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Intercultural
Please insert
competence
the the title title of of
development in higher
your article here
education study abroad
programs: A good practice
example
[Entwicklung
First First name Surname interkultureller
Kompetenz in universi-
Please Please insert insert information information about about
tären
the the author author Auslandsstudienpro-
here here (e.g. (e.g. title, title, posiposigrammen:tion,tion, institution) institution) Ein Good-
Practice-Beispiel]
Alexandra Dehmel
Dr., works at the European Centre
for the Development of Vocational
Training (Cedefop); previously
research assistant at the
Department of Business and Human
Resource Education, University
of Paderborn. Research interests:
vocational education and
training, comparative research,
development of intercultural
competence, adult learning. The
views in this article do not reflect
those of Cedefop.
Yi Li
M.A., research assistant and doctoral
student at the Department
of Business and Human Resource
Education, University of Paderborn.
Research interests: intercultural
education and training, development
of intercultural competence,
internationalization of
higher education.
Peter F. E. Sloane
Prof. Dr., professor at the Department
of Business and Human
Resource Education, University of
Paderborn. Research interests:
self-regulated and collaborative
learning, design-based research,
didactic issues in the vocational
education and training sector,
among others.
Dehmel / Li / Sloane: Intercultural competence development in higher education study abroad
programs: A good practice example
Abstract [English]
International student mobility programs at higher education
level have increasingly been fostered over the past years.
Most of these programs merely send students for a term
abroad, but do not provide comprehensive accompanying
measures before, during and after the stay. There is no doubt
that through a short time of studying in another country, participants
gain intercultural living and learning experience.
However, some crucial questions remain: How effective and
efficient are such programs in promoting intercultural learning
and competence development? How can they be designed
in order to foster the students’ learning processes and
to increase learning outcomes? This article addresses these
questions and provides an example of a comprehensive study
abroad program for graduate students.
The article gives an overview of current research on study
abroad programs and defines the term intercultural competence.
It then presents the „Asian Studies in Business and
Economics (ASBE) program” at the University of Paderborn
(Germany) as a good practice example. The strengths of the
program are: It a) consists of four master-level modules, all
fully integrated into the curriculum of the Master programs;
b) provides continuous and systematic accompanying
measures over a long period of time (preparation, study
abroad and follow-up phases); c) uses an innovative, learnercentered
pedagogical design that combines individual and cooperative
learning and applies – amongst others – experiential
and reflective learning as well as the critical incidents
technique.
Keywords: Intercultural competence, higher education, study
abroad programs, pedagogical design, good practice example
Abstract [Deutsch]
Universitäre Auslandsstudienprogramme wurden in den vergangenen
Jahren verstärkt gefördert. Die meisten dieser Programme
senden ihre Teilnehmer / innen lediglich für eine
gewisse Zeit ins Ausland, bieten aber keine umfassenden Begleitprogramme
vor, während und nach dem Auslandsaufenthalt.
Obwohl kein Zweifel daran besteht, dass Studierende
durch einen solchen Auslandsstudienaufenthalt interkulturelle
Lebens- und Lernerfahrungen sammeln, bleiben dennoch einige
wichtige Fragen offen: Wie effizient und effektiv sind
diese Programme darin, interkulturelles Lernen und die Entwicklung
interkultureller Kompetenz zu fördern? Wie können
sie gestaltet werden, um Lernprozesse optimal zu unterstützen
und Lernergebnisse zu steigern? Der vorliegende Artikel
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