College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
Department of Environmental & Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
Front Public Health. 2022 May 23;10:880638. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.880638. eCollection 2022.
Collaborative online international learning programs, such as virtual exchange, that utilize telecollaborative activities have been integrated into more classrooms within the higher education setting. These programs provide students exposure to international cultures, perspectives, and ideas is no longer considered "value added", but a prerequisite to entering many workforces. These programmatic objectives compliment Mezirow's Transformative Learning Theory, that substantiates two major elements of transformative learning are critical reflection and dialectical discourse. This study presents the second half of a qualitative inquiry into the prominent themes that arose during a virtual exchange that was conducted in March 2021 between students in the United States (US) enrolled in a global public health course and Egyptian microbiology students. This study sought to expand upon the Transformative Learning Theory through inductive analysis procedures to offer a modernized adaptation of the theoretical framework within international learning environments. Student responses enrolled in an undergraduate global public health course were collected and analyzed by two coders using inductive/open coding to identify salient codes. These codes were then summarized into categories and subsequently defined. Resulting themes include Connectedness, Openness, Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills, Communication, Cultural Identity, Anticipation of Options for New Roles, Relationships, and Actions, and Absence of Change. Several themes have corresponding categories and subcategories. Adult learning environments such as the modern college classroom have changed with the introduction and reliance upon online learning domains, as well as the diversification of higher education student demographics, accentuating the need to inductively analyze student learning processes and outcomes. In doing so, our findings provide a modernized adaptation of the Transformative Learning Theory that allows for adult learning theorists, researchers, and scholars to integrate tenets of transformative learning more appropriately. As such, this provides an opportunity for educators to coalesce the identified mechanisms (e.g., openness, cultural background, anticipation of roles and relationships) to bolster student's willingness and ability to engage in transformative critical reflections. By capitalizing on students' innate characteristics, such as open-mindedness predispositions and cultural background, educators are able to augment transformative learning strategies through tailored assignments and course activities.
协作式在线国际学习计划，如虚拟交流，利用远程协作活动已经融入了更多的高等教育课堂。这些项目使学生有机会接触国际文化、观点和思想，这已不再被视为“增值”，而是进入许多劳动力市场的先决条件。这些计划目标与 Mezirow 的变革学习理论相得益彰，该理论证实变革学习的两个主要元素是批判性反思和辩证话语。本研究呈现了对 2021 年 3 月在美国（美国）参加全球公共卫生课程的学生与埃及微生物学学生之间进行的虚拟交流中出现的突出主题的定性研究的后半部分。本研究试图通过归纳分析程序扩展变革学习理论，为国际学习环境中的理论框架提供现代化的适应。两名编码员使用归纳/开放式编码收集和分析了参加本科全球公共卫生课程的学生的反应，以识别显著代码。然后将这些代码总结为类别并进行定义。产生的主题包括联系、开放性、知识和技能的获取、沟通、文化认同、对新角色选择的预期、关系和行动以及没有变化。几个主题有相应的类别和子类别。现代大学课堂等成人学习环境随着在线学习领域的引入和依赖以及高等教育学生人口统计数据的多样化而发生了变化，这凸显了需要归纳分析学生的学习过程和结果。这样做使我们的研究结果提供了变革学习理论的现代化适应，使成人学习理论家、研究人员和学者能够更恰当地整合变革学习的原则。因此，这为教育工作者提供了一个机会，可以将确定的机制（例如开放性、文化背景、对角色和关系的预期）结合起来，增强学生参与变革性批判性反思的意愿和能力。通过利用学生的固有特征，如思想开放的倾向和文化背景，教育工作者能够通过量身定制的作业和课程活动增强变革学习策略。
