What I have learnt through this project makes me change how to think and manage research projects. When I decided on my project theme, I could not think about the process of undergoing the project as well as methods to collect data. Also, I did not know both quantitative methods and qualitative methods, and how these two different methods affect research projects. As I started to research my topic, I realised that keeping my research topic would be meaningful for both domestic and international students who take the subject BCM212. As a reason, many people know there are some cultural differences between Australian and Asia but they do not know how those differences affect student studying. When I got this information from my online survey, I was sure my project could help many students by researching and reporting the results.
However, I faced one trouble that it was difficult to get many enough respondents and participants for my interview. It took a long time to get many respondents and participants no matter how much I posted on Twitter to get enough numbers. When I found this trouble, I wondered what the problem was. The answer may be that the announcement was not enough to encourage the key audiences to join my project. Also, they could think that my project could be vague to understand what I would like to do. I found the cause of the trouble by analysing those reasons and this trouble is what I would like to reflect as a key to connect to the next step.
Fortunately, I could set the interview with three participants and I got the skill to take interviews even though the interviews were undertaken online. In addition, the practice of consent which can cover the aspect of ethics for respondents and participants gave me new knowledge to conduct research projects. Those skills are essential skills as a researcher which can work on any kind of job so getting to know how to manage that is the first step to be a professional. The results that I collected by online surveys and interviews worked positively and it was really interesting what we know about the cultural differences as stereotypes are not wrong. What I would like to say as my ending message is that getting knowledge of conducting research projects is my first skill to move on to the next step.
The aim of this topic- What are the differences between the Australian and the Asian studying environment? is to find out the differences in their classrooms between two cultures. The reason why I decided to conduct this topic is that it is difficult to explain how cultural differences affect the studying environment even though it is common that both cultures have different backgrounds. Also, revealing how university students think about those cultural differences is important to the key to thinking about this topic. The ultimate goal of this topic is finding those curiosity questions and gathering pieces of students’ experiences.
To make sure this topic is in the right way, I used an online survey as a way of collecting data. The online survey has multiple questions and open questions, which style makes collecting data clearly. In order to spread the online survey to the key audience who are taking the subject BCM212 at the University of Wollongong, I used Twitter . The reason why Twitter is effective way is that there are many people who discuss their studying on the Twitter feed with the hashtag #bcm212. Sharing the survey link on the Twitter feed can get many impressions and make the people aware of this topic. Once spreading the survey link on the Twitter feed, I posted another Twitter message which is for asking the key audience to participate in the interview. Setting up the interview is part of qualitative methods that enable this project to get more information deeply. In addition to these quantitative methods and qualitative methods, the cooperation of international students who are studying this subject BCM212 is necessary because hearing their experiences or stories about the cultural differences in their classroom is essential for this project. To meet those international students, Twitter is really helpful in terms of finding them with the hashtag #bcm212.
The most considerable limitation of this project is the amount of the key audience. While this project is targeting the people both domestic and international students who are studying BCM212 at the University of Wollongong, there are few international students who take the subject, unfortunately. So it is difficult to get as many samples as domestic students. Also, it is needed to scheme to engage the key audience of not only the international students but also domestic students as well. In addition to this point, it is necessary to think of the way to report the result of this topic because the sample number is not enough to assert the result as a general result.
What I would like to highlight from the result of my project can be separated into three patterns. The first point is all of the respondents are confident that Australian education is proactive than the Asian. This fact was revealed by the result from two questions from the online survey which is; Do you think the Australian education style is more active in classrooms than the Asian education style? and Do you think the Australian teachers attempt to engage the class through activities?. No one answered “no” for both questions and most of them answered “yes” for the second question. In addition to this fact, 84% of the respondents answered that BCM212 has independent activities which make you proactive. Through these results, I can say people think Australian education is proactive.
