International Baccalaureate

Organisation

Asia Pacific Regional Conference

Perth, AUSTRALIA

February 2005
 Getting it right for
international students from
East Asian countries
studying in western national
and international secondary
schools
Dave Kilpatrick
Department of Education Tasmania,
Australia
 Moving beyond the needs
associated with language
acquisition and student
welfare to a focussed
approach to designing
teaching and learning that
accounts for cultural and
institutional difference.
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 from the predominant western
perspectives that form most of the
present research.

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This session will:
Explore the issues that confront Chinese
learners as they assimilate to western learning
environments;
Examine the considerable pressure that
secondary school-aged students experience
when attempting to adjust to vastly different
learning environments;

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This session will:
Acknowledge the significant challenges that
secondary school teachers face in designing
inclusive and productive learning environments;
and
Examine the roles of curriculum coordinators
and school leadership teams in accounting for
the needs of students, teachers and school
organisation in addressing these areas of need.
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About my research…
My background and how this affects they way I
view this inquiry
Student
Teacher
Principal
Manager, International Education Programs
Post-graduate student

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Research question and
leadership challenge

To find ways to assist teachers and curriculum

leaders to adapt learning environments and
curriculum to account for students from
Confucian Heritage Cultures.

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4 Major Questions…
What are the major perceived differences
between Chinese culture and western culture
and how might this impact on design of
education and teaching and learning?
What can we learn from research in this field and
have we been given the right messages?

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4 Major Questions…
What can we learn from the personal stories of
students, teachers and educational leaders in
this field?
What are the major challenges in ensuring that
Chinese heritage culture students can engage
fully in inquiry-based learning?

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Definitions
Confucian Heritage Culture Countries
General term used to describe common features
- distinct from western culture and other cultures -
in countries such as China, Japan, Korea,
Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

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Definitions
Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC)
Describes the collectivist culture that is said to
predominate in the countries listed above.

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Definitions
Chinese learners
A general term to describe learning style
preference and styles of teaching and learning in
CHC countries.

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Definitions
Inquiry Based Learning
A generic term used to emphasise the
importance of an active involvement in any
learning situation. It recognises the importance
of the learner engaging in critical questions
about the area or issue being investigated.
Placing the students at the centre of learning.
(Ewing and Smith, 2002)

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The Chinese Learner
Term widely used to describe students from a
variety of national backgrounds –
China,
Taiwan,
Hong Kong,
Malaysia, and
Singapore.

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Confucian Heritage Culture
Emphasis on the hierarchy of relationships and
collectivism.
Stability of society is based on unequal
relationships between people.
Each individual has a set of obligations to fulfil in
the hierarchy (kinship, age, experience, gender,
geographic region or (Hofstede 1994).

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Confucian Heritage Culture
Chinese perceive themselves not as biological
individuals but rather that they are intimately
related to immediate kinship.
“Cultures and Organisations – Intercultural
cooperation and its importance for survival”
(Hofstede, 1994)

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Wu Lun – the five basic relationships
1. Subject - ruler
2. Father - son
3. Older brother - younger brother
4. Husband - wife
5. Senior friend - junior friend
(Holfstede, 1994)

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 Power Distance Teacher Student
Relationships
High power distance relationship where juniors
defer to seniors, and display a dependency
relationship in their daily activities and decision-
making.

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Power Distance Relationships
This has been used to understand the teacher-
student relationship in CHC and explains the
westerners perception of the popular
approaches to teaching and school organisation
in these countries.

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Approaches to learning can be
defined as a person’s perception of
practices in a learning context
(Biggs, 1987).

Biggs identifies three approaches to learning:

Surface (reliance on memorisation);
Deep (concerned with understanding and meaning);
Achieving (using whichever approach is required to
succeed in academic pursuits).

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The Chinese Learner
The term should be used with caution as it is
unlikely that the above mentioned national
groups can be described as a homogenous
group.
Most researchers describe these learners as
passive learners who are reliant on rote learning
and memorisation methodology, or “surface
learners”.
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The Chinese Learner
It is said that Chinese students view the teacher
as a role model or authority figure to respect and
obey, whilst western students see the teacher’s
role as facilitator and organiser.
(Cortazzi and Jin, 1997)

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The Chinese Learner
CHC students favour a collectivist view of culture
where the good of the group is valued above that
of the individual. In this cultural setting, students
may be inclined to:
defer to teacher authority;
prefer group harmony
avoid conflict; and…

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The Chinese Learner
CHC students are unlikely to:
question; or
draw attention to themselves;

But is this the full picture?

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CHC approach to learning
Over dependence on teacher instruction;
The use of rote learning;
Harsh teacher student relationships;
Large class size;
Undue emphasis on assessment; and
Teacher centred approaches.
(Watkins 1996)

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CHC learning
Studies show that many of the better students
combine the process of memorising and
understanding to produce higher quality learning
outcomes than their Australian peers (Watkins
1996).
If the assessment system is seen by these
students to be rewarding higher order outcomes,
they are able to perform at higher levels.
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CHC learning
As Watkins says, the hopeful point here is that
most Chinese students are cue conscious, so
changes in assessment systems can be used to
improve learning.

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CHC teaching
As far as teaching goes, it seems that the better
Chinese teachers are able to engage their
students cognitively, even when using whole
group teaching methods in large classes.

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CHC approach to learning
There is an assumption that Chinese learners
are surface learners, but this does not explain
why they excel in science and mathematics, in
comparison with their peers in the UK, America,
New Zealand and Australia.

