Using a rubric to grasp intercultural competence development in vocational education

Figures & data

Table 1. Justification of the Rubric Performance Indicators

Core task of Dutch qualification framework for vocational education	Intercultural competence domain of McGury, Shallenberger, and Tolliver (2008)	Performance indicator (i.e left column of the Rubric ICD)
Making and maintaining contacts with other people from other cultures	Cultural difference	Has interaction with host culture
Working with other cultures	Perspective	Can discuss cultures without value judgments
Researching own culture and that of others	Cultural difference	Takes action to investigate and explore the host culture
	Cultural difference	Increases comprehension of own culture and other cultures through conversations about culture
	Perspective	Identifies different perspectives and defines own perspective
Researching own cultural sensitivity	Personal identity	Explores own personal convictions/ideas and shows the ability to draw the line
		Shows awareness of own culture and its influence on own behaviour

Table 2. Example of Rubric

Performance indicator	A*	B	C
Shows awareness of own culture and its influence on own behaviour	I can describe various examples of my own cultural rules and biases and how I show/demonstrate these in daily life	I can describe a few important differences between my own culture and the host culture I can also provide an example of a situation in which I was confronted with these differences and how I reacted to this	I can describe examples of situations in which I consciously (or intentionally) adapted myself to the other culture and I can describe what I learned from these experiences
Pre-test Describe your learning goal for this indicator Post-test Describe a concrete argument and example showing your proficiency level

*A-B-C were used to give the columns as less evaluative value as possible.

Figure 1. The curricular spider web (Van den Akker 2003)

Table 3. Evaluation and Frequencies of the Usefulness of the Rubric ICD for Various Educational Purposes

	Usefulness*	Frequencies N = 8	Remarks
Making ICD concrete and a topic of discussion	Yes!	6	- starting point for discussing a shared view on ICD in teacher teams - starting point for professional development of teachers - starting point for developing learning material - starting point for researching the (current) state of affairs of an education with respect to ICD But:
	Yes, but	2	- students have no clue (yet) about what intercultural competencies are - the generic competencies should be more contextualised within the vocational field recognisable for the students and teachers
International internships	Yes!	8
Study abroad learning experiences	Yes!	8
International experiences at home	Yes!	8	- an issue of urgency for all participant in this current time of many intercultural issues in society (e.g., refugees, terrorist attacks)
Preparing for international experiences	Yes!	8	‘Looking at the rubric I realise that in our preparation for international internships we mainly pay attention to possible pitfalls. We do not approach “the other culture” as something a student can learn from, but as something you have to be cautious about. That obviously is a big missed chance’ (international coordinator, senior secondary vocational school)
Coaching international experiences	Yes!	7
	Yes, but	1	- the rubric indicators and proficiency levels should be linked to students’ specific vocational field
Reflection on international experiences	Yes!	8
Formative assessment	Yes!	8	- this should be the main focus. It is all about more consciously working in and learning from other cultures instead of reaching a specific proficiency level (see summative assessment)
Summative assessment	No	8	- overall agreement that it is not the intention to strive for a specific proficiency level, but that students should one way or the other show to be consciously working on their ICD - at this point, where intercultural competencies are so unknown and still implicit, summative assessment is out of the question anyway

*items scored as YES!; Yes, but; No

Table 4. Ideas on how to use the Rubric ICD in the curriculum

Ideas on how to use the Rubric ICD in the curriculum	Aspects of the curriculum (Curricular spiderweb; van den Akker 2003)
The rubric can be used in teacher teams or curriculum development teams to develop an explicit vision as well as specific learning objectives on ICD. It provides vocabulary for having this discussion, triggers thinking about what ICD can entail, but leaves room for making decisions on what to include or what not to include. For example, the rubric led the higher vocational institutions to discuss the ‘Explores own personal convictions/ideas and shows the ability to draw the line’ performance criterion (see Table 1) as a crucial learning objective as they said that this was an issue that many of their students struggled with during international experiences. The senior secondary vocational institutions paid more attention to ‘take action to explore the other (host) culture’ (see Table 1) as a crucial learning objective for their students	Rationale: Why do we feel ICD should be in our curriculum? How do we understand ICD? Aims and objectives: towards which goals are they learning? Content: what are they learning?
The rubric can trigger thinking about a continuous ICD learning path throughout a (four year) curriculum. For example, some rubric performance expectations can be set for the first year (e.g., take action to explore another culture) while others might be more appropriate for later stages (e.g., identifies different perspectives and defines own perspective)	What are they learning when Aims and objectives: towards which goals are they learning? Time: when are they learning?
The rubric can be used in pre-departure learning activities to discuss with students what intercultural competencies entail in general and specifically in the context/country of their international internship or study abroad. This can be done in groups to make this both efficient and effective in terms of learning from each other, stimulating each other to think deeper and comparing different internship countries and cultures	Time: when are they learning? Learning activities: how are they learning? Grouping: with whom are they learning?
The rubric can be part of reflection sessions in class after returning from international internships or study abroad;	Learning activities: how are they learning? Time: when are they learning? Teacher role: how is the teacher facilitating their learning?
The rubric can be used in formative assessment practices, and eventually also in summative assessment; this idea was shared by all participants	Assessment: how is their learning assessed?
The rubric can be used by internship companies or mentors as part of 360 degrees feedback, that can be part of students’ internship assessment or coaching	Assessment: how is their learning assessed? Teacher role: how is the teacher facilitating their learning? Location: where are they learning?
The rubric could be used in a digital platform for students to share internship experiences and discuss them with each other	Learning activities: how are they learning? Grouping: with whom are they learning? Teacher role: how is the teacher facilitating their learning?

