Chinese students — a matter of heart

Abstract

This paper charts the ways in which teachers and international students learned to recognise each other’s expectations derived from their different academic cultures. Teachers, recognising that students were unfamiliar with course demands, experimented with interventions to teaching and assessment in the early stages of the course, with the aim of giving students confidence and improving their study skills, improving grades and engaging with students. The research shows that the most valued attribute in a teacher is what students describe as ‘heart’ — put simply, that the teacher understands them, is able to anticipate their needs and is available.

The research shows that students gain more when teachers acknowledge differences in academic conventions. It is necessary to recognise this need in order to start to implement a genuine international pedagogy.

Keywords:

• academic cultures
• higher education
• international students
• pedagogy

Introduction

The continued and increasing presence of students from outside the UK in British universities (HESA, 2009) raises significant questions about the appropriate responses from teachers trying to manage learning in a context of growing diversity. Over the last decade, the majority of these students in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) have preferred one-year taught postgraduate degrees, particularly in business and management and in technology and related disciplines, with slow growth in undergraduate participation. Large numbers of these students are Chinese speaking, and the post-92 ex-polytechnic universities recruit many students onto vocational style courses from countries throughout East Asia, including Mainland China.

Research conducted widely in UK universities from i-graduate (International Student Barometer (ISB)) and UKCOSA (2004) and a growing literature on the subject (De Vita and Case, 2003; Caruana and Spurling, 2007; Turner, 2006) suggest that these students have varied expectations. While these are largely met, international students appear to be less satisfied with the elements of teaching and learning, which may be more unfamiliar to them and run counter to their previous experience of the teacher/student relationship and styles of learning and assessment. The literature tends to present such students in a ‘deficit’ context, where students used to a more didactic and traditional framework have difficulty in adjusting to a study culture which values active and process learning.

While more teachers in higher education (HE) acknowledge the challenges faced by such students both as learners and as members of the university and its wider community, the difficulties of managing such cultural diversity in the teaching and learning context are very demanding, and it is common, and in many ways reasonable, to respond by seeking to adjust students’ behaviours to existing practice. This may be prompted by a concern to raise student performance, particularly when students fail or struggle to complete, but the background of the literature can lend credibility to the belief that local learning styles are of greater value in preparing people for work in complex global organisations than traditional and ‘rote’ styles of teaching and learning: creating knowledge, rather than transferring it. The continued demand for study of this kind suggests that this belief is shared by many aspirant members of Asian society seeking upward mobility and well-paid employment.

In this paper we seek to explore some of these issues and test some of the underlying assumptions. The paper is based on three different research activities conducted at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU). One was to gather some simple data annually from all newly arriving international students. These are mainly attending taught master’s programmes and from India and China, with smaller numbers from the rest of Europe, Mexico and Arab speaking countries. Two other research projects were conducted exclusively with Chinese students, one group from Hong Kong, the other attending a course in the UK.

All led to changes in teaching approach and the paper considers some of the changes in their delivery and impact. It also questions the view that Chinese learners are less strategic or less able to engage in learning associated with critical development. Undertaking this research has provoked reflection on questions of pedagogy in a wider context, which may suggest the need to examine more closely whether what is being taught in many universities these days actually does enable graduates to engage in critical discourse which can tackle complex, ambiguous and contradictory assumptions and foster genuine enquiry. The presence of international students on campus creates an opportunity to review and transform existing pedagogical traditions and the curriculum of every subject discipline and to assess their fitness for purpose in a new global context. To resist such a challenge is not progressive and places universities at risk if dissatisfaction about teaching and learning among international students continues to rise and ultimately drives them away.

This paper aims to evaluate changes in teaching style when teaching international learners, and the impact of different teaching strategies on international learners. We also consider how we enable learners to develop new skills in order to succeed in developing learner autonomy and critical development and to apply these qualities professionally. We examine aspects common to the discourse that represent some of the thinking influencing pedagogical approaches to international students and, specifically, the cultural differences in connection with the role of the teacher and group work.

We also consider relevant findings of research activities undertaken with international students and present an evaluation of the research and the interventions adopted in the university to support the learning development and cultural adjustment of international students, both at course and institutional level.

