There are an increasing number of students enrolling in higher education in Australia, in part due to the Australian government’s widening participation agenda, but also the realisation about the transformative impact of higher education (or education generally) on lives of individuals, communities and society as a whole.
Naturally as the number of students increases, so too does the diversity of the students. Diversity manifests in different ways:
Students bring these characteristics to class regardless whether they are domestic or international students. Good teaching practice should create learning environments that is inclusive for all students, regardless of where they are from. Addressing the diversity of learning needs is just good teaching practice…. There has been a lot of coverage in the media recently about how international students tend to take too much resources (time and effort) and at least in one particular piece that appeared in one print media recently, documents the account of one domestic student required to ‘help’ international students, in according to that writer in the form of peer-learning. Peer learning is a legitimate educational and learning approach that has been tried and tested for many years. Prominent researchers have documented and published the benefits of such an approach. However, it certainly is not a way to simply put groups of students together without any structured learning aims and activities. When peer learning is used without any thought it is unlikely to succeed regardless of the students’ backgrounds. One of the things that I have mentioned previously if the need to provide students opportunities to engage in a range of diverse learning experiences and ideas. Classrooms that are rich in diversity provides excellent opportunity for this. With the world of work and research becoming more and more globalised it then becomes even more important to allow students to engage in ideas that have a global impact, and what better way to do this than engaging with diverse ideas that so many of our international students bring with them. Not recognising this will be a lost opportunity.
3 Comments
Amy
18/9/2019 10:57:36 am
There are a few key points mentioned in this blog. For now, I want to address the media example. There seems to be a divide between the views of Australian universities towards international students and the rest of the community. Universities recognise the value of international students, however, that positive message has not filtered into the community, which is why we tend to see such articles. It would be interesting to know how this particular article was responded to, if at all, by the concerned university.
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pranit
18/9/2019 11:30:56 am
Bravo.....that is exactly what is wrong with the whole thing....there is this us and them attitude....but I feel many at universities are also just as guilty....many many academics don't see international students as anything else than money bags!!
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Amy
18/9/2019 12:14:55 pm
Yes, the challenge for universities is to strike the right balance between commercial interests against the more altruistic goal of imparting education. It goes to the heart of the purpose of universities.
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