Apart from sharing personal journeys, staff suggested a wide range of solutions to the challenges they faced in teaching and learning in
international classrooms, including peer supported review, investing effort in getting to know students as individuals, adopting teaching methods aimed to
meet the needs of international students more effectively and addressing organisational issues.
The university promotes Peer Supported Review (PSR) as a means of enabling staff to reflect and evaluate their practice in facilitating learning, teaching as well as materials and curriculum design. According to the majority of staff interviewed, peer review can be a powerful enabler in implementing internationalisation in the
classroom. The constructive and dialogic approach of the review was reported as a great catalyst for a more scholarly self-‐evaluation, as captured by Heather, an experienced lecturer:
I think observing teaching a mixed ability class is always useful, e.g. the Peer Support Review we implemented this year -‐ something that really helped me when I first started teaching. In terms of basic teaching and learning knowledge, watching someone who is really experienced in teaching international students helped massively, but having to do the review of that and thinking of that made a huge difference. [Focus Group 3b]
All participants enthusiastically shared their experience of various ways of engaging with international students to maximise learning opportunities. Some emphasised getting to know individual students as a useful way of finding out how best to offer support:
It’s a bit of a cliché but what always works for me is to try to understand the new students, their prior knowledge and learning experiences, just to identify and make sense of what they already know and celebrate that, using various
methodologies to fill in the gaps to make sure they progress. [Gareth, Senior Lecturer, Focus Group 3b]
Some admitted it was not until they started teaching international students that they realised it is only too easy to make assumptions about them and how they learn. Gareth continued to shed light on this issue:
I realised how important it is to check learning. We cannot assume students are learning. With international students, we’ve found new approaches to confirm learning, ensuring we‘re picking up on instances where we think learning isn’t taking place.
Unsurprisingly, the main contributors to the discussion of teaching methods were Learning Development tutors and EAP tutors, who introduced a range of strategies, including concept checking, the use of dictionaries, support for reading and the use of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs).
In the early stages of the programmes, the use of concept checking in inductive language teaching, where learners arrive at an understanding of rules through looking at explicit examples of use, was perceived as crucial. This approach was considered by the majority of staff as one of the most effective tools for learning for international students. By the same token, it was noted that in other modes of teaching, such as lectures or workshops, tutors tended to misjudge the power of silence. Lisa, one of the Learning Development tutors recalled a situation where she observed a seminar with a subject tutor teaching international students.
The tutor was really accommodating and friendly, but did not ask students direct questions; there was no concept checking and very little interaction. He did not establish objectives, expectations and the purpose of the session. Students did not know how to interrupt, nor were they given a chance to answer questions as the time between question and answer was very brief. As a result, the tutor thought the students were not
prepared for the seminar whereas in fact, he did not give them a chance to participate. [Focus Group 1b]
The same tutor argued that some of these challenges could have been easily tackled if the purpose of the session and objectives had been established, especially at the very beginning in the induction phase: “Rules, expectations, assessment, black and white, cast in stone things, but also things like checking emails, VLEs”.
In a similar vein, other Learning Development Tutors disclosed that they found students are very often told to use dictionaries but very rarely shown explicitly how to use them effectively: “I’m afraid one thing that scares me about it is the fact how concepts translate really badly”. Lisa, in particular, flagged up the importance of training students how to use dictionaries effectively:
Students do not know how to use the dictionary, they look up one version of a word, translate it into their languages and it might be something absolutely different that they expected. I’m really sorry, but I sound a bit like an ‘English Hitler’, but I really think it’s worth spending time making sure your students know how to choose the appropriate meaning of a word.
In two focus groups, staff identified the fact that little or no time was devoted to reading in the classroom as a contributory factor in international student underachievement. In the words of Lisa: “It’s about reading and becoming familiar with the canon of work you’re expected to know and it’s very often underrated how little attention is given to literature review part. It’s difficult for speaker of English as a first language, not to mention second”.
