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International Student Learning Outcomes

Dr. John Haas -
Founder and Director

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STATEMENTS OF INTERNATIONAL LEARNING OUTCOMES


California State University Stanislaus    top
http://www.csu.edu/

Draft Learning Outcomes

  • Multiple Perspectives
  • Interdependence
  • Equity/Living Responsibly with Others
  • Sustainability
  • Language

Global education across the disciplines seeks to equip students with knowledge of the diverse peoples, governments, histories, and natural systems that comprise the world and the forces that continue to shape them. It produces graduates who respect the many groups that make up a global society and who have skills and perspectives to meet the challenges of an interdependent world. As students learn to see the global in the local,  global education allows students to understand how their own behavior affects and is affected by larger world patterns.
 

Multiple Perspectives

Learning outcome: Each student will demonstrate the ability to perceive any given event from more than one cultural viewpoint.

Sample learning activity: Students work in small, diverse groups to assess a current or historical issue from the different points of view represented in the group, and seek to understand the reasons behind the differing perspectives.

Interdependence

Learning outcome: Each student will show how a given enterprise or living being affects and is affected by [depends upon and also influences] the larger natural, economic, or social systems of which it is a part.

Example: Welfare rolls in the Central Valley increased after the Asian financial crisis. This was a result of the reduced purchasing power of Asian currencies, which led people in Thailand, Japan, and elsewhere to reduce their purchase of imported foodstuffs, including nuts and other agricultural products from the Central Valley.

Equity/Living Responsibly with Others

Learning outcome: Each student will show how the behavior of individuals, groups, and nations affects others, in terms of human rights and economic well-being.

Example: Students will give examples of national policies that may have had unintended negative effects on other nations. Or: Students will identify their own behaviors that may unintentionally compromise the human rights or the dignity of others.


Sustainability

Learning outcome: Each student will demonstrate ways of handling environmental resources that will help or hurt future generations  ability to meet their own needs.

Examples: Students will explain the long-term economic and environmental impact of continuing to develop Central Valley farmland for urban uses. Or: Students will explain the short-term and long-term issues involved in harvesting the massive forests of Russia or the Amazon region for lumber to export.


Language

Learning outcome: Students will demonstrate that they can satisfy basic social needs in a language other than English.

Means of demonstration: Students can demonstrate this learning through successful formal language study, high-intensity language training (HILT), testing, or other means to be determined.


Cleveland State University    top
http://www.csuohio.edu/

Draft Learning Outcomes

Upon graduation, students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate critical thinking abilities and skills in geography, other cultures, international relations, and global issues.
  • Demonstrate open-minded attitudes and an absence of ethnocentrism (including an awareness of racial, ethnic, and international issues).
  • Understand the importance of cultural diversity in a global community.
  • Demonstrate willingness to learn and practice critical thinking skills that will develop the competencies required to live in a global community. 

College of Notre Dame of Maryland    top
http://www.ndm.edu

Draft Learning Outcomes

Students will:

  • Experience a culture other than their own.
  • Acquire communicative competence in a second language.
  • Be able to identify and discuss international and cultural issues from multiple perspectives.
  • Understand and respect the values, practices, and products of other cultures.
  • Be able to appreciate and evaluate other cultures.
  • Actively and ethically engage with people of cultures other than their own.
  • Creatively apply multicultural skills to a dynamic, changing work environment.

Kennesaw State University    top
http://www.kennesaw.edu

Learning Outcomes

  • International Education
  • Global Perspectives [Knowledge]
  • Intercultural Communication/Cross-cultural Adjustment [Skills]
  • Social Justice and Sustainable Development [Values]

International Education

International education involves a transformation of social consciousness beyond national consciousness. It prepares students to become responsible global citizens. It helps clarify values that seem to be in contradiction by developing an understanding for and appreciation of different cultural perspectives. It seeks to find a common ground. It is learning to create cultural bridges. It requires that students understand culture as the context in which people solve their problems, not as the cause of their problems. Conflict arises when different groups fail to understand their problems as interrelated. International education emphasizes the development of multicultural communities centered on creating respect for differences as well as addressing common problems affecting humanity. Through an interdisciplinary and experiential approach to international education, KSU creates opportunities for students to immerse themselves in systems of meaning different from their own. The more we know about other countries and cultures, the better we will understand our own.

The following list of global (general) learning outcomes is meant as a starting point for conversations about developing specific learning outcomes, primarily for courses in the general education curriculum but also within degree programs. The categories provide a general framework and may overlap considerably.

