Karen M. Lauridsen, Associate professor

Aarhus University, Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), Aarhus i Denmark

Keynote

Teaching in the globalised university — How do we face the challenges of the multicultural classroom?

Changing demographics, internationalisation of higher education, and migration has resulted in much more diverse student cohorts than it has previously been the case in higher education. While this provides new opportunities, many educators also find that there are new challenges to be met. Lecturers realise that what used to work well in the classroom does not necessarily work well any more; they need to change their teaching in order to accommodate new student audiences.[KML1] 

This keynote addresses the questions of how we as lecturers can facilitate the learning of diverse student cohorts, and of how this diversity may affect the quality of our study programmes. How can we make the diversity work to the benefit of all students? And what do we do when it turns out not to work out quite so well? Based on the results of recent research and development projects in this field, Karen M. Lauridsen focuses on the responsibility of the university, the academic staff and the students. In addition, she offers some reflection points as well as some good practice principles that may serve as the point of departure for individual lecturers’ development of their own teaching.

About Karen M. Lauridsen

Karen M. Lauridsen is an associate professor and educational developer, specialising in international programmes and English Medium Instruction. She was the coordinator of IntlUni – The Challenges of the Multilingual and Multicultural Learning Space (2012-15), and is a partner in the EQUiiP Project - Educational Quality at Universities for Inclusive International Programmes (2016-2019) as well as affiliated faculty at the Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation (CHEI) at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy.