
considered and consensus reached for inclusion
• Adapt to varying intercultural learning, working and communication
styles (Deardorff, 2008)

18. Curriculum Reviews
International Outcomes
Students will learn to:
• Analyze the impact of a global event on
the BC tourism
• Analyze the impact of a national issue or
event in China to the biotechnology
industry in BC
• Explore critical global environmental
issues
• Explore how patterns of cultural
dominance have influenced the
development of knowledge and practice
with a discipline (Leask, 2008)

19. Recommendations – Course Level
• Use technology (Catt Traks II)
• Promote multicultural and cross
cultural awareness through learning
experiences such as team work,
interviewing students, sharing personal
histories
• Link international issues to the
discipline through case studies,
interviews with experts, guest
speakers.

21. Activity at the Program Level - 20 minutes*
Internationally hip series
An expert comes in to speak on:
• Internet crime and its impact on local business.
Or
• Immigration policy and its impact on human resources, and hiring practices of
local businesses.
Or
• Your city winning the bid for the Olympics (or the Pan American games)
Link the issue to a particular discipline, and generate ideas for assignments,
projects, case studies. Can you think of an exercise/assignment that would be
interdisciplinary?
*This is an initiative that would cross disciplines.

22. Activity at the Course Level
CBIE participants break into teams
Problem : Students are having problems getting their assignment done.
• Student assignment: team is assigned to do a comparative analysis of
waste and recycling programs at post secondary institutions.
• Team has four members: one Russian woman, one Japanese woman, one
woman from mainland China, and one Filipino man – all recent
immigrants to Canada, all within their 20s.

23. Activity at the Course Level
• Source of conflict within the team.
— Russian woman is a bit “egoistic” , assertive, more experienced, more outgoing
and able to obtain face to face interviews by telephone contacts. She is “abrupt”,
openly critical and shows impatience with the other team members. She doesn’t
feel she should help the others because it isn't fair that she would end up doing
all the work.
— The Japanese woman is very shy, inexperienced and when people don't return
phone calls or emails, she doesn't know what to do.
— Chinese woman's English is not good and speaks with a heavy accent. She is
young, inexperienced, quiet and does not understand what she is supposed to do.
She wants everybody to get along.
— The Filipino man is not particularly assertive, speaks fluent English, and
sympathizes with the Japanese and Chinese women: they think the Russian
woman is “rude, abrupt, and contemptuous”.
— The dynamics are the three against the Russian woman.
What strategies would you recommend to the instructor to manage this?

24. Thank you!
www.bcitltc.com www.bcit.ca/files/about/pdf/stratplan.pdf

25. Thank you!
• Terry Fuller
– Instructional Development Consultant
– Learning and Teaching CentreTerry Fuller
– 604-432-8204
– Terry_Fuller@bcit.ca
• Qin Liu
– Research Analyst
– Institutional Planning and Analysis
– 604-451-1159
– Qin_Liu@bcit.ca