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PREPARING CHINESE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS FOR GRADUATE
STUDIES IN A U.S. UNIVERSITY THROUGH A PATHWAY PROGRAM:
A CASE STUDY
A Dissertation
Presented to the
Faculty of
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Education
In
Educational Leadership
By
Lisa (Yaping) Xue
2021
ii
SIGNATURE PAGE
DISSERTATION: PREPARING CHINESE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
FOR GRADUATE STUDIES IN A U.S. UNIVERSITY
THROUGH A PATHWAY PROGRAM: A CASE STUDY
AUTHOR: Lisa (Yaping) Xue
DATE SUBMITTED: Spring 2021 College of Education and Integrative Studies
Dr. Betty Alford
Dissertation Committee Chair
Professor of Education
Director of Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership
Chair, Department of Educational Leadership
Dr. Debby Collins
Adjunct Professor
Department of Educational Leadership
Dr. Nathan Carr
Professor
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
California State University, Fullerton
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My doctoral study has been an exciting and rewarding journey. My heart is filled
with gratitude when I acknowledge the support from professors, program participants,
family members, and friends along the journey.
First and foremost, my heartfelt gratitude goes to Dr. Betty Alford, who is my
chair for this study. Words are weak for me to express my gratitude to her for her
encouragement, patience, guidance, and leadership she has kindly and generously
provided to me. Dr. Alford is the reason I joined the program, stayed in the program, and
now am graduating from the program. Dr. Alford is not only my chair, but also my
mentor, my role model, and a good friend of mine. My sincere gratitude also goes to the
members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Debby Collins and Dr. Nathan Carr, for
sharing their knowledge and expertise during my doctoral research process.
In particular, I would like to thank the program participants for this study. To the
dear students, your stories and perceptions are the backbone of my study. It is my honor,
privilege, and pleasure to share your stories with my audience. To the university
administrators and faculty members who participated in this study, I thank you for your
generous support and the wisdom you shared with me.
Most importantly, my wholehearted thanks go to my family members. To my
boyfriend, Bick Wong, for your love and support on a daily basis. To my son, Tony
Tang, for motivating me in continuing my study. To my daughter-in-law, Kellie Tang,
for your strategic competition with me for being straight-A students in our studies.
iv
Special thanks go to my dear friends and colleagues. To Dr. Tian Gong, Dr. Alis
Zakarian, Dr. Vivienne Shen, and Mr. Arthur Wang, I thank you all for your kind support
and intellectual guidance during the process.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the doctoral program at Cal Poly
Pomona. The program is very well structured, and the professors are advanced in their
research and experienced practitioners in their field. In particular, I would like to thank
Dr. Richard Navarro and Dr. Taylor Allbright for their academic support and guidance
during my doctoral study.
v
ABSTRACT
With the high enrollment number of Chinese international students in U.S.
universities, there has been an increase in the amount of research on the difficulties and
challenges these students face in their American-university life. The purpose of this
qualitative case study was to examine the key processes and procedures of the pathway
program from the perspectives of Chinese international students, who have participated in
the program as well as related faculty members and university administrators. The goal
was to examine the experiences of program participants, faculty members, and university
administrators of how the pathway program impacts the preparation of Chinese
international students for graduate studies in U.S. universities, especially in coping with
the identified challenges. This study employed a qualitative case study method, and data
were derived from semi-structured and focus group interviews with a total of 21
participants. Findings revealed the importance of the language program in providing the
basic training to the students and the prerequisite courses serving as stepping-stones for
the students in their transition to graduate studies in the U.S. Findings also concluded that
the Confucian philosophy, and the differences between Chinese and American education
systems played a significant role in the Chinese students’ learning outcomes.
