Culturally responsive online design: learning at intercultural intersections

Abstract

This article presents evidence-based guidelines to inform culturally responsive online learning design in higher education. Intercultural understanding is now a recognised core learning outcome in a large majority of Canadian public universities; however, supporting design methodology is underdeveloped, especially in online contexts. Our search for valid intercultural learning design criteria began with two questions: What is the research evidence for learning design practices that support intercultural learning? In what ways do current course design rubrics address intercultural learning? For answers, first we explored recent literature reviews, articles, books, professional discourse on cultural aspects of learning, and the related internationalisation and Indigenous literatures on formal learning. Next, we examined three course design rubrics commonly used in Canada to identify practice supports and gaps in relation to the literature. Various research-indicated supports are present in these rubrics; however, major gaps include critical and holistic pedagogies, explicit intercultural learning outcomes, and intentional diversity group work. The proposed guidelines synthesise key research-indicated supports for intercultural learning and show how they can be integrated in core online course design components. The guidelines present a base for online design methodology to support intercultural learning and enable formative evaluation of pedagogy, learning activity and assessment applications.     

A study of the learning styles of undergraduate social work students

This study examines the learning styles of students in social work classes at Norfolk State University. Knowledge of learning styles can enhance the ability of faculty to build on student experiences and construct new learning opportunities. Kolb's Learning Style Inventory was administered to identify each student's dominate learning style. The theoretical underpinning is experiential learning, which supports the concept that learning styles are developed through experiences. The results indicated that diverging and accommodating learning styles occurred most often. Students with these styles learn best in classes where activities include lectures, role playing exercises, discussions, opportunities to practice skills, and reflection.     

Können Organisationen nicht lernen? Facetten organisationaler Lernkulturen

Recently, the concept of ‘learning culture’ has entered the discussion on learning organizations and organizational learning, especially in the German speaking countries. Most of the academics, but also practitioners seem to use the term ‘learning culture’ in a particular sense as nurturing a self-directed, on-the-job learning of all employees. An implicit, often neglected assumption of this conception is that organizations can be divided into those who have a learning culture and those who do not. Although this idea of a dichotomy is also found in the discussion on learning organizations, it can be called into question. Past research has shown that (organizational) learning is a multifaceted phenomenon. Different organizations engage in very diverse kinds of learning due to the fact that they are facing varying environmental conditions. This brings us to doubt the idea of a ?one-best-way“ learning culture. Following the basic question, who learns what, how, when and why, the article presents a set of distinguishing attributes to distinguish between different types of learning cultures. Finally, yet unanswered questions and paths for future research are discussed.     

Is interpersonal trust a necessary condition for organisational learning?

Abstract

The organisational behaviour and management literature has devoted a lot attention on various factors affecting organisational learning. While there has been much work done to examine trust in promoting organisational learning, there is a lack of consensus on the specific type of trust involved. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of interpersonal trust in promoting organisational learning and propose a research agenda to test the extent of interpersonal trust on organisational learning. This paper contributes to the existing organisational learning literature by specifying a specific form of trust, interpersonal trust, which promotes organisational learning and proposing a future research direction. The paper is organised as follows: firstly, a common conceptualisation of organisational learning is revisited. Secondly, the existing literature on trust reviewed and salient points on how interpersonal trust enhances organisational learning discussed. Finally, a research agenda to test the extent of interpersonal trust on organisational learning is being set out.     

A Teaching Framework for Transformative Multicultural Social Work Education

Abstract

A major challenge in multicultural social work education is fostering meaningful learning experiences for students by matching educational methods and content to students' individual learning needs and characteristics. Building upon transformative learning theory developed by Jack Mezirow, this paper proposes a teaching framework for transformative multicultural social work education that addresses students' individual learning needs and characteristics. This framework uses the dimensions of cultural knowledge and cultural sensitivity to represent four potential stances of cross-cultural learning in students. The paper provides a detail discussion regarding the learning needs and learning foci of students at each stance, and useful teaching strategies and activities that enhance students' transformative learning process so that they develop integrative knowledge about self and others in a dynamic multicultural society from multiple perspectives.     