Helen, another Learning Development Tutor argued that this could be easily addressed if reading were introduced into the course step-‐by-‐step and integrated into actual class time:
It’s something that everyone takes for granted. I think I’m almost fluent in my first language, I’ve done my degrees, I read quite a lot, but I think that some of the books on first year BA reading list are extremely difficult and genuinely dense. Especially in art and design, it’s so abstract! [Focus Group 1b]
In one focus group, it was also reported that main subject tutors do not always pay explicit attention to items on the reading lists as it is assumed students will read them in their free time. Lisa commented: “The reason why international students don’t know how to write it because they haven’t managed to start reading. How can you write if you haven’t collected enough ideas and thoughts”? The same tutor continued: “Students are not quite clear what they’re supposed to do, they’re supposed to have an opinion but they can’t say ‘I’.
The majority of staff agreed that international students have great difficulty with critical thinking and reading. According to Borland and Pearce, (1999, 60), critical thinking underpins Western academic culture and the ‘reading of written text is, in a sense, the basis of tertiary study’. In one focus group, the Learning Development tutors compared this challenge to an invisible activity, not generally taught, let alone assessed; yet this knowledge was key to
success in HE.
Some main subject lecturers, for their part, considered that making traditional and non-‐interactive modes of teaching, such as lectures, more dynamic could be extremely effective, though with a caveat. Sandra, an EAP Lecturer, provided support for this position:
The discursive method of presentation (even in lectures), which invites feedback, requires a certain timeframe of introduction to allow students to gain confidence in their
linguistic abilities and prepare them to debate and challenge material that is presented. [Focus Group 3b]
The majority of staff participating in focus groups and responding to the survey not only mentioned various methods of supporting international PG students with their academic work, but also with adjustment at the beginning of the course. In addition to the International Pathway Programmes
described in chapter 5, initiatives included MUNCH described by Lucinda, a Learning Development Tutor as:
very loose sessions open to all students who are feeling less at ease with the academic discourse. It is a place where we can have loose conversations on issues that come up; the idea is to encourage international students to have a safe place without worrying. The aim is also to talk about how people talk about art and design. [Focus Group 2b]
Lucinda also stressed the advantages associated with a non-‐ threatening environment for all students: “MUNCH is an open
discussion forum in which international students chat freely without being assessed. It is also for home students who lack confidence to speak or don’t have the opportunity to speak.”
Another strategy reported across all focus groups with staff was the
university Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). The online resources were perceived as a potential platform for allowing internationalisation of learning and teaching to take place and to further strengthen students’ linguistic competence as a preparation for seminars and workshops:
Using VLE to support internationalisation should be mandatory for all academic staff including course
documentation, notices, lecture and seminar notes, pre and post seminar tasks. These would enable international students
to navigate it more easily and help them to become comfortable using the documents. [Trisha, Learning Development Tutor, Focus Group 2b]
While virtual learning may have considerable potential, there should also be some caveats. For instance, a case study undertaken by the university Learning Technologist (Reeves, 2014) suggests that, when designing a learning environment around an online tool such as a blog, there is a need for educators to be mindful of “hidden dimensions in their pedagogical activity” (Bélisle, 2008, 1) if they wish to offer .a fully intercultural learning experience. While
students found the blog to be beneficial to their learning, there was a .failure to identify and address intercultural issues.
There was no shortage of evidence, then, of awareness of alternative approaches and an emergent understanding of the need to adapt teaching and learning strategies in the institution as a whole. In this respect, a senior lecturer made an interesting prediction about the future of HE in his
response to the survey in support of the idea of deeper understanding of international students’ learning contexts:
Post-‐graduate studies are highly internationalised and the future will see undoubtedly a shift from Anglophone or
European perspectives within HE to ones that are influenced by local models abroad. So we have to be mindful of not simply exporting working practices, methods and teaching
philosophies but actively incorporating those from countries where our cohorts originate.
While there are differences and similarities towards knowledge and
scholarship between these HE systems, the models the lecturer referred to, reflect the changing landscape of contemporary teaching and learning
conditions and imperatives become more closely tied to discourses of internationalisation and globalisation. This demonstrates recognition of the changes occurring in HE. The lecturer clearly identified the need for an “understanding of the need for genuine intercultural dialogue so that international education is not just based on the legitimisation of Western knowledge but becomes an enterprise of mutual learning” (Ryan, 2012, 55).