Recommendations were provided for higher education institutions, faculty members, and
researchers in terms of how to prepare international students for success in graduate
studies in the United States.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SIGNATURE PAGE ......................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ iii
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................v
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................x
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................1
Background of the Problem ..........................................................................................2
Purpose of the Study .....................................................................................................7
Research Questions .......................................................................................................8
Definition of Key Terms ...............................................................................................8
Assumptions ................................................................................................................10
Limitations and Delimitations .....................................................................................11
Significance of the Study ............................................................................................11
Summary and Organization of the Study ....................................................................12
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE.......................................................14
Conceptual Framework ...............................................................................................14
The Impact of Confucianism on the Chinese Education System and Student
Learning Outcome ..........................................................................................14
The Impact of the NCEE on Chinese Student’s Academic Performances ............17
Challenges Chinese International Students Face in U.S. Graduate Programs ............19
Language Barrier ....................................................................................................19
Academic Challenges .............................................................................................21
Classroom Transition ....................................................................................22
Group Work ..................................................................................................24
Academic Writing .........................................................................................27
Critical Thinking Skills .................................................................................29
Cultural, Social, and Psychological Adjustments ..................................................31
Fundamental Differences between Chinese and American Education Philosophy
and Practice ....................................................................................................36
Exploration of Similar Pre-master’s Pathway Program Models ...........................41
Summary ...............................................................................................................44
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................45
Qualitative Research ...................................................................................................46
Research Methods .......................................................................................................48
Setting ..................................................................................................................49
Data Sources ........................................................................................................52
Data Collection and Management ........................................................................53
Data Analysis .......................................................................................................55
vii
Trustworthiness ....................................................................................................57
Researcher’s Positionality ....................................................................................59
Ethical Considerations .........................................................................................62
Summary .....................................................................................................................63
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS ...............................................................................................64
Research Question One: The Perceptions of Chinese International Students of the
Pathway Program .................................................................................................66
Participants’ Profiles ............................................................................................66
Theme 1: The Chinese International Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of the
ELI Language Classes of the Pathway Program ...........................................68
Improvement of Academic Skills .................................................................68
Improvement of Cultural Understanding ......................................................71
Theme 2: The Chinese International Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of the
Prerequisite Classes of the Pathway Program on Their Ability to Cope with
Academic Challenges....................................................................................72
Transition to American Classroom Culture ..................................................73
Group Work ..................................................................................................75
Academic Writing .........................................................................................77
Critical Thinking ...........................................................................................79
Theme 3: The Chinese International Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of the
Pathway Program on Their Ability to Cope with Cultural, Social, and
Psychological Adaptation .............................................................................82
Cultural Acquisition ......................................................................................82
Social Adaptation ..........................................................................................84
Psychological Adaptation .............................................................................85
Theme 4: The Chinese International Students’ Overall Perceptions of the Impact
of the Pathway Program ................................................................................86
Pathway Program Services ...........................................................................88
The Chinese International Students’ Recommendations for the Pathway
Program and Incoming Pathway Students ........................................….89
Research Question Two: The Perceptions of Faculty Members of the Pathway
Program ................................................................................................................91
Theme 1: The Faculty Members’ Perceptions of the Impact of the ELI Program
of the Pathway Program on Students’ Ability to Cope with the Language
Barrier ...........................................................................................................92
Theme 2: The Chinese Faculty Members’ Perceptions of the Impact of the
Pathway Program on the Students’ Ability to Cope with Academic
Challenges .....................................................................................................94
Group Work ..................................................................................................95
Academic Writing .........................................................................................97
viii
Critical Thinking ...........................................................................................98
Theme 3: The Chinese Faculty Members’ Perceptions of the Impact of the
Pathway Program on the Students’ Ability to Cope with Cultural, Social,
and Psychological Adaptation.....................................................................100
Theme 4: The Faculty Members’ Overall Perceptions of the Impact of the
Pathway Program ........................................................................................102
The Faculty Participants’ Recommendations for the Pathway Program and
Incoming Pathway Students ................................................................105
Research Question Three: Perceptions of the University Administrators about the
Pathway Program ...............................................................................................107
Theme 1: The University Administrators’ Perceptions of the Impact of the ELI
Program of the Pathway Program on Students’ Ability to Cope with the
Language Barrier ........................................................................................108
Theme 2: The University Administrators’ Perceptions of the Impact of the
Pathway Program on the Students’ Ability to Cope with Academic
Challenges ...................................................................................................113
Group Work ................................................................................................113
Academic Writing .......................................................................................115
Critical Thinking .........................................................................................117
Theme 3: The University Administrators’ Perceptions of the Impact of the
Pathway Program on the Students’ Ability to Cope with Cultural,
Social, and Psychological Adaptation.........................................................119
Theme 4: The University Administrators’ Overall Perceptions of the Impact
of the Pathway Program ..............................................................................122
The University Administrators’ Recommendations for the Pathway
Program and Incoming Pathway Students ...........................................124
Summary ...................................................................................................................126
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND
RECOMMENDATIONS ...............................................................................................127
Conclusions ...............................................................................................................128
Discussion .................................................................................................................130
The Role of the English Language Program in Preparing Pathway Students for
Their Graduate Studies in the U.S. .............................................................130
Academic Challenges and the Impact of the Prerequisite Classes .....................133
Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of Confucianism on Their Academic
Performance ................................................................................................135
Students’ Perceptions of the Differences between American and Chinese
Education Systems and the Impact on Their Academic Studies in the
U.S. .............................................................................................................137
The Impact of NCEE on Chinese Students’ Academic Performance .........141
ix
The Impact of the One-child Policy on Chinese Students’ Academic and
Social Life in the U.S. ............................................................................144
Implications...............................................................................................................145
Implications for Institutions ...............................................................................145
Implications for the Pathway Program ...............................................................146
Implications for Incoming Chinese International Students ................................147
Recommendations for Further Study ........................................................................147
Concluding Statements .............................................................................................148
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................150
APPENDIX A: CONDITIONAL ADMISSION U.S. REGULATIONS ...................173
APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ...............................................................175
x
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Demographic Information of Student Participants ..............................................67
Table 2: Demographic Information of Faculty Members ..................................................92
Table 3: Demographic Information of University Administrators ..................................107
xi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Chinese International Students’ Enrollment Trends ............................................2
Figure 2: Student Visas Issued to Chinese Nationals ..........................................................3
Figure 3: Breakdown of KU International Students by Country, Fall 2019 ......................49
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
China has been the leading source of international students studying in U.S.
