Cross-cultural learning and teaching in Australian universities
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Faculty
Faculty of Computing, Health and Science
School
School of Computer and Security Science
RAS ID
8501
Abstract
This paper reports the initial findings of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) funded study on cross-cultural learning and teaching in Australian universities. The aim of this study is to investigate how students’ cultural background influences their perception and expectation of university learning and teaching. There are two main objectives of this study, one is to help academics and education managers to devise new strategies or further improve existing strategies in teaching/guiding international students; another is to assist Asian background students in developing better study approaches. The first stage of data collection of this study was carried out in five universities across Australia where students from both undergraduate and post graduate programmes were surveyed using a questionnaire. Over 1000 valid responses were collected and the focus of this paper is to report some initial findings from these survey data. Preliminary analyses on student survey data indicate English language related difficulties being the major problem area faced by International students studying in Australian Universities. In contrast, cultural differences appear to have little influence on perceptions and expectations in the other teaching and learning issues.
Comments
Chin, K. L., Lu, J., Xu, J., Xiao, J., & Yao, J. (2009). Cross-cultural learning and teaching in Australian universities. In Proceedings of Improving University Teaching (IUT2009): 34th International Conference - Navigating Innovations in Teaching and Learning.