1. Cultural differences

The role of the teacher/lecturer

In Confucian heritage cultures (CHCs), the lecturer or teacher is regarded as all-knowing and is the sole provider of knowledge. Chinese learners have been brought up to respect knowledge and wisdom; they have been socialised to respect teachers and those who provide them with knowledge (Chan, 1999). Due to high power distance the teacher is held in great respect; the student does not challenge the views of a lecturer. These authority relationships between students and lecturers reflect Confucianism and high power distance in Chinese culture. A person would be expected to follow a superior without question (Chan, 1999; Dimmock and Walker, 1998; Martinsons and Martinsons, 1996). The relationship with the teacher is also of some importance. In studies relating to the ‘good teacher’, references are made to the concept of the teacher as a friend (Cortazzi and Jin, 2001).

The general view found in the literature is that the teacher’s role is to teach and set rules. Students rely on the teacher and seek specific instructions. The teacher must lay down clear directions that the student must follow. In Hong Kong the teaching style is the didactic and teacher-centred. Lectures, tutorials and seminars are far more popular than any other teaching style (Chow, 1995; Berrell et al, 2001). Martinsons and Martinsons (1996) reinforce this view, stating that the teacher passes on knowledge to students who have little exposure to teaching methods beyond the didactic. They accept and expect knowledge transfer. In a small-scale study of Hong Kong distance-learning students, the lecturer was expected to pass on knowledge and students did not expect to contradict. (Nield, 2002; Wu, 2002).

Further research by Jin and Cortazzi (1998) into what constitutes a good teacher indicates some major differences between British and Chinese students. From their research, Jin and Cortazzi (1998) concluded that from a Chinese perspective good teachers have deep knowledge, answer students’ questions and are moral examples. On the other hand, a good British teacher is expected to arouse interest, organise a variety of classroom activities and explain everything clearly. The notion of Chinese teachers as being warm-hearted is Confucian and stems from the Confucian concept of ‘ren’, which translates as ‘showing humanity, human-heartedness or love’ (Jin and Cortazzi, 1998: 757).

This view of the teacher, and the preference for knowledge transfer, is common throughout most of the literature. Rodrigues et al (2000) assert that countries whose culture is based on Confucianism, such as Hong Kong, produce learners who prefer a teacher-centred approach. Howarth (2003) found that Chinese students at a Swiss hotel school awarded her higher status than other students did and preferred a teacher-centred approach. There is, however, some evidence to the contrary. In a limited study of Chinese MBA students, the results of a Canfield inventory showed that although most of the sample had been taught mainly by lecture their actual preference was for direct experience (Ladd and Ruby, 1999).

Wu (2002: 390) adequately sums up the Chinese teacher. She says that the classical Chinese pedagogue is viewed as ‘remote, austere, highly-respected, strict, demanding, and parental’. Importantly for this research she warns of problems associated with the culture clash that may arise when students who have been educated by the Chinese pedagogue are faced with their more easygoing, liberal western counterpart.

While many studies focus specifically on the relationship between Chinese students and their teachers, and this is clearly a specific difference, there are other differences which seem to be common to many groups of international students attending courses at UK universities, mainly at postgraduate level. The amount and nature of teacher-supported learning is generally greater and more didactic in Confucian heritage countries. Students are less likely to have been exposed to continuous assessment or assessment tasks that are not examination based. Assessment most usually requires the reiteration of information received by the student, and questioning and critical analysis is not yet a common experience for students in universities in non-western countries. Critical analysis and questioning is one of the reasons why this style of learning experience is sought after and valuable to these students; it claims to develop the skills necessary for employability in a modern world.

Group work

While much of the literature supports the conventional view of Chinese preferred learning, it is contradictory. The predominant view in the literature is that Chinese students prefer passive teaching methods such as lectures, demonstrations, handouts, displays, films and videos. Experiential exercises, case studies, role-play and simulations belong to participative teaching methods and are said to be least preferred (Chow, 1995). The problem solving, explorative teaching methods employed in the west would not fit with a perceived Confucian derived preference for rote learning (Thompson and Gui, 2000).

Maxwell et al (2000) when researching the previous learning experiences of Chinese students found that students’ experience had been mainly as passive learners receiving the transferred knowledge of content-based teaching. This is particularly true with regard to group work. Crookes and Thomas (1998) suggest that group work can work well with Chinese students but may need to be structured differently than it would be with British students. For example, Chinese students would work together in group sizes of two and would come to the front of the class to explain what they had learnt. Other students and teachers would listen and pay attention. Tang (1996) advises that Chinese students will work collaboratively, but may prefer to do it informally outside class as part of their learning process. Hill et al (2000) found, in an investigation of students of different nationalities, that that the strongest difference between the nationalities was the Asian preference for group learning. Similarly, Howarth (2003) found that Chinese students worked best in small groups. Bodycott and Walker (2000) say that Chinese students learn best in small groups and that this is the best method for eliciting openness and dealing with problems of ‘face’.

