Antje BarabaschUniversität Magdeburg, Germany/University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaEmail: abarabasch1@yahoo.deGlobal teaching in VET in Germany and the United States1. IntroductionIn the realm of all the developments that come along with globalization the demand for internationalizing higher education is increasing. Despite that university teaching in Germanyfor the most part still follows very traditional models and methods. A very few classes ineducation are concerned with international issues, fewer are addressing national andinternational audiences, and it is rare that an exchange of ideas between students and professors from different cultures is being accommodated. Helping students to become awareof and understand different cultural concepts is one of the challenges that lecturers and professors around the world are facing today. To be able to explain different culturalapproaches and concepts one often needs to have been exposed to or lived in another culture.That is not always realizable. To bridge the gap between theoretical knowing about conceptualdifferences and practical understanding it is helpful to have teachers of at least two differentcultures teaching a course that focuses on international perspectives. In vocational educationand training (VET) classes, that are taken by students, who focus on internationaldevelopment work, it becomes essential to teach about the various approaches to workplacelearning and workforce development.The Department of Workforce Education at the Ohio State University in the US and theDepartment of Vocational Education and Training and Human Resource Development at theUniversity of Magdeburg in Germany collaborated in the summer semester 2008 in aninteractive video-conferencing class. The context of the class was concerned with workforceeducation and global workforce development and drew on literature from the United States,Australia and Europe. This article outlines the results of the outcomes based evaluation of thisclass. Particular attention was drawn towards the efficiency of the teaching method, the process of cross-cultural communication and understanding in a classroom setting andstudents’ evaluation of their learning process.Video-conferencing as a teaching tool provides the unique opportunity to facilitate aninteraction of students and experts of different countries or cultures without having their presence to be a necessity. It can increase student motivation and learning by providingstudents with experiences and relationships that they would otherwise never be able to have. Itsupports the improvement of students English language skills and their interculturalcommunication competence. It also familiarizes students with the use of new technology,interactive teaching, and a new dimension of active engagement in the learning process.A lot of research has been conducted on intercultural learning of foreign students (Brown,Aoshima, & Bolen, 2007), intercultural learning using virtual computer-mediated technology(Ziegahn, 2005) as well as the experiences of teachers in other cultural contexts (Garson,2005). A few authors have published their experiences with video-conferencing, which ismore often used in the field of engineering than in social science (Annison, 2002; Herder,Subrahmanian, Talukdar, Turk and Westerberg, 2002; O’Dowd, R., 2007). Not much has been published yet on this new form of teaching that combines two facilitators as well as twostudent groups, who teach and learn together by using modern technology. The teachingstrategy itself is innovative in the field of vocational education and no research has been

found on the learning outcomes of it in this academic discipline. While scientific concepts indisciplines such as medicine, science, or engineering seem to be easily shared across culturesand English as the mode of communication among international scientist has been introduceda long time ago, the social concepts that are used in vocational education and training as wellas human resource development are sometimes unique to a particular culture because they areembedded in societal structures as well as historically evolved political ideas and laws.Silverstein (2004) argued that “cultural concepts emerge as stereotyped meanings unevenlydistributed among people and primarily indexical in nature in the sense that they organize thesocial field in which a particular interaction takes place” (p. 645). These differences in theunderstanding of meaning can be researched when using the same vocabulary, such asvocational education or workplace learning in different cultures and let people talk about it.The two terms are understood and explained differently in Germany and the United States.The respective VET systems in both countries could not differ more than they do. (Barabasch,2008a, 2008b; Büchtemann, Schupp, & Soloff, 1993; Hamilton & Hurrelmann, 1993; Thelen,2004).Therefore, it becomes a challenge for representatives of both countries to explain their ownsystem and understand the opposite. When the two parties get together for an exchange of ideas intercultural learning takes place. In this context it can be understood as an interactivereflective dialog about different views and understandings of a particular subject matter. It is a process in which members of different cultures learn together, create mutual understandingand modify their own cultural values. Intercultural teaching aims at the development of citizens with a critical and sustainable awareness of social, political, and economic matters of vocational teaching and learning. Through this process students acquire the competence tounderstand how to access cultural knowledge, process it and communicate effectively withother