Precursors of college students’ attitudes towards cross-cultural collaboration: the role of group-learning activity design and openness to diversity

ABSTRACT

The increasing calls for diversity research signal a need to redesign learning and teaching strategies and include appreciations of collaboration and diversity as part of the students’ learning outcomes. However, changing the learning environment by incorporating innovative pedagogical techniques into multicultural learning environments is often fraught with difficulties, stemming partly from students’ attitudes towards cross-cultural collaborative learning. The present sequential explanatory study sought to design a collaborative group-learning activity and measure its effect on students’ attitudes towards collaborative learning by using a pre/post intervention design. Another aim was to explore the role of students’ openness to diversity and challenge in explaining these attitudes. Data were gathered from 84 first-year Israeli Arab and Jewish students by three questionnaires: Constructivist Learning in Higher Education Settings, Openness to Diversity and Challenge scale, and Students’ Attitude towards Collaborative Learning, in addition to semi-structured interviews. Findings showed that the Jewish students’ positive attitudes towards collaborative learning have decreased between the tests (after the collaborative activity). The empirical model, designed by Partial Least Squares – Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), indicated a direct contribution of students’ positive perception of the collaborative activity to their attitudes towards collaborative learning above cultural differences. Arab students’ proclivity towards openness to diversity enhanced their positive attitudes towards collaborative learning. The students of both cultures described in their own words the group dynamics throughout the activity. Qualitative analysis of their interviews revealed several explanations related to students’ experienced challenges during the collaborative activity. Recommendations for mitigating these challenges are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative learning
• openness to diversity and challenge
• attitudes towards collaborative learning
• higher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dorit Alt

Dorit Alt is specialised in the field of constructivist learning environments in the information era. Her research work includes research on digital and media literacy skills, the construction and validation of several innovative scales to map and assess different aspects of constructivist learning environments, and the measurement of the connection between these environments and psychological, behavioural, cultural, social, and ethical aspects. Her research papers have been published in leading scientific journals such as International Journal of Educational Research, and Computers in Human Behavior. She is also a reviewer for various scientific leading journals in the field of teaching, learning and assessment.

Nirit Raichel

Nirit Raichel is a leading professor at and the academic designers of the undergraduate Education and Community Department at Kinneret College, and in the Department of Graduate Education at Gordon College of Education. She has previously headed the Department of Inclusive Education and Community Studies at Oranim College of Education, and also served as the academic dean of Ohalo College of Education and Sport. Her main interests cover issues of the Israeli educational system; teachers identity; the figure of the ‘good educator’ and his training and transfer of educational ideas from the western world to Hebrew education; social education of immigrants: multicultural teacher training; and vocational education in Israel. Prof Raichel is an active member of the Israeli Association of Historians of Education and in the Association of Professional Development Schools.