It may be that Gilleard’s (1998) interpretation is correct. He says that teaching methods beyond the didactic can be successfully employed with Chinese students. However, as these other methods are unusual, in their experience the students will require exposure to become accustomed to these new methods.

2 Research methodology

2a Chinese students in Hong Kong

To test the Chinese students’ view of the teacher/lecturer, a questionnaire was designed. This was given, in class, to students attending a distance-learning, postgraduate hospitality course in Hong Kong at an intensive, week-long study school, held twice each year. This course is unusual as it includes face-to-face teaching in Hong Kong as well as the more traditional distance-learning materials. A variation of this questionnaire was later administered to all Chinese learners, including students at the UK campus, to check whether their response was the same

Within the questionnaire, the students were asked to write an essay in which they were to describe the best teacher or lecturer they had experienced. Students were asked to think of the best teacher that they had ever had. They were to describe him or her and were asked whether they perceived that individual as a friend.

To test whether group work was liked or disliked, in a separate question the students were asked to give their opinions of group working. The question was given this special status because the stereotypical view of Chinese learners is that they prefer passive instruction and it is thought that group work may be particularly disliked for reasons of face and power distance.

2b Chinese students in the UK

Based on the responses from these two student groups, a number of changes were made to the delivery of one postgraduate module, ‘Hospitality organisational excellence’. Taking both these sets of findings into account, a programme of action research was put in place.

This module had previously been taught in the conventional manner of lectures and seminars. The teaching pattern was changed to lectures (which may still meet the didactic preference) and a series of small group meetings. The idea behind the small-group work was threefold: first, to examine whether or not group work may facilitate the learning of this group of students; second, to enable students to improve their study skills; and finally, alongside the notion of what we call ‘heart’, to allow the lecturer to be accessible and to anticipate the needs of her or his international learners.

To allow the group meetings to be as accessible as possible, the lecturer in charge was available from 9am to 1pm on Wednesday mornings for six weeks (a time when all of the learners were free and which coincided with the first written assignment). The coursework was changed to a combination of group work and individual work. Attendance at the group tutorials was not compulsory and the students set the agenda. The students could ask for help and advice on any topic but, as a group, immediate feedback on the work was given to all students.

We hoped to see if these groups would benefit the students and facilitate their learning from each other. It was also hoped that this level of close co-operation would improve confidence as well as study skills such as essay writing and communication. Having been encouraged to work differently, collectively, and having been given different support from teachers at the time of handing in their first assignments, the students were given a questionnaire in which they were asked to evaluate the first half of the module.

It should be noted here that there were over 60 students on the module, encompassing 16 different nationalities. The highest number was from mainland China, followed by India and Taiwan. The findings presented later relate only to the mainland Chinese learners.

2c International students at SHU

Student and Learning Services (SLS) at SHU plays a key role in supporting all students, including specific groups who may have additional and identifiable needs such as international students. Various teams provide a range of services across transition and learner development (workshops, drop-in and short courses), as well as specialist and general advice and guidance services such as education guidance and careers. The international team in SLS has carried out some simple research with newly arriving international students over several years. A short questionnaire is given to all those who attend orientation and study skills workshops, which are designed to raise issues about transition into a different learning culture. Questions relate to prior experiences of teaching and assessment.

3. Findings

3a The Hong Kong cohort

How the students from Hong Kong described the qualities in their best ever teacher may be described in the three themes of ‘pedagogic practice’, ‘student-teacher relationship’ and ’empathy’. With regard to practice, students expect teachers to have ‘professional knowledge’, ’to use innovative teaching methods’, ‘to always provide useful and effective notes and materials’ and ‘to put a lot of effort in his teaching materials’. While none of the students said that their best teacher was all-knowing, they did see him or her as a guide who helped them ‘to understand the topic’. These findings agree with the view that students are socialised to be provided with knowledge by the teacher (Chan, 1999).

