Download Document - Office for Learning and Teaching

More documents

Recommendations

Info

6.4 DIFFICULTIES OF ASIAN INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS STUDYING INAUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES AND HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL LEARNER 1257 GUIDELINES FOR AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES AND LECTURERS 1277.1 TEACHING AND LEARNING SHOULD START BEFORE INTERNATIONALSTUDENTS ARRIVE AT THEIR CLASSROOMS 1277.2 ENHANCING TEACHING AND LEARNING DURING STUDY 1307.3 TEACHING AND LEARNING CONTINUE AFTER INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’COMPLETION OF THEIR STUDIES 1338 GUIDELINE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS OF ASIAN BACKGROUNDSTUDYING IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES 1388.1 ACCOMMODATE YOURSELF TO THE AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM 1388.2 IN CLASSROOM STUDY SKILLS 1418.3 ON CAMPUS STUDY SKILLS 1449 DISCIPLINARY AND INTERDISCIPLINARY LINKAGES 1489.1 LINKAGES WITH OTHER ALTC PROJECTS 1489.2 DISCIPLINARY AND INTERDISCIPLINARY LINKAGES 14910 RESULTS COMMUNICATION, PUBLICATIONS AND EVALUATION 15010.1 COMMUNICATIONS 15010.2 PUBLICATIONS 15010.3 EVALUATION 15110.4 SUCCESS FACTOR ANALYSIS 15211 REFERENCES 1543
0 Executive SummaryAustralian tertiary education has attracted a large number of international students,particularly from Asia. Cultural factors have affected the quality of learning ofinternational students and the teaching approaches adopted by Australian lecturers.Therefore, cross-cultural teaching and learning situations have become an importantissue in Australian universities. This project intends to identify the influence of thetrend towards increasing numbers of cross-cultural students on teaching andlearning approaches in an Australian educational environment. It aims to improvethe understanding of Asian students' cultural backgrounds, their previous learningapproaches and their perspectives on Australian culture and modes of education,with the objective of helping international students to overcome the difficulties ofcross-cultural study. In the process, we anticipate bringing new ideas to lecturersand education managers to improve the quality of cross-cultural teaching andlearning. We also expect to develop strategies through recognising the factors whichinfluence teaching and learning in the cross-cultural environment, and to propose aset of guidelines and suggestions that can enhance the quality of teaching andlearning in Australian universities.In 2008, we conducted a student questionnaire survey at the University ofTechnology, Sydney, Curtin University of Technology, The University of Sydney,Edith Cowan University and Southern Cross University. As Business andInformation Technology attract the majority of Asian international students, weselected these two schools/faculties in the five universities within which to conductthe survey. We received a total of 1026 completed student questionnaires fromundergraduate and postgraduate students, of whom 37.7% were Australian localstudents and 62.3% were international students from 56 other countries. Weconducted data analysis, including frequency analysis and correlation analysis, totest designed hypotheses. Following the survey, we conducted 50 interviews in thefive universities to obtain more detailed information about teaching and learningissues in a cross-cultural education environment and to further understand theneeds of students of Asian background in depth. The interview participants included10 lecturing staff, 25 students of Asian background, seven Australian local studentsand eight graduates of Asian background. The interview data was analysed byword-based text mining and other qualitative approaches.Based on the survey and interview data collected, our study found that internationalstudents experience significant cross-cultural and language difficulties in theirlearning process.Their cross-cultural learning difficulties manifest in the following ways:- The teaching methods used in Australian universities, specifically in classroominteraction and face-to-face teaching, are significantly different from those usedin Asian countries. Open questions show that some 53% of internationalundergraduate students and 57.87% of international postgraduate studentsindicated that the main difference between the universities in their home countryand Australia is in the teaching methods. These students have difficulty in readilyaccepting Australian teaching methods, particularly in their first year at Australianuniversities. Many of them prefer more face-to-face teaching and fewer studentquestions or class discussions during lectures. Some Asian students consider itto be a mark of appreciation and respect for their teachers for students to listenattentively and quietly in class. They consider that all discussion should takeplace after classes as any discussion will impinge on the teacher’s lecture time,resulting in reduced knowledge transmission to students, with the consequencethat students will learn less.4
