International Students Perception On Quality Learning Assessment Answer

Answer :

WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS PERCEPTION ABOUT QUALITY LEARNING EXPERIENCE 

Literature review with knowledge gaps

Concepts

International students of Australia

The students, who leave their home countries in order to study abroad in international universities, are known as international students. As opined by Young et al. (2019), Australia is playing an important role in international studies because this country provides different types of learning facilities to international students. Currently, Australia is known as third most renowned destination regarding the international students within English speaking earth. From a recent report of Australia, it can be noted that total number of students come from abroad are approximately 300,000 (studyinaustralia.gov.au, 2019). Therefore, the percentage of international students is 24.3% among the entire number of students of Australia (studyinaustralia.gov.au, 2019). However, different types of social, emotional and academic challenges are experienced by the abroad student in Australia and it is hard to overcome those challenges naturally.

Opportunities of learning experiences of students

The Australian government provides several benefits to the foreign students of this country on the university campus. As opined by Sullivan et al. (2015), internal students provide the teachers the opportunities to enhance the classroom conversations. In this way, facilities of group discussion and learning opportunities of the students would be enhanced. Most importantly, lecturers and teachers would get the real opportunity to get in touch with different cultures throughout the world. It would help them to mitigate discrimination policies among international students.

Challenges experience by international students

There are different types of issues and challenges that have to be faced by the international students of Australia while coming into very different cultural perspectives. As opined by Bovill et al. (2016), the primary challenge that may arrive is language difficulties. The foreign students of this country face the issues related to the bilingualism in Australia. Hence, students may face challenges in keeping notes of lectures in Australian English. On the other hand, Singh (2015) argued that cultural differences among international students are the biggest challenge. All cultures in the university campus are different and making adjustments with the new environment might be confronting. An example of the Australian language, ‘ta' indicates ‘Thank you' and "lingi" indicates slang terminology in Australian English. The usage of these phrases may leave the international students in such awkward situations. 

Reading as well as writing Academic English can be difficult for the students who do not know English properly. As highlighted by Özoğlu et al. (2015), language support workshops and programs are needed in order to mitigate the academic English issues of the foreign students of Australia. In addition, international students also might find challenges in communication with other students and teachers due linguistic diversity. On the contrary, as suggested by Mesidor et al. (2016), homesickness is the issues that may lag the productivities of international students. Several international students miss their homes abroad and hence, they find it difficult to socialize with their friends. Along with it, some international students may feel nervous while communicating with the local other students.  

Ragging, bullying, and harassments of the international students would degrade the mental health and self-confidences of the international students. As illuminated by Sullivan et al. (2015), the Government of Australia has taken several initiatives to lower down these incidents. Due to these types of challenges, some international students may fall behind in the universities of Australia. [Referred to Appendix 1]

Processes to overcome the challenges

The management of universities in Australia needs to introduce language support workshops and programs in order to improve the Australian English powers of international students. As suggested by Mesidor et al. (2016), teachers and lecturers are responsible to provide more supports to lagging international students who might be facing difficulties in changing the environment. In addition, special lecture classes need to be arranged by the university authorities so that those international students would get extra support. On the other hand, as commented by Sullivan et al. (2015), in order to mitigate the cultural differences among students, clubs and groups need to be arranged by the universities where the international students may make new friends and they can communicate with the friends of same countries. Most importantly, authorities of Australian universities need to give special attention to the bullying and ragging incidents within the campus. However, these types of shameful incidents are rare in Australian universities. [Referred to Appendix 2]

The international students need to keep aside their fear against the new culture and they can join different programs to learn Australian English. As commented by Mesidor et al. (2016), International students of Australia may join a 1 month or 2 months course programs to be familiar with the English. This initiative can help in the lectures and in the classrooms. 

Knowledge Gaps

In this study, the researcher has analyzed different challenges and issues of the international students; however, practical experiences of the international students of Australia have not been assessed by the researcher. There is a lack of investigation associated with the processes of improving the qualities of the learning experiences of international students. Hence, quality-learning experiences are the major knowledge gap that has been found in the study. This literature does not provide proper information on the expectations and requirements of international students regarding learning facilities. Due to a shortage of time, the researcher is unable to discuss the mitigation strategies of learning issues in detail.