colleges and universities for over a decade. The Chinese government renewed its policy
of sending students overseas in 1978. Guided by this new policy, Chinese students were
permitted to study abroad. Since 1989, China has become one of the top sending
countries to the United States. Skinner (2019) reported that while the United States has
seen the number of international students from many countries fluctuate over time,
Chinese student enrollment has consistently grown and driven the country’s total
international student enrollment. In the 2018 to 2019 academic year, there were 369,548
Chinese students studying in the United States (Institute of International Education, 2019).
In addition to their financial contributions to the U.S. economy, Chinese international
students also bring unique cultural and academic diversity to U.S. education institutions.
With the high enrollment number of Chinese international students in U.S.
universities, there has been an increase in the amount of research on the difficulties and
challenges these students face in their American-university life. Language has been
reported as the major challenge (Kuo, 2011; Lee, 2013; Yang & Zhou, 2017). Academic
challenges include differences in the two education systems, such as teaching and
learning approaches, styles, and strategies (Davis, 2010; Xiang, 2015). Cultural and
social challenges have been identified as life stress, lack of support from the host country
and institution, and the students’ challenges in adapting to the new environment
(Akanwa, 2015; Oramas et al., 2018; Zhang & Goodson, 2011). Many studies have
focused on the preparation of Chinese high school students for undergraduate studies in
2
the U.S. However, few studies have contributed to the research on preparing Chinese
undergraduate students for graduate studies in U.S. universities. This study aimed to
investigate the key processes and procedures of a pathway program to prepare Chinese
international undergraduate students for graduate studies in the U.S. higher education
system.
Background of the Problem
For the tenth consecutive year, China remained the largest source of international
students in the United States as indicated in Figure 1 (Institute of International
Education, 2019).
Figure 1
Chinese International Students’ Enrollment Trends
Note. Adapted from Institute of International Education. (2019). Number of international
students in the United States hits all-time high. https://www.iie.org/Why-
IIE/Announcements/2019/11/Number-of-International-Students-in-the-United-States-
Hits-All-Time-High
98235 127628
157558
194029
235597
274439 304040
328547 350755 363341 369548
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
2008/092009/102010/112011/122012/132013/142014/152015/162016/172017/182018/19
Nu
mb
er o
f St
ud
ents
Number of University and College Students from China
in the United States from Academic Year 2008/09 to 2018/19
3
After a decade of booming enrollment by students from China, American
universities are starting to see steep declines as political tensions between the two
countries cut into a major source of tuition revenue (Melie & Ring, 2019). Colleges have
reported declines in first-year international student enrollments for two consecutive years
(Redden, 2019). According to Fischer (2020),
The travel ban, shifts in visa policy, a trade war with China, doubts about job
prospects, increased competition from other countries, even fear of American gun
culture—all have contributed to three years of declines in the number of new
international students on American college campuses. (p. 2)
Skinner (2019) added that accusations toward Chinese students, attacks on the
Confucius Institutes, and warnings from the Chinese government about going to the
United States are the additional variables contributing to the deceleration of Chinese
student enrollment (see Figure 2). To add insult to injury, a drop is predicted in Chinese
students studying abroad this year due to the outbreak of Coronavirus, known as
COVID-19, in Wuhan, China (Sharma, 2020).
Figure 2
Student Visas Issued to Chinese Nationals
Student Visas Issues to Chinese Nationals
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
2016 2017 2018
Note. Adapted from the U.S. Department of State. Includes F and M visas.
4
In addition to the reasons specified by Fischer (2020) on enrollment declines, the
recent U.S. federal government policy change on conditional admission has added
another layer of difficulty for prospective Chinese international students to be admitted to
U.S. graduate programs. Wingfield (2017) specified that, at the graduate level in U.S.
universities, 80% are international students, hailing from India, China, Korea, Turkey,
and other countries. The conditional admission policy change has had an impact at the
national, state, and institutional levels in terms of international student admission.
