ENHANCING INTERNATIONALISATION THROUGH A REMOTELY DELIVERED HANDS-ON STEM CHALLENGE. A CASE STUDY OF COLLABORATIVE ONLINE INTERNATIONAL LEARNING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA AS MEDIUM OF PARTICIPATORY PEDAGOGY

Abstract

This paper discusses the impact that social media (WhatsApp, Zoom, emails, and Google Classroom) had on a series of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) workshops designed for the enhancement of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education between two Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) namely, the School of Education, University of Glasgow (UoG), Scotland and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, both involved in Teacher Education. Four newly qualified teachers from the School of Education, UoG, and ten in-service teachers practicing in different schools across Pune region participated in four sessions spread over an eight-weeklong COIL workshop with four tutors (also researchers in this study - two from each HEI). Findings specifically from participants’ feedback (from WhatsApp groups and focus group discussions) and tutors’ reflections show that the aforementioned social media play a significant role in enhancing not only communication and active participation but also facilitating knowledge exchange across Scotland-Indian cross-cultural contexts. Additionally, the majority of participants (representing about 79% of the 14 participants) described the participatory pedagogical design of the COIL workshops as effective and enhanced by the ease of communication across the used social media platforms. We believe these findings, are crucial for contributing to the studies of the impact of social media on participatory pedagogy in ways that might help STEM educators to shift from an awareness of students’ engagement with and through curriculum content to an orientation of developing related praxis aimed at collaborative engagements and knowledge exchange.