Theoretical   framework

Social cognitive theory

The major component of the social cognitive theory is observational learning. As per the viewpoint of Sullivan et al. (2015), observational learning allows people to learn more quickly by observing the behavior of other people in society. Applying the social cognitive theory in this context, teachers of Australian universities need to encourage the students to apply this theory in their daily learning. As per the production process of the social cognitive theory, international students can apply their memories of observations in appropriate situations. It would help them to adopt Australian English more quickly. In addition, the cultural differences also can be mitigated by applying observational learning, through observing other cultural aspects.

Justification for and Research significance

The current research is significant enough because this study sheds light on the issues and challenges faced by international students in Australia. The students who want to study further in Australian Universities can get an idea what type of challenges that might have to face abroad. In addition, through the aid of this research, the authorities of Australian universities would provide more focus on the betterment of the learning facilities of international students. Findings, as well as observations that are obtained from this study, would produce quality results, which would help the universities to become more aware and cautious about the current situations. Moreover, this research would provide better scope to future researchers to work on a particular topic from very different perspectives. 

Research Design 

Epistemology

In this study, the researcher will not select the ontological approach, however, has opted for the epistemological approach. As opined by Lewis (2015), research philosophy is three types, which are positivism, realism, and interpretivism research philosophy. In this study, the researcher will chose positive research philosophy. This philosophy deals with the causality as well as low oriented generalizations, which also reduces the phenomena into the simple elements. Positive research philosophy analyses the problem of research according to real evidence and facts. Hence, in order to analyze the challenges faced by international students in Australia, the researcher will choose positivism research philosophy.

Theoretical   framework

Through the help of cognitive interactive processes, learner will analyze perceptions of the international students that can guide individually for better understandings in the future.

Methodology

Case study based methodology would be implemented by the researcher to analyze the perceptions of international students to improve the qualities of learning experiences. As suggested by Abdulkadiroğlu et al. (2017). The deductive research approach is useful to obtain proper knowledge. In addition, descriptive research design deals with positive as well as negative aspects of the research investigation. In this study, researcher will choose positivism type of research philosophy, deductive research approach, and descriptive research designs.

Data collection method

The researcher would gather the necessary data of the research by using two methods, which are secondary and primary. As opined by Ketchen Jr et al. (2019), in primary data collection method, interview and survey are done by researcher. On the other hand, in secondary research, thematic analysis would be done. In this study, an in-depth interview will be opted by the researcher in order to explore the feelings, perspectives, and thoughts of participants. In addition, the information will be gathered as well as stored via audio tape. Each interview will last between 18-20 minutes.  Interview will be conducted within library of the Sunshine Coast University, South Bank. 

Data analysis method

In this research, the researcher will opt for qualitative data collection method by conducting interview. In addition, thematic analysis will be done by researcher by aligning with the literature review.

Population/sample

Population of research is denoted as the group of people who are selected in order to carry out a research survey. The population of the research investigation will be the students of the University of Sunshine Coast situated in South Bank.

Ethical Considerations

During the time of research investigation, researcher needs to follow some rules and regulations regarding the gathered information from the participants of the survey for interview. According to Privacy Act 1988, researcher must not use the stored data of research for the personal uses (oaic.gov.au, 2019). Therefore, in this research, learner has to follow this act in order to avoid the usage of the information other than academic uses. 

Quality control consideration

Conformability and credibility will be implemented in order to assess qualities of research. Only valid, authentic and reliable information will be gathered in the research, which will promote quality control considerations. For ensuring credibility, learner will implement different strategies such as determined opinion and lengthy engagement. 

Timeline

Table 1: Research Timeline

(Source: Created by author)

Outcomes of project

Through the aid of this research, it is expected that the authorities of universities will assess the current situations of international students in Australia. In addition, the students, who will want to study further in Australia, will know the potential challenges for studying abroad.