Almost half of the students specifically stated that they expected the teacher to be a friend. The expectation was that the relationship with the teacher would be good and the teacher would be ’helpful’ and ‘patient’. Where the question concerning friendship was directly answered, there was an indication that there might be a distance in the relationship (for example: student 22 said, ‘Our relationship is good, like a friend’; and student 10 said that the status of the teacher was different: ‘I have to respect them’). This goes some way towards indicating the impact of Confucianism and power distance in the student-teacher relationship (Chan, 1999) and the good teacher references of Cortazzi and Jin (2001).

Relationship with a teacher and the notion of ‘heart’

In the student-teacher relationship, one significant theme stood out as significantly different: empathy. Several students stated that the teacher must understand them as people, must be aware of their problems and must be sincere and care about them. One student from the cohort who was coded simply as 8 stated that a good teacher must have ‘heart’. The notion of ’heart’, though difficult to define, clearly indicated that a Chinese student might want something more from their teacher. Other responses added to this idea and suggested an almost parental relationship in which the teacher should be available and ready to take on board and, more important, anticipate the needs of their students. Similar expectations of teachers can be found in other Asian countries and also in idealised notions of teachers in other cultures, including those in the west. The use of the word ‘heart’ still communicates the intended complex or compound meaning, which is intended, even in translation. Yet there is no direct translation of the abstractions and imagery that we can infer from its use. Perhaps the closest connection could be found in the work of the clinical psychologist Carl Rogers (1967), whose humanistic approach developed ideas about the role of the therapist who must seek to maintain congruence and person-centredness in the therapeutic relationship. He also applied this approach to the education context, which contributed much to the development of studentcentred approaches (Rogers, 1967).

Much of the literature’s descriptions of the role of the teacher and the student-teacher relationship in Confucian traditions are in part upheld by the views of the case study group. While the case study group does not directly confirm the typical view of the student-teacher relationship, neither does it contradict it. From the answers given, it would appear that the student-teacher relationship is especially important to Chinese students and that qualities of friendship and empathy are cherished. De Vita and Case (2003: 391) describe similar expectations which exist in Indian and Islamic cultures. This leads to obvious problems with the perception of the lecturer’s role from viewpoint of international students, from CHCs and other cultures. The practice at SHU is that staff are not always readily available and that often students make appointments through booking systems. Neither is it common for staff to see themselves as parents or moral guides.

It is possible that SHU was not giving these students what they needed or required in terms of pedagogic support. The first set of findings indicated that SHU might be doing two things wrong with regard to Chinese learners. First, the teaching staff did not fit the ideal required by the Chinese learners, and second, little or no use was made of group work.

The students’ answers contradicted the view that there is a ‘cultural dislike’ of group work. The majority (64 per cent) of students liked group work for sound practical reasons. These reasons were that students were able to share the work, share ideas and learn from each other, work co-operatively and motivate each other. As one student said, ‘We can share different points of view from different people. Team work is important in group working.’ Another student reported that they liked this method of working as ‘not only does it enable students to share efforts to do the project but also gives them opportunities to establish friendship’.

Where students least preferred group working, no one, possibly unsurprisingly, gave any cultural reason such as face or power distance for this. Instead, their reasons concerned group dynamics and past problems that they had encountered. Student 23 said, ‘It [group work] takes a lot of time and sometimes makes things not to be finished early.’ Students 2 and 22 had had bad past experiences. Student 2 reported, ‘Most of the group members were not responsible or lazy.’ Similarly, student 22 found past group members to be ‘rude’, ‘unhelpful’ and to have ‘a lack of knowledge’. To summarise, students found that group work could be difficult in terms of time and place of meeting, some members could be lazy, and other students may have had their ideas discounted in past group working situations. This finding is not very different from what would be expected of ‘home’ students.

These findings were particularly important for two reasons. Many staff at SHU had reported problems in getting Chinese students to participate in the classroom, and on the postgraduate programme, which attracts large numbers of Chinese students, there is little or no group work.

3b The UK cohort: Chinese students

The second questionnaire, administered to all postgraduate Chinese students studying on the hospitality courses in the UK, indicated that many of the Chinese speaking students had been taught in large classes (50+) and been used to spending large amount of time in contact with their teachers (26 hours on average). Most were used to being taught in lectures and were unused to seminars. However, they did indicate a preference for group and individual projects and a dislike and fear of examinations.

The greatest fears that the Chinese students had about their future course were working in a second language, essay writing, report writing and presentations.

