Karen M. Lauridsen

Learning styles and organisational development in practice: an exploratory study of how learning styles and individual learning strategies can facilitate organisational development

Issues of innovation and knowledge management are often treated from an organisational learning perspective. As a complement to this, there is a vast potential in the strategic enhancement of individual learning by implementing learning styles profiles and creating personal learning strategies for management and employees in a knowledge-based organisation. Based on an action-research case study, we offer an example of how learning styles affects individual learning and thus personal knowledge creation in practice. The paper argues that innovation and knowledge management is enhanced and facilitated in practice by working with the learning styles of individuals and groups/teams.

IntlUni – the opportunities and challenges of the multilingual and multicultural learning space in the international university

This report outlines the main outcomes of IntlUni, an Erasmus Academic Network project 2012-15. IntlUni has addressed the opportunities and challenges of the multilingual and multicultural learning space, established as a result of the increasing internationalization of European higher education. 38 higher education institutions in 27 countries participated in the project that was financially supported by the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme. The main outcomes are the IntlUni Principles for quality teaching and learning in the multilingual and multicultural learning space as well as the IntlUni Recommendations targeted at higher education institutions, national or regional authorities responsible for the legal and financial framework of higher education and, finally, European bodies supporting the development of the European Higher Education Area.

Teacher Capabilities in a Multicultural Educational Environment: An Analysis of the Impact of a Professional Development Project.

Abstract With more programmes being taught through English in non-Anglophone contexts, higher education lecturers are faced with new challenges. This article briefly presents a professional development initiative carried out at departmental level as an intervention for all English Medium Instruction lecturers. In order to assess the effect of such an intervention, a mix of different data sets are used, moving from self-assessment by participants to observations of individual teaching practices in the classrooms. It is shown how corroboration of surveys and observation reports in an explicit feedback template can be used to evidence the value of the intervention in context.

MULTILINGUALISM - A NECESSARY, ABSENT COMPONENT IN EUROPE 2020? 1

The title of this address is Multilingualism – a necessary, absent component in Europe 2020? – with a question mark. Before I move on, I should like to make two introductory remarks: First of all, the European Commission’s 2020 strategy is about delivering growth that is ‘smart’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘inclusive’. In this context, being smart means improving the European Union’s performance in education, in research & innovation, and in the digital society (Europe 2020). And the increase in collaboration and interaction foreseen within and beyond Europe, begs at least one crucial question of interest to us here today: Are Europeans linguistically prepared for these endeavours

Teaching and Learning Languages in the Era of Globalisation

One of my former students is Estonian, but he had decided that he wanted to complete his first degree in Denmark, studying his preferred subject through the medium of English in an internationally oriented programme. Before even entering this programme, he had to document his advanced language skills in English, learned in his home country, by achieving a certain level in one of the appropriate internationally recognised language tests (IELTS, TOEFL, etc.). And he did. When he came to Denmark, he embarked on a language course, learning Danish to a level which allowed him to live and study in Denmark for 3 years, and in his third year of study, when he spent an exchange semester in Greece, he learnt ‘survival’ Greek. Why do I tell this story? Because young Europeans learn languages with a purpose; for most of them, learning languages is a means to an end. This Estonian student chose to apply for an internationally oriented first-cycle (Bachelor) degree programme taught in English in order to enhance his opportunities on the European, or indeed international, labour market when he graduated. In order to do so, he had to learn English: all five skills in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages to an advanced C1 level before he even enrolled at university (Council of Europe 2001). His learning of a certain, less advanced level of Danish and Greek was prompted by his wish to communicate within the local community while abroad, thus at one and the same time benefitting from the local as well as the international community and the cross-cultural and intercultural exchanges they afford. When he graduated, he had not only prepared himself for a professional career using the subject-specific competencies learned in his degree programme, but certainly also acquired a set of linguistic and intercultural competences that, by all accounts, will serve him well in the labour market.