The Integration of Internationalisation in Secondary Bilingual Education in the Netherlands

Abstract

Internationalisation is a trend in education that many are familiar with. However, there seems to be little to no information as to the actual effect of internationalisation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the integration of internationalisation can enhance secondary bilingual education in the Netherlands. This paper establishes the current state of internationalisation in secondary education and the bilingual programme as developed by the European Platform. Different theories on defining, teaching and measuring internationalisation are discussed and compared in order to determine the effectiveness of internationalisation in the Netherlands. In particular, theories concerning the concepts on international orientation, intercultural competence and gamification. The integration of internationalisation is unfortunately not as flawless as the European Platform would lead to believe and is no guarantee for quality education. None of the sources on internationalisation, however, seems to have perfect solutions to the questions of how to teach and measure internationalisation either. However, a teaching process that includes interaction and reflection seems to be a good starting point. And experimenting with gamification appears to be an option that can enhance teaching methods.