3c International students at SHU

These findings were echoed in the response from students representing a range of national groups, including a substantial group of Chinese students who also formed the largest proportion of the undergraduate student respondents. Responses from between 123 and 165 newly arrived students from 43 to 50 countries completed questionnaires which asked them about their experiences of learning in their home country, in September 2007–2008 and 2008–2009.

Data collected in previous years were less effective and this was the first attempt to create consistent information and compare year by year. The data presented in table 1 differentiate students only by level of study. The largest number of students attended postgraduate courses, mainly taught master’s programmes. These students also offered the best response. The results presented here are very broad and do not reflect differences between groups by nationality, gender, subject discipline or faculty, although there were no significant consistent patterns in the results. More details, including information about native languages, was made available to course leaders, which was one of the reasons for collecting this information.

Some comments made in the discussion groups were also recorded as qualitative data. The main purpose of these discussions was to raise student awareness of the differences they were likely to encounter, demonstrate how previous cohorts of students had managed their learning and encourage use of the learning development resources available to them. Here students indicated that many were not comfortable in a critical/analytical mode and were reluctant to question their tutors. In addition, many of the students were unfamiliar with the subject knowledge that is often taken for granted by tutors and home students, and English language skills may be more limited than tutors had expected to find.

Several clear issues emerged, assuming that students responded honestly and with understanding of the questions. A high proportion of these students expected to have considerably more class and tutor contact than they received in the UK, and they were not used to writing lengthy original material. Their responses suggest that many had little experience of studying from multiple sources and different texts. There is an increasing trend for more students to experience more continuous coursework assessment than end-of-year or semester examinations in their home country.

Table 1 New arrivals and prior learning at Sheffield Hallam University

2007–2008	Student learning experience: new arrivals	2008–2009
Total 123/ 250	U/G 19/ 100	P/G 104/ 150	Students’ responses to the questions and statements varied by nationality and by subject disciplines but not significantly, except in relation to class contact time for students from Japan and Pakistan.	U/G 35/ 100	P/G 130/ 150	Total ^* - 165/ 250
97	11	86	Most used to assessment by: Examinations at the end of a whole year	8	104	112
112	15	97	Examinations at the end of each term or semester	21	143	164
29	3	26	Writing an essay or report of more than 5,000 words	6	40	46
30	9	21	Oral/visual presentations in front of a group	24	45	69
79	11	68	Writing coursework for assessment	27	120	147
69	15	54	Project-based learning: working in a group	13	80	93
42	17	25	Responded yes to this statement: I have not used English for study for a degree before	10	30	40
84	7	77	Most of my learning has been remembering texts	16	85	101
53	14	49	I am not used to studying and researching a subject on my own	11	73	84
77	10	67	I am more used to studying from books than from electronic sources	23	22	45
63	12	51	I would find it difficult to question my teachers or ideas I read about	26	11	37
			Used to class contact (based on the most common figure)
37	5	32	16–20 hours per week	17	95	112
41	8	33	21–25 hours per week	11	130	141
39	4	35	25–30

^*Total replies received from the number of questionnaires distributed

4. Evaluation of research findings: the hospitality postgraduate cohort

The UK Chinese students in the hospitality postgraduate cohort who had been encouraged to work in groups were given a questionnaire in which they were asked to evaluate the first half of the hospitality module at the time of handing in their first assignments. Tables 2, 3 and 4 show the responses of all students and the responses of Chinese students only. In the evaluation, the students were asked to say how far they agreed with each of the statements listed in tables 2, 3 and 4. The answers were on a 5-point scale where 1 was strongly agree and 5 was strongly disagree.

Table 2 Working in groups

	Nationality	All	Chinese
1	I felt apprehensive about working in groups	2 3	1.9
2	Working in groups improved my essay writing	2 2	2.1
3	After completing the group work I feel more confident about my course	1 9	1.9
4	I learned study skills from other members of the group	1 8	1.7
5	Working in groups improved my communication skills	1 9	1.7

The answers to the questions contained in table 2 indicate that the Chinese students were more positive about working in groups than other students in the cohort. Conversely, they were more apprehensive about the experience. This may be due to students being unused to the experience and that they needed to time to become accustomed to it (Gilleard, 1998).