On July 13, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security issued Student and
Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) Policy Guidance on Conditional
Admission (see Appendix A). The policy stated that the Student and Exchange Visitor
Program (SEVP) regulation prohibits the issuance of a Form I-20, Certificate of
Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status, based on conditional admission. Designated
SEVIS Officers (DSOs) can only issue a Form I-20 when students have met all admission
requirements of the program of study listed on Form I-20.
On July 15, 2016, the California State University Office of the Chancellor issued
a letter to inform the 23 campuses of the SEVIS policy guideline on conditional
admission. Following the chancellor’s letter, most of California state universities stopped
offering conditional admission to international students. As a result of all policy changes
as stated above, many international students who would normally be admitted by U.S.
universities through a conditional admission program seemed no longer to be eligible for
admission. It is extremely challenging for international students to be “fully” prepared
for admission to U.S. graduate programs.
5
According to Krislov (2019), international students foster a diverse campus
community and enrich the learning environment. Recruitment of international students
also creates significant financial opportunities for U.S. universities. Chinese international
students are a large population in the U.S. who bring many benefits to U.S. universities.
Despite this, recent policy change on conditional admission has created insurmountable
barriers for Chinese international students to access graduate studies at the state
universities in California. New and innovative programming is needed to support
Chinese international student access to graduate programs at California state universities.
Yet, most research focuses on preparing high school students, and more study is needed
to ensure the success of programs targeted at preparing international students to apply for
and attend U.S. graduate programs.
To better understand the problem and work out a solution to the problem, it is
necessary to have a thorough understanding of the admission policy for international
applicants to U.S. higher education. For most international applicants who seek
admission into a graduate program in the U.S., there are three requirements they must
meet in addition to other basic academic requirements (bachelor’s degree, GPA, etc.): (a)
English language proficiency, (b) prerequisites of graduate programs, and, in some cases,
(c) Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), or Graduate Record Examinations
(GRE). In terms of the English language proficiency requirement, the previous practice
of conditional admission had allowed international students to enter U.S. degree-seeking
programs prior to passing the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) with the
expectation that they would prepare for and pass the exam during their studies. Without
this flexibility, students must pass this exam prior to admission, creating a significant
6
obstacle for many international students considering a degree program in U.S.
universities. Among these three basic academic requirements, the prerequisite
requirements apply to most graduate programs, meaning students need to complete all
required undergraduate courses before being officially admitted by the graduate program.
However, many international students are unable to meet this requirement at the time of
their application, given the difference in course structure and curriculum design between
their undergraduate education in their home country and the U.S.
For students who cannot meet prerequisite requirements, conditional admission
seems to be a beneficial way (and the only way in some cases) for them to clear these
prerequisites in order to be admitted into a graduate program. With conditional
admission, international students who meet certain requirements are admitted into the
university to advance their English skills as well as to take prerequisite courses as needed
before they are officially admitted into the graduate program.
According to Amirali and Bakken (2015), “The most commonly observed
challenges that international graduate students face include: Communication before and
after arrival, language barriers, finding living accommodations, adjusting to a new culture,
acquiring appropriate finances, and integrating within the U.S. education system”
(p. 425). Since the policy change on conditional admission has blocked the way for most
international students to enter U.S. graduate programs, it is important that new and
innovative pathway programs be created for allowing this special group of students to be
prepared for admission and academic success in their graduate studies in U.S. universities.
7
Purpose of the Study
In this dissertation, I studied one innovative pathway program at a public
university in the State of California. The purpose was to examine the key processes and
procedures of the pathway program from the perspectives of Chinese international
students who have participated in the program as well as related faculty members and
university administrators. The pathway program is designed to allow international
students 1 year of study in the U.S. for international students who need to improve their
English language skills and/or complete program prerequisite courses prior to applying
for graduate programs after they finish the first 3 years of study at their home institutions.
The pathway program allows prospective international students, mainly Chinese
international students at this point, to get prepared not only for admission but also for
academic success in their graduate studies at U.S. higher education institutions. The
pathway program was created with the intent to address these challenges during the
transitional year in order to get prospective students better prepared for graduate studies
in U.S. universities. Therefore, it is both critical and important to evaluate the key
practices of the pathway program.
The goal was to examine the experiences of program participants, faculty
members, and university administrators of how the pathway program impacts the
preparation of Chinese international students for graduate studies in U.S. universities,
especially in coping with the identified challenges. The qualitative approach of the study
helped identify key processes and procedures of the pathway program. The case study
methodology was the most suitable since the study was focused on the examination of the
positive and negative perceptions of stakeholders about the program.