Organizations and Learning: A Critical Appraisal

Discussions about organizations and learning continue to attract critical interest. Since the emergence in the 1970s of the notion of the “learning organization,” notions of systems’ learning, knowledge management and lifelong learning have progressively entered into the debates. Earlier debates, which drew on education and psychology fields as well as organization and management studies, frequently explored plural objectives for learning occurring within organizational and workplace arenas. They included emphasis on workers’ as well as managerial interests in various forms and objectives of learning. Latter debates on organizational learning appear predominantly shaped by a distinctive economic rationality and management interest. This article, from a sociological vantage point, reviews key thematic issues and critically explores some current questions in regard to organizations and learning. It proposes that a prevailing economic model in accordance with generalized policy objectives evident across the advanced economies for a neo‐liberalized “knowledge‐based economy” and “learning society” poses a particular set of contemporary issues and problems. The current juncture may, however, stimulate further innovation in models of learning organizations that widen agenda and prospects for learning.     

Organization Learning Disorders: Conceptual Model and Intervention Hypotheses

This paper presents a conceptual model thatproposes how organization learning disorders influenceorganization performance. The model suggests thatorganization knowledge mediates the relationship between learning disorders and performance. Specificorganization learning disorders are identified for eachof the four phases of organization learning: discovery,invention, production, and generalization. The effect of learning disorders on organizationknowledge is explored, and intervention hypotheses fortreating the disorders are presented.     

Efficient and effective learning for safety from incidents

Learning from incidents is important for improving safety. Many companies spend a great deal of time and money on such learning procedures. The objectives of this paper are to present some early results from a project aimed at revealing weaknesses in the procedures for learning from incidents and to discuss improvements in these procedures, especially in chemical process industries. The empirical base comes from a project assessing organizational learning and the effectiveness of the different steps of the learning cycle for safety and studying relations between safety-specific transformational leadership, safety climate, trust, safety-related behavior and learning from incidents. The results point at common weaknesses in the organizational learning, both in the horizontal learning (geographical spread) and in vertical learning (double-loop learning). Furthermore, the effectiveness in the different steps of the learning cycle is low due to insufficient information in incident reports, very shallow analyses of reports, decisions that focus at solving the problem only at the place where the incident took place, late implementations and weak solutions. Strong correlations with learning from incidents were found for all safety climate variables as well as for safety-related behaviors and trust. The relationships were very strong for trust, safety knowledge, safety participation and safety compliance.     

Practice Learning and the Development of Professional Practice

The development of professional practice is based on practice learning, yet there is no consensus about its definition. The currently evolving use of the term ‘practice learning’ provides us with an opportunity to consider the nature of learning for professional practice at initial entry through to post qualifying stages of development. A number of streams of thought are influencing the understanding of practice learning and we aim to consider some of these and how they inform those involved in supporting and guiding practice learners at different stages of their professional development.

In presenting our conceptualisation of practice learning we argue against oversimplified dualities of classroom‐based academic learning concerned with theory and workplace‐based practice learning concerned with practice. Additionally we make explicit the career‐long nature of practice learning which is as embedded in continuing professional development as it is in the requirements for qualifying programmes.

Having established what we mean by ‘practice learning’ we consider the impact of organisational learning theory on the management of practice learning. The consideration of the characteristics of organisations which learn leads to a brief examination of approaches to teaching and learning which promote knowledge creation in a way which is meaningful to practitioners. We will argue that the development of understandings of organisational learning and knowledge creation should become part of the knowledge base for those supporting and guiding practice learners, in addition to the traditional knowledge base of adult learning theory.

Before exploring the nature of practice learning it would be helpful to consider briefly what we mean by professional practice for which practice learning is preparing people.