Global Perspectives [Knowledge]

  • Through the general education curriculum, students will demonstrate knowledge of world history, literature, regional geography, and economics.
  • Students will demonstrate the ability to systematically acquire information from a variety of sources regarding diverse regions, countries, and cultures.
  • Students will acquire knowledge and methods needed for critical assessment of global events, processes, trends, and issues.
  • Students will demonstrate an understanding of the interconnectedness of political, economic, and environmental systems.
  • Students will develop an understanding of the role of culture in identity formation, social relationships, and the construction of knowledge systems.
  • Students will demonstrate the ability to perceive any given event from more than one cultural viewpoint.
  • Students will analyze the effects of globalization on local culture(s). 

Intercultural Communication/Cross-cultural Adjustment [Skills]

  • Students will recognize individual and cultural differences and demonstrate an ability to communicate and interact effectively across cultures.
  • Students will perform in a culturally appropriate and professional manner in international, cross-cultural, and/or multicultural contexts.
  • B.A. degree seeking students will demonstrate at least an intermediate ability to speak, read, and write one or more foreign languages.
  • Students will demonstrate awareness of their own values as well as of their biases and how these influence interaction/relationships with others.
  • Students will be able to read the signals of an unfamiliar situation, interpret its elements, and adjust to them.
  • Students will demonstrate flexibility, openness, empathy, and tolerance for ambiguity.
  • Students will demonstrate respect for diversity.
  • Students will demonstrate an ability to successfully use computer technology, including e-mail and the Internet, for both local and global communication needs. 

Social Justice and Sustainable Development [Values]

  • Students will recognize the importance of diversity in globalization.
  • Students will show how the behavior of individuals, groups, and nations affects others, in terms of human rights and economic well-being.
  • Student will demonstrate ways of handling environmental resources that will protect future generations  ability to meet their own needs.
  • Students will connect root causes of basic global problems (e.g., population growth, poverty, disease, hunger, war, and ethnic strife) to issues of land use and access to natural resources (e.g., clean air and water, biodiversity, nutritious food sources, minerals, and energy).
  • Students will demonstrate an understanding of the need to protect human rights in areas such as access to education, health care, and employment.
  • Students will recognize the interconnected nature and importance of issues such as arms control, maintaining peace, enhancing security, alleviating poverty, and managing resources cooperatively, responsibly, and equitably. 

Montgomery College    top
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/

Draft Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of general education requirements, students will:

  • Appreciate the value of learning languages.
  • Demonstrate an awareness of world geography, economics, politics, religion, philosophy, history, literature, the arts, and other aspects of culture.
  • Understand how policy decisions made by one government affect other nations.
  • Understand the interconnectedness of modern world politics and economics.
  • Exhibit an awareness of the interrelatedness of global society.
  • Develop critical thinking skills and be able to apply them when encountering unfamiliar environments, experiences, and change.
  • Demonstrate a respect for diversity and an appreciation of the multiplicity of perspectives.
  • Gain an appreciation of their cultural heritage.
  • Develop an understanding of the ways that culture shapes an individual's world view.
  • Use technology to be able to participate in global exchange of ideas and information.
  • Achieve awareness of international business, interpersonal, and intercultural etiquette.
  • Understand the ethical implications of personal, business, and political decisions.
  • Achieve an awareness of the commonality of core human experience.

Portland State University    top
http://www.pdx.edu

International Student Learning Goals

Graduates of Portland State University should leave the university with certain knowledge, attitudes, and skills that will enable them to function as citizens of the world. Specifically, they should have acquired or developed these attributes:

Knowledge

  • Understand where the main culture zones of the world are, and why they are important.
  • Understand prevailing world conditions, developments, and trends associated with such world issues as population growth, economic conditions, international conflict, human rights, and the like.
  • Understand how human actions modify the physical environment, and how physical systems affect human systems.
  • Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of a single culture (other than their own).

Attitudes

  • Recognize and appreciate differences among cultures; have developed tolerance for the diverse viewpoints that emerge from these differences.
  • Have moved beyond ethnocentrism to a position approaching empathy; have developed the ability to see others as they see themselves, given their conditions and values.
  • Have developed self-awareness and self-esteem regarding their own culture, with all its inherent diversity.

Skills

  • Communicate effectively across cultures.
  • Can use maps and other geographic representations to acquire, process, and report information.
  • (Recommended) Can use another language to accomplish basic communication tasks, including understanding a newspaper, technical reports, and everyday instructions.

Status of Learning Goals: These goals are in draft stage. We have not yet taken them to our Faculty Senate for approval because we are working with a Faculty Senate committee (the Educational Policies Committee) to explore the possibility of incorporating these international learning goals into a broader set of goals the baccalaureate markers  for all graduates.

Assessing International Learning Goals

Because our international learning goals are a work in progress, so are our specific strategies for assessing them. We feel confident that our participation in the Global Learning for All project will provide us with ideas that we can use to achieve these goals.

At present, we are focused on the big picture, namely, how assessing international learning goals meshes with the larger climate of assessment  that prevails on our campus. A group of graduate students working on our Assessment Initiative noticed that Portland State has nearly a dozen assessment-related initiatives underway simultaneously, some more developed than others. How are these things related? they asked. Can we connect the dots?