8
Research Questions
This study investigated the perceptions of a group of Chinese international
students who were enrolled in the pathway program as well as related faculty members
and university administrators. The following research questions were developed around
the goal of identifying the key processes and procedures of the pathway program from the
perspectives of Chinese international students, faculty members, and university
administrators in terms of how the program has prepared them for graduate studies in U.S.
universities.
RQ 1. What are Chinese international students’ perceptions of the ways in which the
structure of the pathway program impacts their ability to overcome the language
barrier and academic challenges and cope with cultural, social, and psychological
adaptations?
RQ 2. What are faculty members’ perceptions of the ways in which the structure of the
pathway program impacts the ability of Chinese international students to
overcome the language barrier and academic challenges and cope with cultural,
social, and psychological adaptations?
RQ 3. What are university administrators’ perceptions of the ways in which the structure
of the pathway program impacts the ability of Chinese international students to
overcome the language barrier and academic challenges and cope with the
cultural, social, and psychological adaptations?
Definition of Key Terms
The following terms are defined to provide clarity and context for use throughout
the study.
9
Chinese International Students: Students who undertake all or part of their higher
education experience in a country other than their home country or who travel across a
national boundary to a country other than their home country to undertake all or part of
their higher education experience (Institute of International Education, 2018). Chinese
international students refer to Chinese nationals who travel to another country other than
China for the purpose of studying.
Conditional Admission: A conditional admission of a student to a college or
university is dependent upon the individual completing coursework or meeting specified
criteria which are set prior to his/her enrollment (USLegal, n.d.).
Pathway Program: A pathway program allows international students who want to
study in the U.S. to take English as a Second Language (ESL) courses while also taking
academic courses that will count toward their degree. These programs last about a year.
The students who finish the program with acceptable English language skills and a high
enough GPA are automatically accepted into the affiliate school (International Student,
n.d.).
National College Entrance Examination (NCEE): NCEE, known as Gaokao, is an
examination that is taken by Chinese students in their third and final year of high school
from June 7 to June 8 or 9. It is also the lone criterion for admission into Chinese
universities. One Chinese saying aptly compares the exam to a stampede of “thousands
of soldiers and tens of thousands of horses across a single log bridge” (Wu, 2019).
Designated School Official (DSO): A regularly employed member of the school
administration who has an office at the school and whose compensation does not come
10
from commission for recruiting foreign students (U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement [ICE], 2018).
Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS): SEVIS is a web-based
system for maintaining information on international nonimmigrant students and exchange
visitors in the United States (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE], 2018).
Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP): SEVP functions on behalf of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a part of the National Security Investigations
Division to ensure that government agencies have essential data related to nonimmigrant
students and exchange visitors to preserve national security. SEVP collects, maintains,
analyzes, and provides information through SEVIS to assure proper reporting and record
keeping of maintaining appropriate nonimmigrant status for students and exchange
visitors in the United States (ICE, 2018).
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL): The Test of English as a
Foreign Language is a standardized test to gauge the English language capability of non-
native speakers who want to enroll in American English-speaking universities. The test
is accepted by many English-speaking educational and qualified institutions (Educational
Testing Service, n.d.).
Assumptions
As a researcher and a practitioner, one of my assumptions was that the pathway
program in this study is effective in helping Chinese international students cope with the
identified challenges. I also assumed that the participants in the semi-structured
interviews would share their ideas and experiences about the pathway program in an
honest and candid way since I tried to create a safe environment and clearly explained the
11
purpose of the study. My educational background and my experience as a Chinese
international student earning two master’s degrees from U.S. universities in addition to
my role as the Advisor of Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) at the
institution increased the participants’ comfort in sharing their perspectives with me.
Limitations and Delimitations
This study may be limited in its generalizability due to the fact that it only studies
international university students from one country at one institution. Results of this study
might be limited if it were applied to another student body. However, given the purpose
and significance of this study, generalizability was not the focus of this study. If a
concept or phenomenon needs to be explored or understood because little research has
been done on it, then it merits a qualitative approach (Creswell, 2014) since qualitative
research is pragmatic, interpretive, and grounded in the lived experiences of people
(Marshall & Rossman, 2016).
This study was conducted only at a public university in Southern California. The
participants of the study were Chinese international students who joined the pathway
program and whose goal was to complete a graduate program in U.S. universities.
Chinese international students who were directly admitted into U.S. graduate programs or
those who completed undergraduate programs in the U.S. were not included in this study.