cultures.2. MethodsThe following research questions guided the design of the evaluation: How did the studentsand the teachers evaluate their learning outcome in relation to conventional classes? How didteachers and learners experience the communication in the video-conference classroom? Howdid intercultural learning take place? How did the format of the class assist the students in the process of making meaning of different cultural concepts?This evaluation was part of an action research approach that intended to improve this particular class and also learn general strategies about designing and pursuing a videoconference class for VET students. This was the first class and therefore it required acompletely new design with different teaching and learning methods. Its success relied oneverybody’s input that was concurrently provided during the mutual learning process. Basedon the results of this first class and its evaluation, the action research project will be ongoingand be continued with a class in the summer term of 2009.Methods used in the evaluation were questionnaires and group discussions, individual non-standardized interviews and interviews with two observers. The students were interviewedabout their expectations, learning processes, and learning outcomes. Particular attention was paid to the development of students understanding of cultural concepts such as theoccupational form of work, structured on the job training (SOJT), vocational education andtraining, transfer of training and knowledge, as well as informal versus formal learning. Thestudents understood themselves as active shapers of the class. After each class session 3 to 6students remained in the classroom and we discussed their evaluations. These discussions

served as member checks (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). I as the lecturer of this class receivedfeedback about my interpretation of the completed questionnaires. The conversations withtwo observers as well as my self-reflection were part of a reflection-on-action process (Schön,1983). Schön talks intensely about the active, persistent, and careful consideration of actionsin the process of teaching in order to understand how teaching methods work together andimpact learning. He views the process of change and problem solving as a mainly intuitive process rather than technical. The class schedule below indicates the points of time when theevaluation took place. At each of the three video-conference sessions the class was observed by one or two professional colleagues. They paid particular attention to the process of socialinteraction in class and also evaluated the context that was taught. In this article I willelaborate on the results of the evaluation and describe strength and weaknesses. I will disclose by sketching future opportunities for using this format in the education of VET students.3. The conceptual design of the videoconference seminar The class had a variety of objectives that are intertwined. It intended to enhance the ability tocommunicate with each other effectively while developing mutual trust and understanding.The class further intended to add a new dimension to the idea of team teaching through thecombination of teachers from two different cultures who can explain their concepts and ideaswhile interacting with two student groups. Originally, it was planned to have students from both countries participating in the class, so that the students would not only have theopportunity to learn from a U.S./German professor, but also to interact with each other.Unfortunately, the communication between the students could not be realized. In the U.S.most VET or Workforce students work part time or full time besides studying. Because of thetime difference between Europe and the U.S. they had to meet in the early afternoon whenU.S. students could not attend the class. Nevertheless, three U.S. students participated in thefirst video-conference. The class was a “free-bee” (free of charge) at Ohio State University.That means students did not have to pay for this class, but could also not earn credit for their participation. The process of accrediting a new class at a major U.S. university usually takes ayear or longer. The German class met on Wednesday evenings for two to four hours. The classwas announced as an experimental class. The results of its evaluation will be used for themodification of the design, which would be the foundation for starting the accreditation process at Ohio State University. The different semester lengths at the two institutions (OhioState works on a quarter base, Magdeburg on a two semester base) also complicated thesimultaneous scheduling.The texts provided in class involved books from the U.S. professor and articles aboutworkforce education written from authors from around the world. The learning processincluded the following three dimensions: 1. Learning international concepts through a reviewof international literature. 2. Learning through listening to and questioning the presentation of a U.S./German professor as well as being challenged by him/her with questions. 3. Learningthrough the discussion with two professors and between the students as well as collaborativework on group research projects.Course Rationale (U.S. perspective): How do people learn to do their jobs? Research showsthat individuals learn the most in the actual work setting, not in a classroom or other off the job setting. But much of this learning is unplanned, or unstructured, which often results inunpredictable training outcomes. This fact has important implications for globalorganizations. This course provides the opportunity to become aware of and contribute to theliterature related to planned learning in the work setting.