List of participants for the workshops
1. Exchange Students in the university classroom
The presence of exchange students changes teaching and learning processes in the classroom, as it implies more diverse prior knowledge and more diverse learning styles and approaches than are usual in the monocultural, monolingual classroom to which most teaching staff are accustomed. This workshop intends to reflect on how to incorporate this difference into the everyday management of classroom activity in such as way as to facilitate learning for mobile students, enrich the experience for all learners and to promote intercultural learning.
2. Student support on exchange programmes
The complexity of the exchange experience means that mobile students have to deal with a much wider range of problems than most non-mobile students, in a variety of aspects of their lives: academic, social, personal…, thus requiring institutions to offer stronger support mechanisms than are usually needed. This workshop intends to study different kinds of support, how, when and where it can best be made available, and which professionals should be involved in its organization and delivery.
3. Language issues on exchange programmes
One of the most obvious problems arising for mobile students is that of language, and indeed on many occasions it is precisely language difficulties which prevent students from participating in mobility programmes, or from taking full advantage when they do. This workshop will look in depth at how teaching staff can minimise language difficulties for mobile students in the classroom, how students use the different languages they speak and especially lingua francas in their social and academic relations, and how wider issues of language use and power also come into play on mobility programmes.
4. From the multicultural to the transcultural in higher education
European student mobility is a new phenomenon of cultural mobility and interaction which comes to embrace but also to challenge the philosophical, anthropological and sociological foundations of multiculturalism and multicultural education. Student mobility and student growth are two conditions that complicate the Erasmus students’ cultural exchanges and render their experiences transcultural rather than multicultural.
This workshop will examine some of the cultural negotiations that take place in the University classroom, the support given to cultural agents, students and teachers, when they experience such cultural dis-placement and experimentation, and the issue of “teaching with” Erasmus students reiterating and solidifying or troubling and transforming cultures of dogmatic teaching and passive learning.
5. Assessment of learning in multicultural groups
Assessment, in all its forms, constitutes a central element of all teaching and learning processes. But, just as for teaching and learning approaches and styles, ways of assessing are often culture bound; students accustomed to a particular culture of assessment often have difficulty understanding and thus performing well according to the parameters of other traditions, giving rise to negative perceptions of mobile student ability, effort and motivation. This workshop will analyze some of the problems which may arise when assessing mobile students, as well as mixed groups of home and mobile students: plagiarism, language difficulties, expectations, grading criteria and practices.