Significance of the Study
This study may be beneficial for prospective international students, especially
Chinese international students, in their preparations for graduate studies at U.S.
universities. For Chinese international students, this study aimed to examine the key
processes and procedures of the pathway program from the perspectives of the Chinese
12
international students who have participated in the program as well as related faculty
members and university administrators. The goal was to examine the experiences of
program participants, faculty members, and university administrators of how the pathway
program impacts the preparation of Chinese international students for graduate studies in
U.S. universities, especially in coping with the identified challenges.
For the university faculty members and researchers, the students’ perceptions will
help them better understand the students’ needs so that they can adjust their teaching
pedagogy and curriculum design to support the students’ goal to be admitted and to be
successful in graduate studies in U.S. universities.
At the same time, the perspectives of Chinese international students, faculty
members, and university administrators regarding the pathway program will benefit
higher education leaders and practitioners in U.S. universities for creating similar
pathway programs and enhancing similar pathway programs to not only increase the
enrollment of international students in their graduate programs, but also to fully prepare
the students for academic success.
In addition, there is very limited literature review or research on the key practices
of such pathway programs. The pathway program is a new and innovative model. The
findings of the study will help fill the gap in the research on the identification and
improvement of similar pathway programs in order to enhance the success of
international students in their graduate studies at U.S. universities.
Summary and Organization of the Study
This study examined the key processes and procedures of the pathway program
from the perspectives of Chinese international students who had participated in the
13
program as well as related faculty members and university administrators. The goal was
to examine the experiences of program participants, faculty members, and university
administrators of how the pathway program impacts the preparation of Chinese
international students for graduate studies in U.S. universities, especially in coping with
the identified challenges.
The practice provided suggestions to practitioners in higher education regarding
the support that can be provided to these students to help them achieve their full potential
during the transition. At the same time, the findings could help future researchers with
their studies on international students from countries and regions other than China.
In Chapter 1, I started with a brief history of Chinese international students in U.S.
universities within the context of the challenges they face in the U.S. higher education
system, defined the problem and purpose of the study, presented the research questions,
and provided definition of key terms. Chapter 2 provides a literature review that
demonstrates the challenges Chinese international students face with the emphasis on
their graduate studies in U.S. universities. The literature review provides the foundation
for the investigation of the pathway program in terms of its key practices in preparing
Chinese international students for graduate studies in U.S. universities from the
perspectives of Chinese international students, faculty members, and university
administrators. Chapter 3 contains the research design of the study and the rationale
behind the choice of the methodology for this study, including data collection and
analysis methods. Chapter 4 provides the findings from the data collection. In Chapter 5,
I provide conclusions, discuss implications, and suggest recommendations for further
research and practice.
14
CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This study examined the key processes and procedures of the pathway program
from the perspectives of Chinese international students who have participated in the
program as well as related faculty members and university administrators. The goal was
to examine the experiences of program participants, faculty members, and university
administrators of how the pathway program impacts the preparation of Chinese
international students for graduate studies in U.S. universities, especially in coping with
the identified challenges. In this chapter, I will first lay out the conceptual framework
and the foundation of the conceptual framework on which the study was based; I will
then provide a review of the literature to synthesize empirical studies in this field with the
focus on the challenges Chinese international students face in U.S. graduate studies.
Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework of the study is grounded in two areas: The impact of
Confucianism on the Chinese education system and the influence of the National College
Entrance Examination (NCEE) on Chinese students’ academic performance. The
conceptual framework provides further guidance on the literature review of the
challenges Chinese international students face, especially the challenges they face in
graduate studies in U.S. universities.
The Impact of Confucianism on the Chinese Education System and Student
Learning Outcome
Confucianism is one of the oldest religions and philosophical beliefs in the world.
It is a philosophical and religious system based on the teachings of the Chinese
15
philosopher Confucius. Through the teachings of Confucius, the values of humaneness,
righteousness, propriety, knowledge, integrity, loyalty, filial piety, and continence have
been described and applied (Ackerman et al., 2009; Chunxia, 2010; McDonald, 2012).
Confucian philosophy and educational ideology are deeply rooted in the culture of East
Asian countries (Wang, 2016), and Confucian culture plays an important role in the
Chinese education system. According to Bradley (2018), the fundamental concepts of
Confucianism are based on harmony, compliance, and veneration of those who hold
authority in society. Among the factors of Chinese culture that most influence Chinese
students’ manner of learning, thinking, and practice are the Confucian social and
behavioral traditions that are still strongly embedded in Chinese daily life (Durden et
al., 2014). Han et al. (2013) studied the impact of Confucian philosophy on the education
of Chinese students. The authors demonstrated that the foundation of Chinese
educational practice is still ruled by Confucian dogma after thousands of years. Li (2013)
stated that the negative outcomes from Confucian ideas of harmony have led to the
development of Chinese international students who do not know how to formulate ideas
that run counter to what they were raised to believe is right and wrong. Gay (2013)
concluded that possessing a firm comprehension of the impact that Confucianism has had
on the formation and the current practices and aims of the Chinese education system can
give researchers a better understanding of the trials and obstacles that Chinese
international students face in the midst of very different ways of thinking and learning in
Western society.
