The Role of Cultural Background and Team Divisions in Developing Social Learning Relations in the Classroom

Autor/inn/en	Rienties, Bart; Nanclares, Núria Hernández; Jindal-Snape, Divya; Alcott, Peter
Titel	The Role of Cultural Background and Team Divisions in Developing Social Learning Relations in the Classroom
Quelle	In: Journal of Studies in International Education, 17 (2013) 4, S.332-353 (22 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1028-3153
DOI	10.1177/1028315312463826
Schlagwörter	Role; Cultural Background; Social Networks; Network Analysis; Economics; Foreign Countries; Management Development; Graduate Students; Teamwork; Stress Variables; Anxiety; Cultural Differences; Foreign Students; Pretests Posttests; Group Dynamics; Student Mobility; International Cooperation; Study Abroad; Educational Policy; Educational Cooperation; International Education; Friendship; Multiple Regression Analysis; Spain; United Kingdom + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Rollen; Social network; Soziales Netzwerk; Netzplantechnik; Volkswirtschaftslehre; Ausland; Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Angst; Kultureller Unterschied; Gruppendynamik; Mobility; Schüler; Schülerin; Mobilität; Internationale Kooperation; Internationale Zusammenarbeit; Studies abroad; Auslandsstudium; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Education; cooperation; Kooperation; Internationale Erziehung; Freundschaft; Spanien; Großbritannien
Abstract	A common assumption is that students prefer to work together with students from similar cultural backgrounds. In a group work context, students from different cultural backgrounds are "forced" to work together. This might lead to stress and anxiety but at the same time may allow students to learn from different perspectives. The prime goal of this article is to understand how international and home students from different cultural backgrounds build learning and work relationships with other students in and outside their classroom using an innovative quantitative method of Social Network Analysis in a pre-post test manner. In Study 1, 50 Spanish and 7 Erasmus economics students worked in self-selected teams. In Study 2, 69 primarily international students in a postgraduate management program in the United Kingdom worked in randomized teams. The results indicate that in Study 1 learning ties after 14 weeks were significantly predicted by the initial team division and friendship ties. The seven international students integrated well. In Study 2, learning ties after 14 weeks were primarily predicted by the team division, followed by initial friendship ties and conational friendships. Although international students developed strong (multinationality) team learning relationships, international students also kept strong links with students with the same cultural background. As the initial team division had an 8 times stronger effect on learning ties than cultural backgrounds, these results indicate that the instructional design of team work has a strong influence on how international and home students work and learn together. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10