The responses to questions 2, 4 and 5 in table 3 indicate that the rationale for introducing group working was correct. All the Chinese students agreed that the group working had improved their essay writing and communication, and had helped them to learn study skills from other group members. This is important as it goes some way to meeting the second aim of the paper, which was to improve study skills as part of the journey towards enhancing the students’ ability with regard to critical development. Although this cannot be seen or claimed as real evidence that the students’ critical development had improved, it is interesting to note that the average grade in the module 2 components increased by six full percentage points.

From table 3, question 1, it can be seen that the one downside was that the intervention, although well received, did not give the students the contact with the tutor they required. The response from the Chinese students was reasonably favourable (2) but was not as good as the response from all students (1.9), although there is no significant statistical difference. This in itself does not indicate that the tutor’s intervention did not demonstrate ‘heart’, but it does suggest that making oneself freely available for a relatively short time period would not match expectations. It may also go some way to explaining why long queues of questioners stayed behind at the end of the lectures!

Table 3 Group tutorials

	Nationality		Chinese
		All
1	The group tutorials gave me the contact with the tutor that I desired	1 9	2.0
2	The group tutorials made me feel more confident about postgraduate study	1 9	1.7
3	The group tutorials helped me to fully understand the requirements of the assignment	1 8	1.8

Table 4 General

	Nationality		Chinese
		All
1	All modules on the course should have separate group tutorials	1 8	1.8

Table 4 indicates that all students, regardless of nationality, thought that there should be separate group tutorials. This is important as it recognises that the concerns of Chinese students about postgraduate study are the concerns of all students. It may also indicate that what we should strive to do is break out from the traditional lecture/seminar format and use a variety of methods.

Summary of findings

These findings suggest that academics and students are likely to have mismatched expectations about their roles and how to transact them, and about learning, teaching and assessment. Our findings further demonstrate that when academics take time to question stereotypes of groups of learners and make minor adaptations to their teaching, Chinese learners, for example, appear not so very different in their needs and responses than other groups of students. The differences shown here are relatively minor; it is the similarities which are striking. A frequent cause for concern for students from outside the UK is that contact and engagement with teachers is minimal and difficult. Moreover, in order to become the autonomous learner they wish to be (and need to be to survive this pedagogical approach), such students will seek the engagement of their teachers in order to develop an understanding of what is required and why. An introduction to the epistemological bases of this approach and to new modes of study is required in order to develop the skills of a reflective and independent learner. This mismatch of expectations is likely to become an increasing concern in UK universities if similar interventions are not made.

5 Discussion and implications

Generic and course-based intervention

In a variety of settings and interventions, the Learning Support Team from SLS and course leaders at SHU have tried a variety of ways to present certain key elements of western academic culture. In particular, there has been a focus on plagiarism, with sessions that explore the cultural assumptions that underlie the referencing process, one of which being the notion of ownership of knowledge and ideas. In line with the approach advocated by Jude Carroll (Carroll and Appleton, 2001) and the suggestions for teaching international students of (Ryan, 2000), we set out to explain the rules of the academic game in ways which require practitioners to examine their own assumptions about the learning process, delivery, discipline content and how and what skills and knowledge should be assessed. Students who are familiar with, and skilful practitioners in, one academic culture require their teachers not only to make clear what is required of them, but also to support them in adapting to new requirements. This works most effectively when, in addition to encouraging students to adapt their ways of learning, teachers adapt their own pedagogy.

Collaborative partnerships between course teams and SLS colleagues most often developed where there were larger numbers of international students. Staff development through seminars often played a part and, in the first instance, specific study skills sessions became timetabled for international students, often disguised with titles such as ‘Research methods’ or ’Communications’ to encourage attendance. Other colleagues provided additional seminar time within their courses, targeting international students who, in many cases, were the majority of students on their course. Such interventions were introduced when teachers perceived poor performance and high levels of plagiarism or failure from international students. These methods have positive value and represent a willingness on the part of some academics to be flexible and responsive in their pedagogy (Hills and Thom, 2004).

Our research supports the view that the most successful interventions are course based, integrated and, where possible, form part of the assessed components of a course or learning programme. What is difficult is to move away from an approach which seeks to ‘fix’ students, creating opportunities for teachers to offer explanations for their learning styles and goals, and demonstrating through project-based learning, reflexivity and personal effectiveness how these approaches can be of value in professional contexts.

