Advancing Active Learning and EMI at University in Taiwan

QI Consultancy with leading universities in Taiwan

22 March 2022 I The Queensland Institute

Taiwanese students engaged in pair work tasks to support learning in English.

CASE STUDY

In November 2021, The Queensland Institute (QI) was engaged by two leading universities in Taichung and Taipei to deliver continuing professional development (CPD) training to support active learning approaches and EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) practices in STEM, Business and the Humanities in Taiwan.

In Brief

The National Development Council of Taiwan has identified a key policy goal “to accelerate the development of bilingual higher education” by 2030. One way of achieving this is by embracing and strengthening student-centered learning approaches, and the use of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI), to support bilingual education across the curriculum.

QI’s training brief was to work with Taiwanese university academics from a range of faculties to explore and promote active learning principles and EMI strategies in tertiary education, by demonstrating activities appropriate to virtual and physical lecture delivery.

One of the project objectives was for lecturers to evaluate a variety of learning activities designed to stimulate student-student interaction and engagement with academic content in English, and select appropriate activities to apply to their own course content.

Another key objective was to equip lecturers with practical EMI strategies that support learner understanding of academic content in English and develop the language skills of students who have English as an Additional Language (EAL).

The QI program also helped to support another NDC goal of “developing digital learning” approaches by facilitating the interactive training fully online via video conferencing and a range of digital apps.

In February 2022, QI delivered the training to more than thirty academics in a series of workshops.

QI Involvement

QI collaborated closely with two Taiwanese university partners to:

understand their teaching context, policy goals and training needs
develop two distinct and customised training modules for up to 40 university lecturers
deliver live, interactive workshops via video-conferencing and a variety of digital apps
evaluate the training outcomes and make recommendations for future training needs

Testimonials

“I was never taught how to teach during and post PhD study. This workshop was really good for me to develop my teaching skills. It not only taught me how to teach in English, but also taught me how to become a better lecturer in general”.

— Workshop participant

“I have a much better understanding of an EMI lecture now. I feel more confident and comfortable delivering courses in English. I am now equipped with more tools and activities to keep my students engaged. I like the pace of the program and many hands-on tasks to familiarise ourselves with some digital tools.”

— Workshop participant

“I think that most lecturers in Taiwan don’t have English as a mother language so EMI courses are a big challenge. If more lecturers can join this program, that would have a big benefit to help them teach better in English.”

- Workshop participant

“I think that everyone should introduce the elements of active learning to their teaching schedule [...] This is a good program to start/continue your journey of active learning. The teachers and teaching methods are excellent, it is highly recommended.”

- Workshop participant

“The training is very useful! I'll apply what I have learned from the training to my future lectures. Thank you very much for sharing so many fantastic teaching ideas and skills with us!
Designing active learning EMI activities make me see more smiles and satisfactions from students' faces.”

- Workshop participant

“For lecturers who teach fundamental engineering subjects, if you need inspiration for new teaching methodologies, this is the workshop for you. The content is rich and lectures are very good and professional.”

- Workshop participant, Taiwan

Project Completion

In March 2022, QI concluded the two independent training projects successfully and presented written reports to our university partners.

The reports included course evaluation feedback with 100% satisfaction ratings from program participants from both university cohorts (n=17 and n=19 respectively), in response to the statements “This program was useful for my professional development as a lecturer.” and” I would recommend this program to other lecturers like me.”

It was a pleasure to work with such dedicated lecturers from a range of academic disciplines in STEM, Business and Humanities.

We also extend our gratitude to our University partners in Taichung and Taipei, and wish them every success as they continue to pursue excellence in bilingual education in both virtual and physical classroom contexts.

QI Team
Fiona Wiebusch, Philippa Coleman, Directors, The Queensland Institute
Vicki Bos, QI Consultant Trainer, The Queensland Institute

Contact us to learn more about our consultancy to support global educators.

Email Philippa and Fiona