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Achievement and learning
It is said that students who are more self
confident and who seek greater responsibility for
their own learning outcomes are more likely to
adopt deeper more achieving approaches to
learning which require them to rely more on their
own understanding of the course material rather
than being overly dependent on the teacher or
the text book.
(Biggs, 1987 and Scheck 1998)

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 Could a student do well at science or
mathematics with a surface level understanding?
We suspect not.

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 So this leads me to question
commonly held assumptions about
teaching and learning in CHC
countries and what this means for
transition of learners from these
countries into western and
international schools where inquiry-
based learning is favoured (in theory
and/or in practice).

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Asian Research
A number of studies based at Asian universities
have focussed much effort in explaining a
seeming paradox.
The good performance of Chinese students
despite teaching and learning approaches which
are viewed by western educators as typified by:

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My Research
Context
Methodology
Adopted from Cultural Learning Environment
Questionnaire (CLEQ). (Waldrip and Fisher)
3,000 secondary aged science students in Australian
schools and in Taiwan.
Sample: Australian students, International students,
Chinese students.

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Methodology
Adapted the Cultural Learning Environment
Questionnaire of Waldrip and Fisher, which
Studied >3,000 students in selected secondary
Australian school classes;
Examined students’ perceptions about:
Gender equity Deference Modelling
Collaboration Competition Congruence
Teacher authority
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Methodology
In the Tasmanian study, an 8th scale was added:
To examine equity from the perspective of
access to resources and teacher assistance.
Examined actual rather than preferred
environment

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Methodology
Tasmanian student survey - 133 fee paying
international students from 4 senior secondary
colleges.
A small sample group of local students.
150 students from CATIS schools.

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Findings–2003 survey & comparison
Focus Int Int Local Local China China
male female male female male female
Gender equity 3.1 3.1 3.8 3.5 3.6 3.8
Collaboration 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.8 3.2 3.4
Deference 2.5 2.3 2.0 1.9 1.9 1.9
Competition 2.3 2.5 1.8 1.9 3.2 3.3
Teacher authority 2.2 2.0 2.3 2.0 2.8 2.8
Modelling 2.5 2.5 2.2 2.0 2.3 2.7
Congruence 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.4 2.6
Access 2.8 2.5 3.1 3.1 3.2 3.5

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What was learnt?
Gender equity
No significant difference between male and female
or between international and local.
Generally students do not see gender difference as
affecting their learning environments.

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What was learnt?
Collaboration
No marked difference between the 3 sample groups
Most scores fell within a narrow range except
international females, where a wide range of scores
was recorded.
Chinese national students value collaboration slightly
more than the other groups in this survey.

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What was learnt?
Deference
International students relied more heavily on teacher
or peer support of learning – may indicate a group
dependence on teacher or other significant person-
centred learning.
Chinese national students studying in Australian
based programs may overtime be more
independent risk takers.

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What was learnt?
Competition
Chinese national students favour competition in their
learning environments more highly than Australian
national students and international students studying
in Tasmania.

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What was learnt?
Teacher Authority
This study showed marked difference between
sample cohorts. This result serves to challenge
traditional held perceptions about the student
teacher relationships in Asian countries.
Chinese national students place greater reliance on
teacher authority in their preferred learning
environments.

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What was learnt?
Modelling
This study showed only a small difference in
perceptions between local and international
students.
No marked gender difference.
Chines national students had a similar preference for
modelling by teachers and peers in the classroom,
as did international students studying in Tasmania.

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What was learnt?
Congruence
The focus group work undertaken as part of this study
showed that international students most likely interpreted the
word ‘home’ to mean home country, home family, homestay
family, but most likely, life outside of school. They felt the
questions were asking students to examine the links between
school learning and their whole development.
There was no significant difference between international and
local students.

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What was learnt?
Access to Assistance
On the whole, students believed that they had access to
appropriate assistance and resources.
The international female student group scored slightly lower
than local males and females, suggesting that these students
might feel they have less access to resources and assistance
to teachers than local students.
Students in CATIS schools believed they had equal access to
resources and teacher assistance.

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Implications for curriculum leadership
Tendency for CHC students to work in small
groups, especially with students from their own
country.
For teachers this raises the question “whose
work is being assessed?”
What skills need to be taught to allow CHC
students to access discussion based learning?
How is this best supported?

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Implications for curriculum leadership
Need to focus on the student and the learning
environment to improve learning for international
students.
Most international students fail to mix with
Australian students – they feel tolerated rather
than accepted, and sometimes isolated and
excluded (Melbourne Uni study 2004)
Buddy systems sound good, but rarely last.

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Implications for curriculum leadership
Every society has many beliefs and practices
which are so fundamental and so self evident
they are never discussed or questioned. There
may be a need to examine our own practices in
order to apprentice all students into academic
genres (Jones 1999).

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Implications for curriculum leadership
Managing the power distance relationship in the
context of language and communication difficulties
between teachers and student to establish conducive
relationships to manage transition.
Focus of learning is conceptual change?
Understand that for CHC student there is a place for
memorisation approach in surface and deep learning.
Proximity theory needs challenging.
Teach learning skills explicitly

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Discussion Questions
What are the optimal groupings for CHC learners and
how do we accommodate their needs associated with
transition to western curriculum / schooling (what are
your experiences / strategies / solutions?)
What pedagogical practice provides situations for
moving from the familiar surface to deeper learning via
achievement focus? What are the roles of inquiry
project and autonomous work.
What teacher behaviours will model, formatively,
interactions that we want CHC students to adopt in
working in western and international schools

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