Becoming Globally Competent through Student Mobility

Using a rubric to grasp intercultural competence development in vocational education

“…The data-driven dimensions of specificity, profoundness and ethnorelativism that we identified in the rubrics that students filled in could be grounded in leading theories about intercultural competence development (e.g., Popov, Brinkman, and van Oudenhoven 2017;Bennett 1993;Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov 2010). We argue that these dimensions can give teachers a lens for reflecting on students' reported intercultural experiences and in turn help teachers to more explicitly coach students' intercultural competence development within the zone of proximal development (see quote Bennett 2004): teachers can assist in making the learning goals and arguments more specific, facilitate reflection on the deeper levels of the goals and arguments (what are underlying norms and values) and/or start a discussion about ethnocentrism or ethnorelativism.…”

“…Generic answers used expressions like 'I want to understand the other culture' or 'learn more about the culture', versus answers that specified what activities students report to undertake to get a better understanding of the host culture or which aspects of the host culture they are specifically interested in (see Table 5). A recent literature research reveals that the formulation of specific learning goals by students is an important factor contributing to more effective international mobility programmes (Popov, Brinkman, and van Oudenhoven 2017). Therefore, the first dimension is called 'specificity'.…”

“…Given its importance in today's society, workplaces and internship places stress the importance of intercultural working (MacDonald, O'Regan, and Witana 2009), in some countries intercultural competence is incorporated in national qualification profiles (MacDonald, O'Regan, and Witana 2009), and educational institutions have incorporated intercultural competence development as a focal point of their education. At the same time, institutions struggle with the actual implementation due to difficulties concerning 1) explicating educational goals with respect to the ambiguous and multifaceted concept of intercultural competence and 2) developing teaching, learning and assessment activities and pedagogies that foster its development (Popov, Brinkman, and van Oudenhoven 2017;Deardorff 2015).…”

“…This diversity and ambiguity regarding the concept of intercultural competence leaves education with a challenging assignment. A recent literature review (Popov, Brinkman, and van Oudenhoven 2017) shows that education institutions struggle with translating the ambiguous concept into explicit learning objectives. Regarding the second difficulty, teaching, learning and assessment activities explicitly stimulating students' intercultural competence development are lacking as well (Popov, Brinkman, and van Oudenhoven 2017;Cornelius and Stevenson 2018;Vande Berg, Paige, and Hemming Lou 2012).…”

“…A recent literature review (Popov, Brinkman, and van Oudenhoven 2017) shows that education institutions struggle with translating the ambiguous concept into explicit learning objectives. Regarding the second difficulty, teaching, learning and assessment activities explicitly stimulating students' intercultural competence development are lacking as well (Popov, Brinkman, and van Oudenhoven 2017;Cornelius and Stevenson 2018;Vande Berg, Paige, and Hemming Lou 2012). These studies show that merely providing students with international experiences, like international internships or study abroad, is not enough to foster intercultural competence development.…”