Assessing university students’ intercultural competence in a culturally diverse learning environment

Abstract

Aims: The present study aims to develop and validate a new instrument that assesses university students’ intercultural competence in a culturally diverse learning environment. Methodology: We conducted a comprehensive literature review to aid us to develop a new instrument that assesses university students’ intercultural competence. Based on our review, we constructed a 50-item instrument and piloted it on 397 randomly chosen university students in a university in Hong Kong. Also assessed were their self-reported intercultural experience, cultural intelligence, Big Five personality, global mental health, and ethnocentrism. Results: Based on factor analyses and item-response theory analysis, we selected 30 items from an initial pool of 50 to become the final set of items to be included in our instrument. The overall intercultural competence score measured by this instrument was positively correlated with the amount of self-reported intercultural experience, cultural intelligence, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and global mental health. It was negatively correlated with neuroticism and ethnocentrism. In a Hong Kong university, this score was also significantly higher among native English speakers than native Cantonese or Putonghua speakers. Conclusions: The new instrument developed in the present study showed a high internal consistency and both convergent and discriminant validity. Practically, it can be a reliable and valid measure for universities to closely monitor students’ progress and achievement towards their intercultural competency. Findings from the project offer evidence-based implications for understanding and improving students’ intercultural learning experience and provide evidence of the capability of the university to graduate interculturally competent students.