The second point is a kind of contradiction. Although the Australian education style is proactive, nearly half of the respondents feel embarrassed or hesitant to ask questions to their teachers, which was demonstrated by the result of the online survey. To get the reason why many people answered that, I asked my participants who joined my interview and are domestic students. They said that “if I asked the question and other people know the answer already, they would judge me as a fool” and “it depends on the teacher and the class. If the teacher is really strict or busy, I may not ask questions”. What it is possible to say from these reasons is the students think about how other people feel if they ask questions even though they have proactive learning motivations. Also, this point is the most interesting result through this research.
The last point is that the stereotype about the cultural difference between the Australian and the Asian is almost correct even though not all of the respondents experienced it. My survey showed 40% of the respondents experienced the cultural difference in their classroom. I would like to quote one story of my participant who came to Australia from Asia 3 years ago. She told me her own story. “I was surprised when I attended my first tutorial because many students are willing to say their own opinions and ask questions. This situation is unbelievable in my home country due to the traditional education tyle. Students tend to keep quiet and just follow their teachers, and they ask questions after class if they have. So it was difficult for me to engage the Australian class style at the beginning but now I am getting used to it.” This story can emphasise how cultural differences affect students in their classrooms. In addition, her experience can support the academic sources that I referenced in assignment 1 which was a research proposal blog post. Ron, Jed, Tiki, and Dominic (2018) summarised Asian students tend to primarily listen, show respect to their teachers, and follow the traditional manners in their classrooms. Yen and Teck (2017) mentioned Asian students try to be in harmony in class with minimal questions to their teachers. These academic status fit with the stereotype which my respondents had and back up her experience. What I would like to highlight through the whole project is cultural differences may affect students who have not gotten used to it yet but it does not mean negative. Having and sharing cultural differences are valuable assets.
Bibliography
Ron, H, Jed, H, Tiki,X & Dominic D, ‘Chinese Students’ Cultural and Behavioural Differences among Domestic and Internationally Oriented Educational Institutions’, International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies, no. 10, viewed 14 March 2020, <https://files-eric-ed-gov.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/fulltext/EJ1213496.pdf>
Yen, R & Teck, C 2017, ‘Understanding Asian Students Learning Styles, Cultural Influence and Learning Strategies’, Journal of Education & Social Policy, no. 1, viewed 17 March 2020, <http://jespnet.com/journals/Vol_4_No_1_March_2017/23.pdf>
As an international student studying BCM at UOW, I have been curious as there are differences between Asia and Australia. When I attended lectures and tutorials for the first time, I realised that the Australian class style differs from my previous school in Japan. Although it is general knowledge that the learning style is different with Asia and Australia, I do not know the cause of differences in particular. Also, I found that this my question worth researching because other students think Australian education is more active than the Asian education by my Twitter poll.
Do you think the Australian education style is more active in classrooms than the Asian education style? #bcm212
When I had this, I decided to research the different styles of behaviour in their classroom. In addition, I consider there are some reasons or religional/traditional facts behind the cultural differences. So these curious points are the first step of my research.
The Asian Education Style
In order to get the information about that, I picked up a source that talks about the traditional Chinese behavioural studying style. According to Ron, Jed, Tiki, and Dominic (2018), Chinese students tend to primarily listen, show respect to their teachers, and follow the traditional manners in their classrooms. This kind of behaviour makes students hesitate to ask questions to their teachers in class. For Asian students who study abroad, it is concluded as this strict behaviour “has been especially damaging in arts and social studies majors where students are required to explore the subject under guidance, rather than be provided with ready-made answers”. (Ron, Jed, Tiki and Dominic 2018) The fact that stated common to other Asian countries. Many academics mentioned Asian students tend to be passive learners, and Yen and Teck (2017) summarised the dimension of behavioural characteristics, which revealed Asian culture is tend to collectivism and high power distance.
The students try to be in harmony in class with minimal questions to their teachers. To support this fact, only 20% out of 125 subject students seek help during the class, and other students seek help with other ways, which was gotten by the experiment conducted by Yen and Teck. Compared to Western culture including the UK, Australia and the United States with those features, the fact was totally contrasting.