Professional practice in social work is a complex set of activities which involve direct work with service users, and their families, as well as work with other professionals and agencies. A range of knowledge and skills are used with a firm value base which recognises diversity and oppression as key elements in UK society.

Such professional practice is learned and developed in a range of ways over time through training, practice, understanding, analysis and reflection. However, the nature of just what practice learning is and where it occurs has become a focus of debate in the UK as a result of recent developments in initial professional education and training for social work.     

Towards interprofessionality in developing family mediation in Finland

Collaboration crossing professional and organizational boundaries is promoted, but also considered difficult and uncalled for. The aim of this study is to advance the comprehension of inter-professional collaboration on boundaries as a resource for learning and change. I examine and trace the initial shapes of interprofessionality and learning in two separate learning networks of a project researching, developing and learning family mediation in Finland. The naturally occurring data consists of transcribed audio-taped talk between practitioners (e.g. social workers, family counsellors, psychologists and judges) at the beginning of their collaborative work. The qualitative analysis detected communicative patterns, disruptions and dialogical learning mechanisms. The results interpreted through Cultural-Historical Activity Theory show that although the two quite similarly composed learning networks were given the same tasks, they differed on emerging learning mechanisms and unfolding dialogues. If collaboration is intended to be inter-professional and lead to change, there is a need to actively create shared tools, such as models, that enable transformative dialogue. For social work education inter-professional collaboration poses a challenge: how can education concurrently promote both learning the boundaries of social work and learning how to inter-professionally cross them?     

Maximizing Student Learning: A Case Example of Applying Teaching and Learning Theory in Social Work Education

Social work is a practising profession and when students undergo a social work undergraduate course they are expected to learn and apply the knowledge, skills and values necessary for their future social work career. As an educator, the challenge exists in determining whether students have learnt the material and are prepared to implement the knowledge, skills and values into practice. Current theories on teaching and learning are useful tools to educators who want to ensure that course units are maximizing students' learning potential. This paper focuses on the application of three established teaching and learning theories implemented in a social work module. The paper begins with an overview of Biggs' theory of Constructive Alignment, Biggs' four levels of understanding/Bloom's Taxonomy, and Race's five factors that underpin successful learning. The paper describes the integration of the theories to a social work undergraduate module through the following four-step process: (1) revisit learning outcomes; (2) determine teaching methods and learning activities; (3) design assessment; and (4) receive feedback/evaluate. The students' learning experiences were positively reflected through their personal learning outcomes, formative feedback and summative feedback, which demonstrated the ability to maximize student learning through the incorporation of teaching and learning theory.     

Service Learning in a Small Groups Course

This paper describes a service learning program used in a Sociology of Small Groups course. Service learning programs attempt to apply knowledge learned in the classroom in a setting of community service. This paper advocates the use of service learning as a tool for applying social knowledge even in courses that are not traditionally linked with service learning. The usefulness of a service learning program in a group processes course is identified. Details on the content of the program, the methods of evaluation and the relevance to the course material are provided. Numerous examples of how service learning can lead to classroom enhancement activities are described.     

基于课程设计的自主学习能力培养的探讨——以“网络营销课程设计”为例

自主学习能力是终身学习能力的核心,培养学生自主学习能力是高校人才培养的一个重要内容。网络营销课程设计是以学生自主学习完成为主,以提高学生理论和实践应用能力为目标的课程。在结合课程特点的基础上,探索了课程的核心内容设计、课程教学过程中学生自主学习能力培养的保障措施设计以及自主学习培养过程的控制环节设计三方面内容,目的是提高课程设计的质量,实现培养学生自主学习能力的目标。     

基于学习的班集体建设的思考

介绍大学生班集体建设的现状,提出加强学生的自主学习和班级成员的相互学习,在任课教师和班主任的表率引领下,提高全体学生的学习热情,创建学习型班集体的一些措施。     

Predictors of cyber-victimization of higher-education students with and without learning disabilities

Higher-education institutes today face an uphill battle in trying to restrain online misbehavior. This study examined the cyber-victimization experience of 1,052 higher education students with and without learning disabilities. All participants completed five online questionnaires regarding cyber-victimization, social support, self-perception, well-being, and body perception. Results revealed that compare to students without learning disabilities a higher proportion of students with learning disabilities reported cyber-victimization. Positive associations were found between students with learning disabilities and cyber-victimization, and negative correlations between students with learning disabilities, self-perception and well-being. Regression analysis indicated that for students with learning disabilities, predictors of cyber-victimization were low social support, low self-perception, and being female, whereas for students without learning disabilities, the predictors were low social support, low well-being, and low body perception.     