  1. The initiative begins with assessment of student learning. Set in motion by the demands of accreditation, assessment has been a major effort at Portland State and has led to a cultural shift. Does our curriculum do what we think it should, in terms of its impact on students?

     
  2. Assessment feeds into program review, based on the assumption that a fair test of the quality of programs is whether they work.  Regular program review becomes part of accreditation. We also want to know if graduates actually demonstrate the characteristics we might reasonably expect of a college graduate, hence the baccalaureate markers.

     
  3. We have already put more than 10 years into a statewide effort to transform the other end of our students  college careers, a system known as PASS, or proficiency-based admissions system, a system which will admit students on the basis of what they know and can do, rather than GPA and seat time.

     
  4. Admissions are, in turn, related to enrollment management, an effort to be intentional about our student population as our campus expands wildly. All of these evaluative activities point in directions set by our work in planning, vision, and values. And most of this is happening in public, on our electronic institutional portfolio, which can be accessed by anyone in the university, the community, or the country.

According to the recent brochure titled Connecting the Dots, The President s Internationalization Initiative is integrally related to each of the other initiatives, with mutual recognition of those interests that are shared with the diversity initiative. International priorities inform admissions and enrollment management alike.

Global citizenship is part of Portland State s institutional vision and part of what we want graduates to take away with them. It goes without saying that, if part of internationalization is what we want our students to know and be able to do, we need to find a way to assess that knowledge. And to assess it, we first need to refine our student learning goals. This we plan to do during 2003 04 through the work of the Internationalization Action Council and the internationalization cohort of the Scholarship of Teaching Resource Team.


San Diego Community College District    top
http://www.sdccd.edu/

Learning Outcomes

  • Global Perspective
  • Intercultural Competencies
  • Global Communication Skills
  • Technology Skills
  • Resiliency and Coping Skills

Global Perspective

  1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the interconnectedness of political, economic, and environmental systems.
    Sample learning activity: Successfully complete two courses from a list of courses that integrate the concepts of interdependence and the integration of social systems. Students must complete a course with a grade of C or better.
     
  2. Students will demonstrate a knowledge of history and world events.
    Sample learning activity: Successfully complete at least one world history/political science course from a list of world history and political science courses. Students must complete a course with a grade of C or better.

Intercultural Competencies

  1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the common human experience and knowledge of intercultural issues and viewpoints.
    Sample learning activity: Successfully complete an intercultural communications course in which students learn to work in small, diverse teams to complete projects and activities that focus on intercultural communication issues. Students must complete a course with a grade of C or better.
     
  2. Students will be able to recognize individual and cultural differences and demonstrate knowledge for these differences.
    Sample learning activity: (Same learning activity as noted in #1 above)
     
  3. Students will demonstrate good listening and information processing skills.
    Sample learning activity: (Same learning activity as noted in #1 above)

Global Communication Skills

  1. Students will demonstrate an ability to speak, read, and write one or more foreign languages.
    Sample learning activity: Successfully complete a two-semester sequence of a foreign language course.
     
  2. Students will demonstrate an ability to interact successfully with people of other cultures, backgrounds, and countries.
    Sample learning activity: Successfully complete an intercultural communications course in which students are assigned to diverse work teams to complete projects and activities that focus on intercultural communication issues. Students must complete a course with a grade of C or better.
     
  3. Students will demonstrate an ability to use appropriate international etiquette in business and other situations.
    Sample learning activity: Successfully complete a course from a list of courses with learning activities that address business and personal etiquette of different peoples and cultures. Students must complete a course with a grade of C or better. 

Technology Skills

  1. Students will demonstrate an ability to successfully utilize computer technology, including e-mail and the Internet, for communication.
    Sample learning activity: Successfully complete a course from a list of courses containing computer literacy learning activities. Students must complete a course with a grade of C or better.

Resiliency and Coping Skills

  1. Students will demonstrate an ability to manage change in their personal and professional life.
    Sample learning activity: Successfully complete a course from a list of courses having time management, personal growth and development, and life management activities. Students must complete a course with a grade of C or better. 

St. Louis Community College at Forest Park    top
http://www.stlcc.cc.mo.us/fp/

Learning Outcomes

The globally competent learner will be able to:

  • Demonstrate appreciation of all people, regardless of differences in race, gender, age, lifestyle, and class.
  • Demonstrate the equality of peoples of different nations.
  • Recognize the geopolitical and economic interdependence of our world.
  • Recognize the impact of other cultures on American life and vice versa.
  • Demonstrate a capacity to work in diverse teams.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the non-universality of culture, religion, and values.
  • Demonstrate the responsibility of global citizenship.
  • Recognize and celebrate cultural diversity, respecting the rights of all to express and share their individual cultural heritages.

 Last updated: April 27, 2005