Diverse Learning + Students

Rec­og­niz­ing that the con­cept of ‘diver­si­ty’ encom­pass­es all the ways in which humans may dif­fer from each oth­er, this sec­tion focus­es on resources aimed at sup­port­ing inter­na­tion­al stu­dents and / or stu­dents for whom Eng­lish is an Addi­tion­al Lan­guage (EAL). As humans we have com­plex iden­ti­ties that go beyond one or two ‘labels,’ there­fore many of the resources includ­ed in this sec­tion will also be use­ful to con­sid­er for all learn­ers.

Intercultural Classroom in Digital Realm

Teach­ing online syn­chro­nous­ly or asyn­chro­nous­ly or just hav­ing com­po­nents of learn­ing hap­pen­ing dig­i­tal­ly can present some new chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties for teach­ing and learn­ing. This hand­out shares some thoughts and sug­ges­tions for instruc­tors.

  • The Inter­cul­tur­al Class­room in the Dig­i­tal Realm: Sug­ges­tions for Teach­ing: PDF Ver­sion
Dimensions of Culture

Being more aware of cul­ture and cul­tur­al per­spec­tives, norms and expec­ta­tions, teach­ing and learn­ing expe­ri­ences, espe­cial­ly work­ing with stu­dents in group set­tings, can be mis­un­der­stood. Check out this hand­out on how dimen­sions of cul­ture may influ­ence group work with diverse learn­ers.

  • How Dimen­sions of Cul­ture Influ­ence Teach­ing, Learn­ing and Work­ing in Groups: PDF Ver­sion
Designing and Assessing Multicultural work
  • Tips for Design­ing and Assess­ing Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Work: PDF Ver­sion
Students Working ON Group Projects
  • For Stu­dents: 5 Tips for Stu­dents Work­ing Togeth­er on Group Projects: PDF Ver­sion
Engaging With Diverse Learners

This is the first of two video pre­sen­ta­tions on Engag­ing With Diverse Learn­ers. These videos focus on inter­na­tion­al stu­dents and stu­dents for whom Eng­lish is an Addi­tion­al Lan­guage, acknowl­edg­ing that diver­si­ty includes all the ways in which we dif­fer as humans. This first video high­lights some of the chal­lenges some stu­dents may expe­ri­ence in engag­ing in their learn­ing and explores some gen­er­al ways of fos­ter­ing com­mu­ni­ty and engage­ment across dif­fer­ent deliv­ery for­mats.

 This is the sec­ond of two video pre­sen­ta­tions on Engag­ing With Diverse Learn­ers. This sec­ond video explores what we mean by inclu­sive ped­a­gogy and then looks at five prin­ci­ples of engage­ment with spe­cif­ic exam­ples of activ­i­ties that we can use that facil­i­tate a vari­ety of ways to sup­port stu­dents in being active par­tic­i­pants in their learn­ing.

 

When we under­stand how cul­ture may impact approach­es to both teach­ing and learn­ing, this sec­tion includes resources to sup­port under­stand­ing class­room dynam­ics from dif­fer­ent cul­tur­al per­spec­tives and ways of engag­ing learn­ers across diver­si­ty.

NIC INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Record­ed in June 2022, this pan­el con­ver­sa­tion includes four inter­na­tion­al stu­dents from Dubai, India, Iran, and the Unit­ed States, along with Nadine, Glob­al Engage­ment Liai­son in the Office of Glob­al Engage­ment.  Togeth­er we dis­cuss what it’s been like for them, com­ing to live and study in Cana­da. The stu­dents talk about the chal­lenges of arriv­ing dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, dif­fer­ences in their study expe­ri­ences pri­or to com­ing to Cana­da, and what they enjoy at NIC and in Cana­da.

  • Min­utes 9–14 — The dis­cus­sion begins with explor­ing the dif­fer­ences between study­ing at NIC and their pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ences, includ­ing the impact of COVID restric­tions, and their appre­ci­a­tion of the grad­ing sys­tem at NIC
  • Min­utes 14 to 22 — The stu­dents talk about some of their strug­gles in adapt­ing (includ­ing to online learn­ing), the impli­ca­tions of incon­sis­ten­cies in online course pre­sen­ta­tion across cours­es, dif­fer­ences in pro­vi­sion of text­books, and the val­ue of peer tutors.
  • Min­utes 22 — 27 — Oth­er dif­fer­ences dis­cussed include how there is a good inte­gra­tion of the­o­ret­i­cal and applied learn­ing at NIC, how some stu­dents are unused to a ‘non-cohort’ mod­el of learn­ing, and how hard instruc­tors work to sup­port stu­dents based on their indi­vid­ual needs
  • Min­utes 28 — 35 — The stu­dents chat­ted about some of the dif­fer­ences in class­room dynam­ics, includ­ing why some stu­dents don’t ask ques­tions and may par­tic­i­pate dif­fer­ent­ly to how instruc­tors some­times expect
    In the final few min­utes, the dis­cus­sion turns to exter­nal stres­sors that impact some stu­dents’ abil­i­ty to focus on their stud­ies, includ­ing dif­fer­ences in cli­mate, immi­gra­tion con­cerns, and the stress of not being able to eas­i­ly access health­care.
Meet our international Students

In order to gain more of an idea of who our stu­dents are, in Fall 2022 we sur­veyed incom­ing stu­dents about:

    • their beliefs / expe­ri­ences about how they learn best
    • what they hope to do after grad­u­at­ing from NIC

Our sur­vey had a 27% response rate, which is low­er than last year’s 38%. You can find the results of this sur­vey in this PDF doc­u­ment: Meet Our New Inter­na­tion­al Stu­dents Fall 2022

It’s also use­ful to know: Where-are-our-Inter­na­tion­al-Stu­dents-Fall-2022 This info­graph­ic also pro­vides some sug­ges­tions for teach­ing strate­gies to sup­port diverse stu­dents.

 

Eight Tips for Supporting International Students

Whether it’s your first time wel­com­ing new inter­na­tion­al stu­dents into your class or you’re look­ing for some­thing new to try, here are eight quick and easy tips for sup­port­ing new inter­na­tion­al stu­dents as they begin their stud­ies here at NIC. Link to: NIC Eight Tips for Sup­port­ing Inter­na­tion­al Stu­dents

If you’d like to chat about ideas spe­cif­ic to your class, please email Mar­garet at Margaret.Hearnden@nic.bc.ca