Step 4 – Act
This step inte process of internationalising the curriculum is the implementation of all the hard work, and supports us in effecting change. Find out examples of what teachers have achieved here.
Teachers assisted by the project team
The team’s role was minimal in this step, since it was up to individual teachers to put into practice the fruit of their hard work. Nonetheless, during this step, the team assisted the study programmes in:
- Negotiating and implementing new teaching arrangements and support services for staff and students
- Introducing workshops for all students developing intercultural competence
- Introducing new assessment tasks
- Introducing a new professional development course as part of the Unit for Teaching and Learning’s course offerings: “Teaching in the glocal university”
- Developing assessment rubrics for use in different courses across programmes
- Adapting tools required for course and programme evaluation to include the development of language competence, intercultural competence, global engagement and international disciplinary learning for students
- Showcasing good practices found on KI campuses
What did teachers do?
As you have discovered in the previous sections, the integration of internationalisation in the curriculum can take many different shapes and forms; which aspects are prioritized and why might depend among other things on disciplinary context, course level, program priorities and outcomes, and not the least on resources, both in terms of teaching staff and in terms of time.
Inspired by the three pillars of constructive alignment, teachers might choose to focus on Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs), Assessment, Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs) and/or content as they decide on the best strategy for their course and their students.
In the next section, we present a series of examples from the work of Karolinska Institutet’s teachers. We hope these examples might serve to inspire those of you looking to delve into the concrete process of internationalizing your curriculum. Some of the examples might be focused on ILOs, some on TLAs, some on assessment and finally on content.
Examples of best practice (PDF)
What did teachers think?
Helena Brodin, teacher on the Occupational therapy programme
“There is an international digital interaction project under way for the course which lead. A course of 10 weeks clinical placement for term 4 occupational therapy students. One of the goals for the course concerns professionalism and interaction with patients and significant others also reflecting on cultural dimensions. With 2 partner universities in Europe a small pilot with approx. 6 students in this course from KI will meet up digitally whilst on their clinical placements with the other universities' OT students this spring. They will discuss questions in relation to mostly (from the ILO's matrix) intercultural competence but also gain insights into global engagement and interdisciplinary outlooks from different perspectives. The students from the other universities are also doing clinical placements at the same time, so it is expected that the students will discuss what it is to learn in a clinical setting, and see the similarities/differences.”
Aileen Bergström, teacher, Occupational therapy.
“I believe that our participation in the IoC project has made us aware of a number of different things and has almost forced us to start discussing things that we otherwise may have taken for granted. One of those topics has been about concepts that have been used in reports etc., and that may or may not coincide with our understanding from our professional stance. I feel that this has been very important for our group and has been a real eye-opener.”
What did programme directors think?
Eva Broberger, former Programme Director, Nursing programme
”Planer finns att införa ett diagnostiskt prov i engelska inför den kurs i programmet som har engelska som undervisningsspråk. I vissa kursplaner finns lärandemål, speciellt i den kompletterande utbildningen för sjuksköterskor med utländsk examen (KUSSK) med krav på att studenterna ska kunna kommunicera i tal skrift på ett patientsäkert sätt samt använda för hälso- och sjukvården vedertagna begrepp och uttryck. Programmet har även haft ett samarbete med SU och KIBs språkverkstad för att utveckla både sjuksköterske- och KUSSK studenternas skriftliga och muntliga språkförmågor. I samtliga kurser ingår vetenskapliga artiklar som del i studieuppgifter och examinationer vilket bör utmana och utveckla studenternas engelska språkkunskaper samt förmåga till att göra jämförelser mellan svenska och internationella kontext. IPL-dagen som genomfördes på engelska för första gången Ht20 visade att det stora flertalet av våra studenter inte kände sig obekväma med att kommunicera på engelska. Även handledarna från sjuksköterskeprogrammet som deltog kände sig bekväma med att handleda och undervisa på engelska”
Karin Garming-Legert, Programme Director, Dentistry programme
”Vi har en ny utbildningsplan med start HT19. I den har vi lagt till ett lokalt mål för utbildningen på KI: visa kunskap om mångkulturella och globala perspektiv på tandvården. Vi kommer nu på termin 4/VT21 för första gången ge den nya kursen Global oral hälsa, 3 hp som ingår som obligatorisk kurs i programmet. För alla kurser på programmet granskar programrådet den föreslagna kursplanen och säkerställer att ev lärandemål kopplade till internationalisering integreras där det är applicerbart. Vi är nu mer medvetna om vikten av att integrera och synliggöra ILOs relaterade till internationalisering i kurserna. De kan tidigare ha ingått i kurser, men utan att det t.ex. syns i kursplanen. Vi har även fått ett bredare perspektiv på vad internationalisering kan innebära och innefatta, t.ex. att FNs SDGs också handlar om välfärd, lika villkor mm.”
Jonas Sundbäck, Programme director of studies, Bachelor’s programme in Biomedicine.
“It is fantastic that the students are given an introduction to cultural contexts already during their introduction week at KI, and it is very attractive to build on this and to give the students more competence in this matter during their studies. The intercultural competences of the students are also one of the subjects that was pointed out in the survey by the teachers at the workshop that the thought that the students got the least of in the programme”.
Rachel Fisher, Programme director of studies, Master's Programme in Biomedicine
“Participation in the IoC project has been essential in our work to internationalise the new curriculum. It has provided us with a clearer understanding of what internationalisation can entail, and the range of aspects that it could encompass. It has widened our horizons and promoted our thinking across a whole spectrum of approaches. We have developed from an extremely restricted starting point of merely discussing teaching in English to the point where a whole range of aspects are routinely discussed by our teachers, not least with respect to Agenda 2030. The IoC team has supported us (the programme leadership) throughout our work to expand the internationalisation of the new curriculum, both in very practical terms, but also in encouraging us to see the range of opportunities that exist, and how many aspects could be incorporated. It has been a dynamic and a rewarding process.”