Page 1 and 2: Strategies and Approaches toTeachin
Page 3: Table of Contents0 EXECUTIVE SUMMAR
Page 8 and 9: 1 Project OutcomesThe outcomes of t
Page 10 and 11: The identification information sect
Page 12: questions aim to discover their ass
Page 15 and 16: 3.2 Literature reviewCross-cultural
Page 17 and 18: 4 Survey Data AnalysisThis section
Page 19 and 20: Total Count 380 632 1012Percentage
Page 21 and 22: 2 Count 12 30 42Percentage 3.1% 4.7
Page 23 and 24: Table 13 shows that nearly all loca
Page 25 and 26: methods are good, while less than h
Page 27 and 28: Preferredfewerlectures andmore labs
Page 29 and 30: Table 26 (Question III.4.D) Preferr
Page 31 and 32: Maindifferencesbetweenteachingmetho
Page 33 and 34: Table 33 shows that about half of l
Page 35 and 36: Table 38 (Question IV.4) Sufficient
Page 37 and 38: understanding lectures?Table 42 (Qu
Page 39 and 40: confident Count 301 179 480Percenta
Page 41 and 42: Table 49 (Question VI.4) Caring abo
Page 43 and 44: Table 52 shows that more local stud
Page 45 and 46: Table 56 shows that both local and
Page 47 and 48: a chi-square test to determine whet
Page 49 and 50: Significance Level (α= 0.05)Hypoth
Page 51 and 52: presentations are unrelated (Indepe
Page 53 and 54: Hypotheses V.2H0: Student category
Page 55 and 56:
encountered at university in 2/3/4
Page 57 and 58:
III.7What are you most concerned ab
Page 59 and 60:
II.6.EII.6.FII.6.GTextbooks you pre
Page 61 and 62:
VII. OtherVII.1.1VII.1.2What are th
Page 63 and 64:
III.6 Do you like lecturers to ask
Page 65 and 66:
distribution of these comments acro
Page 67 and 68:
Figure 4.5 University of Sydney und
Page 69 and 70:
Australia is the environment (11.06
Page 71 and 72:
example, one student said that home
Page 73 and 74:
5 Interview Data AnalysisThis secti
Page 75 and 76:
class?Eight students thought studen
Page 77 and 78:
(1) Did you have any difficulty sel
Page 79 and 80:
5.2 Staff interview data analysisA
Page 81 and 82:
(2) Do you think that the methods y
Page 83 and 84:
is the biggest problem”. One lect
Page 85 and 86:
comments was, “No, I send them to
Page 87 and 88:
lecturer, and one of them like the
Page 89 and 90:
am a shy person I am not comfortabl
Page 91 and 92:
When they have difficulties in read
Page 93 and 94:
(7) Have you been involved in many
Page 95 and 96:
Only two of the graduates had diffi
Page 97 and 98:
Furthermore, I was not familiar wit
Page 99 and 100:
ased communication style such as e-
Page 101 and 102:
CrosstabDifficultieswhenreadingtext
Page 103 and 104:
CrosstabPreferred workingin groups
Page 105 and 106:
CrosstabMain differencesbetween tea
Page 107 and 108:
CrosstabWhat are the maindifficulti
Page 109 and 110:
CrosstabDo you have anyEnglish lang
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
CrosstabAre you confidentabout your
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
CrosstabWhat are the mainstudy diff
Page 119 and 120:
Pearson Chi-SquareLikelihood RatioN
Page 121 and 122:
ead lecture notes.2. Regarding the
Page 123 and 124:
II.9 0.022 0.097 0.174 0.02 0.135II
Page 125 and 126:
From Table 65, we can see that ther
Page 127 and 128:
countries peoples. Personally, I fi
Page 129 and 130:
perceived by them as something insi
Page 131 and 132:
7. Arrange peer groups for those st
Page 133 and 134:
covered (or not covered well) in th
Page 135 and 136:
13. Ask assistance from internation
Page 137 and 138:
11) • Weekly groupcase studies an
Page 139 and 140:
8 Guideline for International Stude
Page 141 and 142:
life. However, it is very important
Page 143 and 144:
There are ways of maintaining focus
Page 145 and 146:
Expect to be nervous initially and
Page 147 and 148:
Avoid cheating and plagiarismAustra
Page 149 and 150:
9 Disciplinary and interdisciplinar
Page 151 and 152:
10 Results communication, publicati
Page 153 and 154:
Visiting Professor Javier Montero f
Page 155 and 156:
11 ReferencesAsmar C. (1999), Schol
show all

Download Document - Office for Learning and Teaching

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?