Demystifying the Prejudice about International Students: A Matter of Module Design?

Dekkers, R. and Bradley, A.-M. (2013) Demystifying the Prejudice about International Students: A Matter of Module Design? In: International Conference on Enhancement and Innovation in Higher Education, Glasgow, UK, 11-13 June 2013,

Abstract

Increased numbers of students from China have led academics to study their learning styles and performance. Based on a literature review, this paper investigates an approach to learning suitable for students from varied backgrounds. Using descriptive statistics from three deliveries and qualitative data collected during one of these deliveries of an undergraduate module at a UK Business School, the pedagogy and design may explain why Chinese students achieved high marks in some assessments, contrary to perceptions of them as passive learners. The findings reveal that the staged, collaborative and cumulative learning involved benefited them and they achieved marks similar to home students and sometimes higher than home and European students. However, unexpectedly, some home students objected to the design and preferred discrete blocks of learning and assessment rather than cumulative learning and assessment. Implications for module design to promote graduate attributes in students from diverse educational backgrounds are discussed.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Dekkers, Dr Rob
• Authors: Dekkers, R., and Bradley, A.-M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management