Chinese students are always taught to study for the sake of their country and their
family and to make their parents proud. Madden Dent and Laden (2016) conducted
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studies about Chinese family hopes and wrote that the United States is China’s preferred
destination to pursue higher education outside of China. In Chinese culture, many
Chinese parents believe that earning a degree from Western countries, especially from the
U.S., would be a stepping-stone for their children’s bright future career. Hagedorn and
Hu (2014) emphasized that having children studying in America gives both parents and
their students a boost in social status, which is a deciding criterion for Chinese students
and their parents. China’s one-child policy further explains why Chinese parents place
high expectations on their children. The one-child policy became the national policy in
1980. The result has been that these young adults who study in America have had no
experience with working or studying or living outside of their normal culture, where they
were the beneficiaries of all the attention from their parents (Cameron et al., 2013). Barg
(2013) pointed out that parents’ expectations of their children as a result of this policy
have influenced the educational system in China. Hu and Hagedorn (2014) agree with
this finding and add that Chinese parents also have extremely high expectations of their
children, and this does play a role in the decisions Chinese students make in regard to
their educational future.
Collectivism is also very much apparent in Chinese society and is very much
founded on the Confucianism principles (Kelly, 2011). Chou et al. (2013) stated that the
Chinese place importance on suppressing their personal needs based on their collective
responsibilities to the family and also the community. According to Starr (2012), the
teachings and values of Confucius are based on ethics and statecraft, which created for
China a society dominated by social status and material success. This notion is supported
by the extent of parental interests attributed to children, mostly in pressuring these
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children to succeed in their studies. Deeply influenced by Confucianism, many Chinese
international students make the choice of study abroad under the pressure of the family or
society. I was one of those international students from China 28 years ago. For the
current generation of Chinese international students, they are under tremendous pressure
from both parents and their parents’ families to be successful in U.S. higher education
institutions since most of them are the only child in the family.
The Impact of the NCEE on Chinese Student’s Academic Performances
The NCEE of China, known as Gaokao, was created in 1952 as a tool to admit
students to higher education. The Gaokao, a merit-based test, builds on the centuries-
long tradition of the Keju, a civil service exam used to vet the eligibility of academicians
to serve as officials in imperial China. The Keju was abolished in 1905. Gaokao, Keju’s
successor, was introduced as a meritocratic route to academic and social advancement
in 1952 (Gu & Magaziner, 2016).
In China, the Gaokao is widely considered to be the most important exam, which
can make or break a young person’s future. It is also intended to help level the
playing field between the country’s rich and poor. The exam is considered the
pivotal moment for Chinese secondary students as their scores in large part
determine their future—whether they can go to university, which institutions they
will be admitted and consequently what careers await them. (Zhuang, 2017)
To understand Chinese education, it is imperative to understand the Gaokao (Ma, 2020).
The NCEE in China has put Chinese students under extreme pressure and stress, and
Chinese people normally describe Gaokao as “thousands of soldiers and tens of
thousands of horses across a single log bridge” (Wu, 2019, para. 2). The exam is long,
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and the test results are the only admission requirement for higher education in China.
Valdez (2015b) stated that students who manage to get top scores on the National College
Entrance Examination are allowed to attend high-ranking public schools such as Peking
University and Tsinghua University, which offer far better job opportunities for Chinese
graduates. The Chinese students who do not achieve the scores that can open doors are
left with poor choices. Lower-level schools are regarded as undesirable and of poor
quality (Hu & Hagedorn, 2014). Lin and Chen (1995) stated that extreme pressure from
family and society undoubtedly makes students passive objects, which hampers their
growth as all-around people. High expectations are important and necessary for
achievement, yet the pressure the exam generates on students, regardless of their growth,
may effectively deprive the children of their happy, explorative, curious, and imaginative
childhood. Lin and Chen’s conclusion is echoed by the finding of Hu (2014). Hu (2014)
further verified that the NCEE in China was described as highly competitive and
restrictive. On the one hand, most parents considered the Chinese NCEE to be overly
competitive and unfair—they preferred their children not to compete; on the other hand,
the NCEE was the only pathway to Chinese universities. It was solely the NCEE score
that provided the ticket to enter universities. It is easy to imagine the crucial importance
of Gaokao in Chinese students’ lives and the pressure it creates. In China, all pre-college
education has become preparation for the Gaokao, and Chinese students and their
families bear an enormous emotional and psychological burden throughout the process
(Ma, 2020). Kirkpatrick and Zang (2011) also pointed out that an exam-oriented
education system not only increases a student’s burden but also restricts a student’s
ability to learn using techniques that a particular student finds most effective. The fierce
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competition and emphasis on test scores have been criticized for putting students and
even their teachers and parents under unnecessary stress and denying teenagers from
obtaining a well-rounded education (Zhuang, 2017). The result of this exam-oriented
education is a large number of weary students with inadequate psychological
development, repressed personality and self-hatred, and a general lack in the
development of other abilities (Zheng, 2008).
