Abstract:

Changes in the international level such as globalization make the development of international and intercultural competences necessary in order to allow students not only to learn content in a foreign language during their education but also, to be able to work in international environments. With the aim of encouraging the development of these competences, an Internationalization at Home (IaH) project was developed in the degrees of Computer Engineering, and Design and Development of Video Games at Universidad San Jorge.

This IaH project involved 14 third year Spanish students, two ERASMUS students from Switzerland and 9 international students from Lillebaelt Professional Academy, Denmark. The academic program was designed from two subjects taught in English: Software Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction. The program included 28 hours of classroom activities and 12 hours of autonomous work in groups, in which they related and integrated contents of both subjects. In addition, a social program was designed as a complement to include visits to local companies and social activities (e.g., a board game tournament). During the program, students worked in groups that were made up of local students and visitors in order to develop and present a work.

The main objective of the academic program was to promote and enhance the communication and group coordination skills of the students in an intercultural and diverse group, using English as a vehicle language of instruction and learning.

Researchers focused on one of the most important elements of IaH, that is an internationalized curriculum, and developed an intervention in intercultural learning using among other tools the following ones: Learning Style Survey from Maximizing Study Abroad, which helps students to deepen their understanding comparing eleven different learning styles; A questionnaire about Culture Learning strategies, which makes students reflect about how important it is to develop international and intercultural competences, and helps them to discover different strategies to make it possible; Course evaluations, specifically designed for this intervention; and students’ academic results. All these tools were used in order to enhance students’ intercultural competences.

Through the learning intervention and the planning of the project, we accomplished that students reflected about their learning styles, which is indeed one of the most important aspects when developing intercultural competence: reflection, learning how to learn and the intercultural experience.

The main outcomes showed that students were able to communicate and cooperate effectively in order to prepare and present the group assignment. Academic results were very good, and students were generally satisfied with the program. The participants’ results in the questionnaires have allowed the researchers to analyse the preferences or abilities of the students in order to adapt the learning activities with their specific characteristics. And all this information has helped researchers to analyse the sequencing of the project activities and to propose improvements for an IaH project like this to promote the development of the students’ intercultural competences.

Keywords:

Internationalization, Exchange Programmes, Multicultural Education.