PERCEPTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS CONCERNING PROJECT BASED LEARNING AT AALBORG UNIVERSITY

During the past two decades, the mobility of international students has increased in many western European countries. It raises many issues regarding pedagogical settings including learning experiences and adjustment of international students into the new academic culture. Research on the experiences of international student is becoming an important area of educational research. The objective of this paper is to explore the perceptions of international students about Project Based Learning (PBL) at Aalborg University Denmark. The Alborg University is quite well known for its model of teaching and learning called 'Aalborg PBL Model'. The major part of this approach is that students have to work in groups. The learning approach follows the social constructivist paradigm in the learning process. There are quite a number of international students at Aalborg University. So they have to work in project groups, which is more student centered approach in pedagogical settings, it is quite interesting to study how international student experience a more student centred and collaborative learning environment and what are their perceptions about it? The initial findings suggest that international students are quite happy in general although they have no prior experience of working in the project group, But in depth analysis suggests that they have problems in the group work which influence the group work and consequently the learning process, like, cultural backgrounds, expectations, language issues, Learning styles. This paper used qualitative method to investigate this phenomenon. Qualitative interviews and observations are major tools to collect the expression of international students