Exploring students’ group work needs in the context of internationalisation using a creative visual method

Abstract

While UK universities see group work as essential to building higher order intellectual and team skills, many international students are unfamiliar with this way of studying. Group work is also a focus of home students' concerns. Cultural differences in the interpretation of space for learning or how spatial issues affect group work processes has not been much explored in the internationalisation literature. The research described in this paper used data based on Chinese and home students making models of a good group work space. The data showed no marked cultural differences in visual taste. However, Chinese students were more concerned with the emotion of group work while home students were task focussed. All designs opted for a neutral office style design, rather than celebrating diversity. The paper supports the value of creative visual methods in exploring difficult to articulate topics, as part of a package of qualitative research methods.