Group work as a vehicle for engaging students into the process of broadening perspectives and building inter-cultural skills

This paper describes a trial project designed to broaden students' cultural perspectives by incorporating a forced mixed group assignment in a third year mechanical engineering unit. Students were formed into groups that included at least one international student in each group. They were required to complete a group work project on a real-world problem that transcended international boundaries. The student groups were encouraged to consider that the international student might have expert local knowledge useful for the project. Following the trial project, all students were asked to comment on whether they had a heightened awareness and curiosity about other cultures, reflect on any communication issues they personally needed to address, and whether the experience had encouraged them to confidently engage cross-culturally. As with previous research, it was concluded that getting students to engage inter-culturally is difficult. It requires teaching staff to intervene by creating a conducive environment and provide assistance throughout the process to foster the intercultural engagement.