Learning as othering: narratives of learning,construction of difference and the discourse of immersion in study abroad

This article shows ethnographically the process of learning as othering in study abroad: acknowledgement of ‘learning’ through immersion – without clear structure or markers of learning – constructs cultural difference of the host society. It is because acknowledgement of learning something is necessarily the acknowledgement of the prior ignorance about it due to difference. Study abroad thus privileges particular types of difference in the name of learning them, under-appreciating domestic minorities’ cultural differences.     

„Drop your tools!“

This essay unfolds its subject matter ‘resistance’ in a pointed way on various levels referring to learning as a personal, social and organisational process. On the one hand the significance of resistance for learning is analysed: resistance here has an irritating effect within the system and allows the learning process to be understood as oscillating between adaptation and rejection. On the other hand this essay probes into the development of dynamic forms of resistance against learning occasionally triggerd off by the process of learning itself.     

Factors behind Organizational Learning from Benchmarking: Experiences from Norwegian Municipal Benchmarking Networks

Benchmarking rests on the assumption that it supports organizationallearning and innovation, but the empirical knowledge that underpinsthis perceived means-end relationship is limited. This articledraws on existing research to develop a framework for analyzingorganizational learning outcomes from municipal benchmarking.The framework incorporates explanatory factors at differentlevels (network and municipality), and with different time perspectives(past and present). Empirical results from a nationwide Norwegianbenchmarking project indicate that municipalities do obtainorganizational learning from benchmarking but that care mustbe taken when organizational learning is conceptualized andassessed. Learning should incorporate aiding agenda settingand decision making, as well as changes. Factors such as networkand administrative characteristics and management and politicalparticipation are found to influence learning outcomes. Thereare also indications that learning from benchmarking is subjectto politics. Notably, nonsocialist political regimes are lessreceptive to organizational learning than other regimes andpolitical competition enhances organizational learning frombenchmarking.     

Intercultural competencies: what students in study and placement mobility should be learning

When promoting intercultural learning in the context of study and placement mobility, intercultural educators are specifying what students should be learning. Research not only confirms the genuine impact of real-life intercultural contact on intercultural learning, but also shows how this impact can be enhanced through institutional support and the integration of intercultural learning into the curriculum. In this position paper, we propose a number of considerations that need to be taken into account in setting learning objectives for mobile students. Referring to research and policy documents mostly in relation to the European mobility context, we address consecutively what students are learning in study and placement mobility; what they say they want to learn; what they should learn for; and finally, what they should be learning. We conclude that intercultural educators should pay heed to what students are actually learning in study and placement mobility over a time span that transcends the current sojourn abroad. We also recommend that educators take steps to support students in mobilising the intercultural skills they acquired abroad for increased employability.     

An Outcome Evaluation of a Problem-Based Learning Approach With MSW Students

In this article, we report the findings from a study exploring the effects of a problem-based learning (PBL) approach to teaching and learning on learning outcomes for master’s of social work (MSW) students. Students who participated in a PBL pilot project were compared with students who did not participate in 5 outcome areas: social work knowledge, values, and skills; confidence in practice skills; confidence in learning skills; motivation to engage in deep learning and use deep-learning strategies; and satisfaction with their MSW education. PBL and non-PBL approaches were equally effective in helping students learn social work skills, knowledge, and values and in developing learning skills; the non-PBL group reported a significant shift to a more situational approach to their learning.