Then, what about the Australian education style?
As the way of student engagement in Australian universities, Morris and Tsakissiris (2017) mentioned it is used for more conversation or dialogue between instructors and students, which may be possible to introduce active learning principles into large first-year management units. Also, the structure of the semester suggests that “a variety of activities were designed that might appeal to a broad range of learning styles. It was for this reason that the lecture program was divided into three separate “categories” each occupying four weeks of a 13-week teaching period”. (Morris and Tsakissiris 2017) The three categories are based on conversational lectures, individual activities, and group activities. Morris and Tsakissiris (2017) conclude designing a blended learning experience there might be a greater chance that students will engage more in active learning. These strategies of teaching make students active, and opposite the Asian teaching style.
Case study of Japanese and Australian classrooms
It is needed to explore the case study to demonstrate if those mentioned facts make sense to real life. It is possible to use one case study which was aimed at “Cultures of learning” with Japanese students and Australian students. This case study was carried out by exchanging students and studying in another country. Kumi, who is responsible for this experiment collected the voice of participating students to see what each country’s teachers are like. Japanese students evaluated as “Australian teachers were better at making the classroom enjoyable and involving all students in classroom activities. The only positive comment made by the Australian group about Japanese teachers was about their polite manner.” (Kumi 2010) The conclusion of this experiment was said it is not the purpose to determine which learning type is superior. The important thing is understanding cultural differences, which is one way of improving teacher effectiveness.
Conclusion
Since I have researched the different cultural studying styles, I found that the Asian culture is for showing respect for teachers, and the Australian culture is for activation independently. This research results in issues to UOW students especially for BCM students. Although the case study was not conducted in Wollongong, UOW has international students and BCM is studying communication using media so it is important to understand the cultural differences to communicate with each other. Also, the Asian students who study BCM at UOW need to shift to the Australian studying style because it is possible to experience and get the skill of active studying style. On the other hand, it is also important to understand both aspects of cultural styles for living in this current global society for all BCM students.
Ron, H, Jed, H, Tiki,X & Dominic D, ‘Chinese Students’ Cultural and Behavioural Differences among Domestic and Internationally Oriented Educational Institutions’, International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies, no. 10, viewed 14 March 2020, <https://files-eric-ed-gov.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/fulltext/EJ1213496.pdf>
Yen, R & Teck, C 2017, ‘Understanding Asian Students Learning Styles, Cultural Influence and Learning Strategies’, Journal of Education & Social Policy, no. 1, viewed 17 March 2020, <http://jespnet.com/journals/Vol_4_No_1_March_2017/23.pdf>
Do you interrupt your teacher when you have some questions in the class?
This is the question of my curiosity. My curiosity topic is the differences in classroom interaction between Asian and Australian in the study environment.
My home country, Japan, does not make action basically. I think these types of behavior is typical behavior in Asia. Most students just listening to their teacher and keep quiet in the class and most teachers bring the class materials and just do their work. These actions are based on Asian culture.
So what about Australian culture?
What I have felt things by attending the lecture and tutorial at UOW is that it is normal things for students to ask questions or take action during the class. Also, it seems to be natural to give own opinions and discuss each other. In addition, most teachers bring their class materials with creativity not only teaching formally. I think this style is based on Australian culture as well.
How to Research
To confirm these differences, I will research some sources which have informations about each culture related to the study environment. Also, I use a survey to ask UOW students about their behavior in their class, which able to hear the actual voice that they think of that. This survey has some small questions such as “Where are you from?”, “How does your teacher bring the class materials to classrooms in your country?”, and “How often do you interrupt your teacher in your classroom?”.
For my assignment, I will use those results from my survey and the facts that I find from sources. I’m sure I will find the results of this research at the end of this project. So I am keeping curious about my topic and think of WHY.
I changed #MyCuriousity topic again and again but I found the one finally. That is the differences interaction between Asian and Australian in studying environment. #bcm212 I’ll create a Google survey by tomorrow!
Satomi's blog 