We have also become more aware that while it is often necessary and valuable to help students to make sense of the academic environment they inhabit and how to achieve in it, this is merely a tactical approach and does not represent an internationalist one (Perry, 1999). A truly internationalist pedagogy acknowledges that there are different approaches to learning, and that UK HE may have much to learn from teachers and writers in other academic traditions which could enrich the academic culture and develop new approaches to learning and assessment. This would avoid the ‘conceptual colonialism’ defined by Biggs (1997), where international students from all cultures are expected to adjust and where such changes are justified according to a negative construction of those students’ abilities and perceptions.

6 Conclusion

This paper shows that responsive teaching can develop from closer examination of different academic cultures. In this case, we found that Chinese learners preferred group work but expected greater contact with their tutor than British universities provide. Other research with a wider group reaffirmed the second proposition.

Teachers acknowledged that the demands of the course and styles of learning, teaching and assessment were unfamiliar to students. They adapted their teaching and assessment in the early stages of the course to develop confidence, improve performance and the student experience. As the students describe it, the most valued attribute in a teacher is ‘heart’, which we translated to mean that the teacher understands them, is able to anticipate their needs and is available.

Responsive teaching can impact on how students can adapt to different demands from teachers, while teachers need to be willing to change their teaching style to meet some of the expectations of their students. The tutor set out to respond to comments made by students, made himself freely available and developed ways to anticipate the needs of the Chinese learners for support and a closer relationship with the tutor. To evaluate that ‘heart’ had been shown is not possible, as the only outward sign of this to the students was the relative ease of access. The evaluation conducted with students showed that this intervention was well received but could be improved. However, it may to be true to say that by thinking about our learners, by being culturally sensitive and using our experience and intuition to anticipate students’ needs, we are showing ‘heart’. In addition, changes in teaching strategy from seminar to small-group work in teaching international learners was highly successful and was well received by the learners. Chinese learners were particularly appreciative of this intervention.

The final aim of the paper was to consider how we enable learners who are unused to the notion of critical development to acquire, at least in part, the study skills that would enable them to develop this ability. All students claimed that their study skills had improved as a consequence of the changes made to the role of the teacher and to group work. This, together with the limited evidence of improved scores, may suggest that the concept of the group enabled a method of learning that is compatible with Confucianism.

So, while we continue to be concerned that our Chinese learners may have problems adjusting to an academic environment characterised by debate and critical analysis, and worry that the Confucian tradition may prevent the development of deep learning, we may also be failing to recognise just how little deep learning is engendered by some of our methods, or is indeed required by the courses we offer. A review of the assumptions made in much of the literature on Chinese learners suggests that academics have been unfairly dismissive of other academic cultures, or that they may be so ethnocentric that they are completely unaware of them.

Students adopt strategic approaches, but they are also seeking a challenging learning experience and claim to prefer reflective and active learning, group work and project-based learning. The research shows that students gain more when teachers acknowledge differences in academic conventions, engage with their students, and scaffold transition from one learning style to another. However, these are tactical adaptations to deal with a changing student community, and are only a beginning. It is necessary to recognise the need to develop a better understanding of the cultural conventions upon which our pedagogy is based, to acknowledge that these are a reflection of a local social and cultural environment and start to implement a genuine international pedagogy.

In summary, this paper has gone some way to addressing that it is necessary to recognise the needs of our learners. In doing so, we can learn from our learners, and by attempting to comprehend, enhance and embrace the quality of ‘heart’, we may enable the learning of our students.

Biographies

Dr Kevin Nield is head of the Department of Service Sector Management at Sheffield Business School. Before taking up his present position at Sheffield Hallam University, Kevin worked in a wide variety of positions within the catering and retail industries and in further education. He has co-researched three editions of the British Hospitality Association’s annual publication, British hospitality: trends and statistics, and is joint author of Contemporary issues in hospitality and tourism in China and India. Kevin is a steering group member of the HEA Network for Hospitality, Leisure, Tourism, Sport and Food and has represented the sector on QAA working groups and panels. Kevin has been responsible for setting up a highly successful collaboration with Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education.

Viv Thom

Viv Thom is the international student education adviser at Sheffield Hallam University. She leads on student support for international students and collaborative learning projects for international students in faculties. Based in the learner support team, she has longstanding experience developing inclusive and responsive strategies for students making transitions into unfamiliar learning cultures. She has experience of working in Asian countries and established an international reputation for innovative approaches to training, internationalisation, teaching and learning in higher education. She is a member of the Higher Education Academy.