Intercultural group work (IGW) is a promising learning strategy to enable university students to benefit from diversity among their peers. However, cultural diversity does not automatically lead to student engagement in intercultural collaboration. To explore the costs and benefits students attribute to IGW, we conducted focus groups across six universities in the Netherlands. The expectancy-value theory provided a valuable framework to gain novel insights into the nature of these costs and benefits. Identified costs are time, effort, negative psychological states, and compromising at the expense of personal values. Benefits can be categorized as attainment, intrinsic, and utility value. Results suggest that costs and benefits may be viewed as three dimensions, instead of the traditional four components featured by expectancy-value theory.

Group work is a common active learning strategy in higher education when the goal is to enhance deep learning and develop teamwork skills. Culturally diverse learning groups are particularly valuable in preparing university students to participate in a globalized world. Student engagement in group work is critical in realizing these benefits. Therefore, more insight into what factors promote engagement is necessary. This study investigates the extent to which trust in the group, cultural diversity in the group, and group formation contribute to behavioral and cognitive engagement in group work. A questionnaire was filled out by 1025 bachelor's students from six universities in the Netherlands and Canada. Structural equation modeling analyses identified students' trust in the group as the strongest positive predictor of both behavioral and cognitive engagement. Greater perceived cultural diversity was found to promote behavioral and cognitive engagement, but compared with trust, the impacts were relatively small. Whether students could choose their group members did not affect behavioral or cognitive engagement significantly. Contrary to what was expected, trust did not act as a mediator. That is, cultural diversity and group formation did not indirectly affect engagement through trust. These findings prompt some suggestions for how to enhance student engagement in group work.

Intercultural group work (IGW) is a valuable learning strategy to enhance deep learning and prepare university students to participate in a globalized world, so more insight is needed into what motivates students to engage actively in IGW. Using an expectancy–value theory framework, this study investigates the extent to which the different components of this theory (i.e., self-efficacy, perceived benefit, and perceived cost) relate to each other and contribute to student engagement in IGW. Responses to a questionnaire, gathered from 846 bachelor’s students from six universities in the Netherlands and Canada, reveal that strong self-efficacy for IGW, high perceived benefit of IGW, and low perceived cost of IGW correlate. In structural equation modeling analyses, self-efficacy and emotional cost emerge as important predictors of behavioral and cognitive engagement; intercultural benefit is critical for cognitive engagement. As a prerequisite of cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement also mediates the effects of self-efficacy, costs, and benefits. Therefore, developing students’ self-efficacy, increasing perceived benefits of IGW, and decreasing perceived costs of IGW can promote student engagement and deeper learning. Universities thus should prepare students for IGW and provide support and feedback during group work process. Based on the results, we theorize about the relationships among the components of the expectancy–value theory.

To prepare students for an increasingly globalized world, intercultural group work (IGW) holds promise as a pedagogical tool, because it may help them develop intercultural competence and second-language proficiency. These skills also are needed to complete the discipline-specific aspects of group work successfully. This study investigates the extent to which cultural intelligence (CQ), English language proficiency, and personality contribute to students’ cognitive engagement in IGW. A questionnaire was completed by 846 students from six universities in the Netherlands and Canada. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that CQ and the personality trait of openness are the strongest predictors of cognitive engagement. English language proficiency is a relatively weak predictor. The development of CQ thus should be actively promoted to enhance students’ cognitive engagement in IGW.

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