Search results

The first indication that traditional lecture-style teaching is not very effective was provided by Dr Donald Bligh in the 1980s and 1990s. As empirical evidence about this fact has continued to accumulate, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in the USA has undergone a significant change in emphasis away from lecture-based approaches in favor of systems emphasizing more interactive learning. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

A wide range of experimental research has employed the principles of scientific teaching to investigate the efficacy of an ever widening range of pedagogical methods. For STEM education, the most successful of these has been active learning.

At its core, active learning is a redesign of in-class activities to maximize interactivity and feedback through facilitated problem-solving environments. Although the efficacies of both scientific teaching and active learning have been verified in a wide range of empirical works, the dissemination of these platforms, in general, teaching has been slow, even in the USA.

The first significant impediment has been an overall lack of awareness coupled with general skepticism about alternative learning methods.

This paper first reviews the education literature behind scientific teaching and active learning before reviewing some of the challenges to their implementation on an institutional level.

These challenges and known solutions are then applied to the European and East Asian contexts to examine why scientific teaching and active learning remain predominantly an American phenomenon.

For East Asian countries, the authors offer a commentary on how certain aspects of Confucian classroom culture may interact negatively with efforts to install scientific teaching and active learning systems.

To provide an understanding of the ways in which Confucian Heritage students use reflection as a means of learning at university.

The approach is an exploratory qualitative study into the ways in which Confucian Heritage students learn while studying at university. Data are collected by means of semi‐structured formal interviews involving six students enrolled in a first‐year business course at an Australian university. Interviews are analysed using qualitative content analysis to identify major themes.

The research finds that values and cultural background influence Confucian Heritage students' approaches to teaching and learning at university. Beliefs that Confucian Heritage students learn through “rote learning” are challenged. Reflection is shown to be an important means of understanding, through deep learning, for Confucian Heritage students.

Understanding the relationship between culture and learning will inform teaching practice, thus enabling educators to guide and facilitate learning outcomes more effectively.

The research challenges the assumption that Confucian Heritage students use surface learning approaches such as “rote learning”. In fact, repetition is part of a process of reflection leading to deep learning. The research shows the importance of understanding culture as a means of improving learning outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the information ethics (IE) of students appear to improve more through adoption of the technology mediated learning (TML) platform rather than face-to-face (FTF) approach. In addition, it shows the pattern changes in each scenario resulting from the ethics training and analyses them from the Confucian ethics perspective, indicating that researchers should consider this aspect in future models.

This study employed non-parametric methods to test the outcome of the “information ethics course” of two kinds of training platforms. FTF training: 193 students; TML training: 185 students.

The TML platform produces a more significant improvement in the students’ respect for rules, privacy, accessibility, and intellectual property (IP) cognition, rather than the FTF method. Based on the findings, two propositions (eight sub-propositions) are formulated and revised two sub-propositions.

However, this study has a few limitations that can be enhanced by further research in the future: first, the data were only collected from one university (National Pingtung University), thus, the external validity is not satisfactory for all Chinese context students. Second, it is necessary to collect both of scenario-based and qualitative data from different cultural context students (such as Mainland China, the USA, Europe, Arabia, etc.) and then compare their results, thereby making further contributions to the current study. Third, the study was intentionally used as the measure of progress in ethical understanding without highlighting the difference between intentionality and actual behavior.

Teachers should draw upon the principles of Ren, Yi, and Li, from the Confucian ethics perspective to encourage students to respect the IE for Chinese context students. In addition, emphasis should be placed on the ability of students to build their information ethics cognition through the cognitive information processing learning methods, which can enhance the “accessibility,” “accuracy,” “privacy,” and “IP” cognition of Chinese students in both the FTF and TML platform learning process. This will help to reduce students’ unethical behavior as they advance in their future careers.

Seeks to examine the impact of national culture on the importance level students place on ten teaching techniques commonly used by US business instructors.

Undergraduate and MBA business students, including students born in the USA and students born in a foreign country, rated the techniques.

Ratings by students from cultures preferring techniques where the instructor provides high structure differ slightly from the ratings by students from cultures preferring techniques where the instructor provides lower structure.

The respondents are from one US university. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized.

The framework is useful in that it reminds instructors/trainers that, if a group of learners is from the same culture, a customized technique may be effective but, if the group is from diverse cultures, it reminds them that they may have to provide more structure to those students and trainees from cultures which learn best through directive techniques than to those which learn best through less directive techniques.

Some researchers have examined how culture influences learning‐style preference. However, much of the existing literature has been contributed by educational psychologists, whose major concern has been the academic performance of Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians being lower than that of whites in the USA. This study addresses the impact of national culture on students’ teaching/learning technique preference.

The internationalization of United States higher education has been described as a “two-way street” where students arrive at knowledge transfer. That transfer occurs through a curriculum deemed “unidirectional” with no relevance to local issues or needs and results in limited application and educational colonialism perceptions. Specific to leadership education, the extant literature presents implications of neglect to cultural contexts traditionally reflected in the curriculum within a host nation. We used an explanatory mixed methods design for this study to investigate the degree to which undergraduate Western-based leadership studies courses taught in China reflect the notion of “neocolonialism” by prioritizing Western interests and values.

While the study’s quantitative results reveal cultural differences in leadership education concepts, the qualitative follow-up phase finds students’ appreciation in the utility of leadership concepts and knowledge gained from the leadership curriculum. Students could cite specific situations in which they employed leadership concepts acquired from their respective leadership courses.

