Abstract: This paper examines gender and the social change impact of an overseas education for a group of Indonesian graduates of Australian universities. Twenty five respondents participated in this research, the majority being Australian Development Scholarship (ADS) recipients from the University of Newcastle. Data collected by survey questionnaire and interview are analysed in relation to the impact of an overseas education on gender relations and social change in the family, community and workplace. It was evident from the study that gender and culture have become increasingly salient and fluid, however, despite the progress made towards gender equity, the core structure of gender beliefs has not changed. While there was evidence of the social change impact of their overseas education and the hybridisation effects of globalisation, considerable gender bias and inequality still persist as a result of hegemonic cultural beliefs about gender.
Key words: Gender relations, social change, globalisation, hybridisation, hegemonic cultural beliefs
Abstract: The New Zealand international education sector has seen significant growth over the last decade. Associated with this change, New Zealand tertiary educators need to be increasingly aware of language and learning needs of students from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB). Certainly, language is seen as an underlying factor influencing student socio-cultural and educational adjustment. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine the ways in which lecturers communicate in the classroom to consider factors affecting student comprehension of lecture content. The communication styles of four lecturers were analysed and the findings revealed that while lecturers spoke at an average rate of speech, their utterances tended to be quite lengthy, with minimal pauses to allow students to process complex information.
Additionally, nonverbal behaviours including eye contact varied with lecturers not always addressing all class members. Supporting the current literature, it seems that lecturing staff are unaware of their communication behaviours and as such make little modification in the culturally and linguistically diverse classroom. Therefore, there is a need for greater education to inform teachers of how they may improve their communication to enhance classroom interaction and success for NESB students.
Abstract: This paper presents critical examination of the perceptions of intercultural learning among a group of Japanese undergraduate students who participated in a one-mmonth English as second Language ESL) programme at an Australian university. In contrast to the previous studies that mainly focus on an individual student ’s development of language and intercultural competency, the present study looks at intercultural earning as a discursive practice, and aims to propose a power-minded perspective of intercultural learning that may help to eradicate chauvinistic therisation and promote further intercultural dialogues and harmony.
Toward this objective, the author conducted series of athnographic interviews with twenty-two students over the duration of the programme and analysed the collected data, using rounded theory and critical discourse analysis as research methodologies. The findings revealed the participant students could be conceived so: 1) subjects who expressed static and essentialist notions of culture while struggling hard to overcome interpersonal difficulties rising from language barriers and 2) subjects who strengthened their own national identity by constantly comparing Japan/JJ the foreign Other.
It was also revealed that the presence of essentialist discourses of culture in Australian ESL classrooms had significant impact on students ’ interpretive frames of intercultural earning, particularly with reference to emphasis on national boundaries. The author argues that, in order for this kind of study programme to be run free from the raps of essentialism and nationalism, educational interventions that reach both students and educators the danger of stereotypes, changeability and heterogeneity of culture, dynamics of power relations between cultures and community of cultural differences, are critically important throughout the implementation of the programme.
Key words: Japanese students, intercultural learning, ESL
Abstract: International research is positive about the educational benefits of working in diverse groups but there has been little New Zealand research in this area. This paper investigates how students are prepared for collaborative learning in three New Zealand tertiary institutes and identifies the particular problems experienced by Chinese students when the preparation in multi cultural classes is not carried out adequately and does not address cultural issues.
An initial research project by Clark and Baker (2006) involved a survey of staff and students at two Wellington tertiary institutes. The results indicated that students were often inadequately prepared for working in groups and, although they usually valued informal collaborative learning, they did not achieve the desired outcome of learning to work together constructively and cooperatively in assessed collaborative assignments.
This paper, which reports on a follow up research project, presents findings from focus groups with Chinese international students and with New Zealand tertiary lecturers who use collaborative learning techniques in their teaching. The findings from these focus groups indicate that there is a strong cultural conflict in the conceptualisation of collaborative learning between Chinese students with little prior experience of collaborative learning and New Zealand lecturers who are often not fully prepared to help Chinese students to bridge the gaps. The majority of Chinese students value lecturers’ programme content delivery and the achievement of high marks over the development of interpersonal skills; this is contrary to the lecturers’ belief that the development of team skills is the most important outcome from collaborative learning. This cognitive dissonance reinforces the importance of understanding cultural differences and their impact on student patterns of classroom behaviour.
To bridge the gaps, this paper recommends that Chinese students be prepared more effectively to understand the reasons for the use of collaborative learning in New Zealand tertiary classrooms and that lecturers be trained in designing assessment programmes that are pedagogically sound and culturally accommodating.
Keywords: Collaborative learning, group assignments, team skills, chinese students, culture
Abstract: Previous studies suggest that young people are the majority of internet users. Most research has focused on what people do on the internet, but has not considered how the use of internet relates to other aspects of their lives. This paper examines how the Indonesian students take up with the new media and use the internet in relation to their academic studies. A mixed method approach is applied in this study, using questionnaires from a sample of 94 undergraduate and postgraduate students from diverse areas of Indonesia who have studied in Australian universities, followed by in-depth interviews with 10 selected participants. Preliminary findings are reported in this paper to provide a better understanding of how the differences in access and facilities in students’ previous lives in Indonesia and their more recent circumstances in Australia contribute to their new media usage.
Key Words: New media, internet usage, internet access, learning activities, Indonesian students in Australia
