presented a paper (virtually) on intercultural teams at the Australian Technology Network (ATN) Assessment Conference on Sustainability, Diversity and Innovation at University of Technology (Sydney, 18-19 November)…

our paper, entitled “Changing practice, changing attitudes: Using an integrated assessment approach to make intercultural teams work”, co-authored with gabriella pretto from the school of business, was presented on day 2 of the program…

the abstract for the paper… “The capacity to work effectively in a team is a key transferable skill. However, research indicates that many students find group work frustrating and unfair, and do not perceive it to be a valuable learning activity. Such perceptions are compounded by the increasing cultural diversity common in classrooms in the contemporary Australian tertiary context. This paper explores how Michaelsen’s team-based learning (TBL) approach was integrated into a postgraduate course with a predominantly international student cohort in order to improve the integration of international students, increase engagement and produce greater team accountability. Given concrete goals and incentives, the culturally diverse teams functioned effectively and immediately, without the need for scaffolding of teamwork. This approach resulted in more robust and focused debate and an increased capacity to address disagreements and coherently merge course theory with class practice. This case study is part of a larger pilot study of TBL in a metropolitan university, and demonstrates how it is possible to harness the potential of culturally rich teams to enhance learning and teaching outcomes and improve the quality and effectiveness of teamwork in today’s diverse Australian tertiary classrooms.”

from all reports, i.e. from gab, the presentation went well and they dug the video from the ‘finding common ground’ learning & teaching project… i am primarily on the dvd (just scroll down, you will find it embedded!) at about 1.40 mins and 13.45 mins…

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