This paper aims to explore the changing pedagogic discourses in China today, using the current wave of English curriculum innovation as a focused case. Given the cross-cultural nature of foreign language education, the change in the English as a foreign language curriculum in China has served as a fertile ground for different pedagogical ideas to emerge and to cross. The new English curriculum in China has endorsed a more communicative and humanistic view of language teaching, encouraging teachers to adopt a task-based approach to organize their classroom teaching. The new English curriculum has aroused a heated debate among Chinese scholars on the suitability of such a Western curriculum idea in the Chinese educational context on the basis of its relation to the Confucian tradition of education, the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context of China and the danger of post-colonialist imposition.

A critique is conducted on the three areas of controversies by situating the debate in the larger context of the cross-cultural understanding of the Chinese pedagogic discourse in the process of globalization and internationalization.

It is important for China to resist the homogenizing effect of globalization and internationalization in the area of curriculum development; however, being defensive and protective of one’s own and dismissive of others has not been and should not be the attitude of Chinese curriculum reform. The evolution of Chinese pedagogy is not only a result of Western influence but also a result of social change in the process of industrialization (Cheng, 2011). Global trends and national traditions should not be taken as extremes in an incompatible and irreconcilable dichotomy.

The three areas of debates on the new English curriculum can serve as a good lens into the evolving curriculum discourses in China. They reflect the cultural–historical, contextual and critical considerations among Chinese educational scholars in the national curriculum innovation efforts.

Identifies several features in East Asian schools which coincide with commonly recognized characteristics of effective schools in the Western literature: community support, teacher professionalism, attention to quality and high expectations. Attributes this to the East Asian culture and discusses three major dimensions of the East Asian culture: the individual‐community dimension, the effort‐ability dichotomy and the holistic‐analytic tendency in analyses. Traces the origin of such cultural dimensions in the ancient literature and explores the implications of such cultural dimensions in school management. Briefly highlights two major challenges to the adoption of an effective schooling system in East Asia.

The purpose of this paper is to provide for Western educators of international Chinese and Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) students the first integrated review of kiasu, the “fear of missing out”, and its consequences for learning, teaching, and future research.

A review of the economic importance of international Chinese students is provided, followed by consideration of the pedagogical consequences of restricted participation in educational activities by the so-called “silent Chinese student”. Examination of research on international Chinese students and their source cultures established significant gaps and misunderstandings in the generally accepted understandings of CHCs, especially with respect to the actual practices used in Western and Chinese teaching. More importantly, the participation-related implications of kiasu within the context of broader cultural characteristics are described and implications drawn for teaching practices and research.

While many Western university teachers are aware of the “silent Chinese student” phenomenon, few understand its underlying reasons, especially the kiasu mindset and its relationship to other cultural elements. Kiasu actively impedes the interaction of international Chinese students with their teachers and restricts collaboration with peers, thereby limiting educational achievement. Specific tactics for amelioration are reviewed and recommendations are provided, while an agenda for future research is outlined.

Western teachers need to normalise and encourage Chinese student participation in class activities using tactics that have been demonstrated to improve outcomes for Chinese students, but that also assist students generally. These include both within-class and electronic interaction tools.

More culturally sensitive understanding of the impact of cultural differences on teaching effectiveness. While some effective responses to these already exist, further research is needed to expand the skill-set of Western teachers who work with international Chinese students.

This paper provides the first systematic integration of the kiasu phenomenon with educational practice and research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role Australian University marketing students’ cultural backgrounds play in their learning and their perceptions of assessment and explores whether current assessments appropriately address the differing needs of a culturally diverse student population.

The paper adopts a qualitative approach utilising five focus groups, each comprised of 12 students.

Results indicate learning environments, learning and assessment approaches and assessment tasks each bring their own benefits, constraints and challenges to studying in a culturally diverse environment. Principles are presented for adoption by marketing educators in order to foster a vibrant, inclusive learning environment which meets the educational needs and wants of a culturally diverse student cohort.

The number of students representing different global regions or countries limited this study. With the exception of students from Australia and the Asian region, there were minimal students representing other cultural backgrounds despite every attempt being made to be culturally inclusive across global regions.

The paper presents the principles of C.U.L.T.U.R.E. and recommends their integration into learning approaches and assessment practices across Schools and Faculties at the tertiary level.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study a culturally diverse student cohort's perceptions and attitudes towards learning approaches and assessment practices and their perceived relevance to the provision of core graduate business and generic skills necessary for employability in the global marketplace.

This study aims to present the results of a curriculum design intervention, which was undertaken to address the inhibitors and enablers facing international (mainly Chinese) students on a capstone undergraduate strategic management module at a UK university business school.

Using an action research approach, the pre-intervention phase identified two main concerns: low levels of student engagement and avoidance of generic academic and language support. The module was subsequently redesigned around a group-based strategic business simulation (requiring collaborative participation of all students), with embedded language and academic support, plus the involvement of bilingual teaching staff.

Post-intervention results from the four-year study indicated enhanced academic engagement of international students and a narrowing of the performance (grade) gap between domestic and international students.

Overall findings should provide strong support for the inclusion of active learning pedagogies in undergraduate business course deliveries, also complementing educational literature that advocates the effectiveness of constructivist pedagogies in mixed-nationality classrooms.

This study exemplifies a form of participatory action research. The juxtaposition of comments from support and specialist tutors, along with those of students, highlights the validity of views from each stakeholder group.