Fundamento pedagógico

Eight of the nine participants asserted that most of their lecturers in Vietnam expected students just to reproduce knowledge in tests, especially the knowledge provided by the lecturer. For example, Toan described that “in exams, lecturers often expected students to present correctly and precisely what they had provided before”. Some of the lecturers did not require or appreciate any expansion or additions in students’ answers. “They did not accept other answers although those were accepted by reliable documents” (Khanh, Int.1). The students who did not follow the predetermined content could get negative feedback and or a reduced mark:

In tests, most teachers wanted students to follow and conform to what they taught. They did not want students to learn further from other sources or create

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personal opinions. I knew some students who studied very hard, read many different textbooks and had broader knowledge compared to others, but often failed the exams or got low scores. While, I just learnt what my lecturers provided and wrote it down in the exams, and then I always got high marks. (Lan, Int.1)

According to Khanh, the lecturers explained that adhering to the content presented in the classrooms "demonstrated whether the students attended the class, listened to the lectures and followed lecturers’ requirements” (Khanh, Int.1). However, there were a small number of Vietnamese lecturers who encouraged students to express their understanding and show an ability to connect what they had learnt to daily life. For example, Lan described “some lecturers also required students to demonstrate the capability of thinking and creativity in the test answers, but not much” (Lan, Int.1). Most of the participants agreed that there was only a small percentage of creativity required in each test; “in fact, creativity was the smallest part, only about 5 % of tests” (Ha, Int.1). In addition, Toan explained why he thought his lecturers often required their students to present what they had learnt, rather than showing their capability of thinking or creativity in tests.

I think they preferred learning by heart because open-end questions were hardly employed in the tests. Most of the questions asked for presenting or reflecting learnt knowledge from lectures or the course book content. (Toan, Int.1)

Even though the requirements for assessment could help students get good marks, seven participants showed their dissatisfaction with the assessments that they had experienced in Vietnam. For instance, Phung remarked that she did not feel satisfied with the assessment because of “its heavy concentration on memorizing knowledge, making us forget everything right after the tests, so though we had learnt, we didn’t know what we had learnt” (Phung, Int.1). Similarly, Huyen thought the emphasis placed on memorizing and reproducing transferred knowledge “had formed students’ learning routines of listening and following lecturers’ directions without active thoughts, discovery or creation” (Huyen, Int.1). Further, Lan, Tri and Toan all asserted that the assessment had failed to reflect the learning ability or actual capability of students (Lan, Tri & Toan, Int.1).

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In discussing Australian lecturers’ expectations for completing assessments, no participant thought that the lecturers in Australia required students’ reproduction of knowledge in assessments, or expected students to precisely follow what they had provided then reproduce the knowledge in assessments. Instead, seven participants commented that the lecturers often encouraged students to demonstrate their understandings of an issue from various perspectives including personal and research- based views. For example, Thu described:

Generally, lecturers often desire students to show their understanding and knowledge from different points of view. Also, they want students to represent personal opinions, specific ideas based on students’ research and study from different material resources. (Thu, Int.2)

In comparison with previous experiences, Toan stated that assessments in Vietnam usually stuck to textbook content or teaching content provided by the lecturers. In

Australia, he saw the difference that students did not necessarily follow any textbook,

and they could present their own understandings which might be at odds with their lecturers’ views:

…while doing the assignments, students are often encouraged to make their own opinions and defend their opinions based on reasonable evidence which they find out themselves from their experiences or research. Students didn’t need to agree with or have to follow the opinions of the lecturers or a textbook like that in Vietnam. (Toan, Int.2)

In accordance with encouraging multiple perspectives while attempting assessments, five participants also recognized that most of the lecturers they encountered in

Australia often expected students to demonstrate their ability to do research, to fully

understand and to be creative, rather than only requiring students to present background or basic knowledge. This can be seen in the descriptions by Lan and Phung:

Lecturers expect that students shall express their understanding of basic knowledge. Especially, they really appreciate student’s ability to research, create and improve the knowledge. Specifically, lecturers also highly value the further readings and learning of students through different information resources from various resources that students have researched. This encourages students to provide new methods, opinions and strong arguments. (Lan, Int.2)

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Students are not only required to show their understandings of basic knowledge, but also the ability to research, to think critically and expand knowledge. This makes students feel more excited about research and creation. Unlike in

Vietnam, where students just stuck to what the lecturer had offered but didn’t

need to expand or create more, so students only needed to learn the lesson by heart or copy it into their assessments. (Phung, Int.2)

Six participants commented that Australian lecturers generally appreciate the links between ideas or knowledge and practice. The lecturers often required students to relate what they had learnt to work practices, and in assessments the lecturers usually posed questions on real business and social issues requiring students to solve these with their subject knowledge and experiences (Ha, Huyen & Khanh, Int.2). In addition, the lecturers paid more attention to the ways students solved a problem rather than focussing solely on the result they reached. For example, Khanh described: “as I know, lecturers here don’t pay much attention to the final result, but about the method to achieve such results or ways to solve problems” (Khanh, Int.2). He added, the lecturers seemed to appreciate independent research ability and the creative thinking of students, which encouraged students to engage more in study, but that this could be challenging for Vietnamese students, because many were not familiar with creative thinking (Khanh, Int.2).

The participants’ experiences of the lecturers’ expectations for completing assessments in the Australian environment has shown that students were required and encouraged to show their deep understanding, critical thinking and problem solving rather than just knowledge reproduction. These different expectations can also be seen in the attitude toward plagiarism.