Table 5. Number and Distribution of Students who Filled in the Rubric

Type of education	Institutions and educational trajectory	N	Type of internship	Average age	Male/female
Senior secondary vocational education	A, Animal Care	16	Various activities in zoo in Sweden	19,8 yrs	2/14
	B, various trajectories in the life sciences	12	Group internship in community in Ethiopia	19,2 yrs	6/6
	C, Animal Care	11	Working at a dairy farm in various Western countries (e.g. Spain, Germany, Australia)	18,5 yrs	11/0
Higher vocational education	D, International Development Management studies	38	A variety of companies in the field van international development and management in various countries (e.g. Sri Lanka, UK, Thailand, South Africa)	20,6 yrs	19/19
	E, International Business and Management	39	A variety of companies in the field of international business and management in various countries,(e.g. Germany, Spain, UK, Thailand)	22,2 yrs	24/15
Total		116

Table 6. Examples of Student Responses on the Three Dimensions

	Learning goal (pre-departure)		Arguments/examples (after return)
Specificity dimension	Vague and generic ‘learn more about the new culture’ ^a*; ‘learn to understand their culture’ ; ‘explore the new environment’^b	Concrete and specific ‘by observing situations and question myself why they do it as they do and try to ask questions, even when my English is not very well’^a	Vague and generic ‘took part in all kinds of social activities’^b; ‘had many conversations’^a	Concrete and specific ‘Several times I joined the farmer to local events to get to know the cultural differences’^b; ‘I wore culturally appropriate clothes during all my stay and swam in clothes, in order to fit in’^c
Profoundness dimension	Superficial ‘I hope to get to know more about the habits in Ethiopia’^a; ‘learn how to cook the local cuisine for local people’^b	Profound ‘to not let my Dutch norms & values get me in trouble’^c, ‘to understand the professional role in my host country’^e	Superficial ‘the Danish drink their coffee black and don’t have sugar and milk. I like my coffee black, so I could easily drink it’^b; ‘stayed at a local host family and attended activities such as church services’^b	Profound ‘I discovered that Swedish people are only social and friendly if they know you. So when I asked a stranger something about the food in English, he looked a bit disturbed before answering’^d; ‘In Mexico I needed to adapt to punctuality standards, diet, communicative behaviour (…)’^c
Ethnorelativeness dimension	Ethnocentric and passive “I will see when I’m there”^g; “I take it how it comes because I have plenty of time to get to know the Dutch culture which is not that different from German culture”^f	Ethnorelative and active “I want to become more fluent In Spanish and overcome my fear of making mistakes in Spanish. I want to approach people on my own initiative and be as receptive to new experiences as possible”^a	Ethnocentric and passive ‘I realized that it was nice and friendlier in Peru than in Germany, but that it is also quite superficial and that I like to be direct about my own opinion as well as completely honest’ (German student)^g	Ethnorelative and active ‘walking hand in hand with a man, a sign of friendship. I have done this, although I actually find it very weird. Not used to it, but still did it.’(male student)^c; ‘religion is a big part of the daily life therefore I have asked a lot about it. Why certain things are celebrated.’f

* Performance indicators of Rubric ICD by number in brackets

Performance indicators of Rubric ICD

a Has interaction with the host culture

b Can discuss cultures without value judgments

c Takes action to investigate and explore the host culture

d Increases comprehension of own culture and other cultures through conversations about culture

e Identifies different perspectives and defines own perspective

f Explores own personal convictions/ideas and shows the ability to draw the line

g Shows awareness of own culture and its influence on own behaviour

McGury, S., D. Shallenberger, and D. E. Tolliver. 2008. “It’s New, but Is It Learning? Assessment Rubrics for Intercultural Learning Programs.” Assessment Update 20 (4): 6–9.

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Akker, J. V. D. 2003. “Curriculum Perspectives: An Introduction.” In Curriculum Landscapes and Trends, edited by J. van Den Akker, W. Kuiper, and U. Hameyer, 1–10. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

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