Challenges Chinese International Students Face in U.S. Graduate Programs
The following literature review section is centered on the challenges Chinese
international students face in graduate studies in U.S. universities. Three major areas are
defined and investigated. They are language barriers and academic difficulties as well as
cultural, social, and psychological adjustments. Additionally, the fundamental
differences between the Chinese and U.S. educational philosophy and practice are also
investigated.
Language Barrier
Language barriers constitute one of the fundamental and enduring challenges for
international students whose native language is not English (Ma, 2020). The English
language was identified as a major problem for international students, and English
proficiency level is significantly related to academic success and social adjustment for
international students (Ching et al., 2017). It is widely reported in the literature that
English proficiency is one of the most significant predictors of Chinese international
students’ academic success (Arcuino, 2013; Daller & Phelan, 2013; Li et al., 2010).
Since English deficiency is a major obstacle for Chinese students studying in North
America, Huang (2006) analyzed the academic listening challenges of Chinese students
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at an American university. He pointed out that Chinese participants were most confident
about their reading ability and grammar, which might explain why they achieved high
scores on the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Their weakest areas were
speaking and listening skills. However, the results of the study by Cheng and Erben
(2012) are inconsistent with Huang’s (2006) in terms of students’ reading ability. Cheng
and Erben (2012) studied language anxiety of Chinese graduate students at U.S. higher
education institutions. They conducted a mixed-methods study, and 156 students from
U.S. public universities participated. The results showed that the Chinese students who
were studying in American institutions felt anxiety when using English, whether in
writing, reading, or speaking in the classroom. The authors concluded that the language
anxiety affects students’ confidence in their use of English. It may limit verbal
participation between students with immature language proficiency and those with well-
developed language abilities. Universities in the U.S. normally require a minimum
TOEFL score for admission. In the California State University system, the minimum
TOEFL score for graduate program admission for international students is 80. However,
Ma (2013) pointed out that Chinese students who are able to achieve an acceptable or
high score in the TOEFL cannot be determined as actually possessing the needed
proficiency scores in English to successfully study and complete their study programs in
American universities.
Traditional English education in China is predominantly teacher-centered
(Hu, 2014; Yang, 2000); thus, English learners in China are more likely to be passive
recipients. A more recent study by Zhou and Li (2015) stated that active learning has
been largely neglected in their teacher-centered classrooms from their English-learning
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experiences in China. Yuan (2011) stated that English education in China mainly relies
on written tests to evaluate students’ performance, with less emphasis on speaking and
listening skills. Hence, many Chinese students did not feel confident of speaking English
in class.
Kuo (2011) pointed out that language barriers can have a negative influence on
Chinese students making friends with American students. Studies have shown that one of
the most common complaints of international students is their lack of friendships with
their host nationals. International students from China, Japan, and South Korea are more
likely to have no American friends than students from other countries (Gareis, 2012).
Many international students do not feel comfortable building relationships with
Americans because some American students find it difficult to understand them or do not
have the patience to listen to international students who cannot speak English fluently.
Engaging international students in sharing their interests, experiences, and interactions
led them to improve their language skills and learning performance (Lin & Scherz, 2014).
In summary, the deficiency in English affects international students’ academic
performance and impacts their ability to socially interact with others (Sherry et al., 2010;
Yeh & Inose, 2003).
Academic Challenges
In general, research on Chinese international student experiences in the U.S.
higher education system has illuminated many types of academic challenges that these
students encounter. Academic challenges include communicating with native speakers,
understanding lectures, writing essays, adjusting to host academic culture, using
educational supportive services, meeting academic demands and progress, and learning
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skills (Hu & Zhang, 2013). The following literature review section is focused on
challenges such as differences in classroom experiences and academic writing and critical
thinking skills that are of concern for Chinese graduate students in U.S. higher education
institutions.
Classroom Transition
The sociologist Yingyi Ma offers a multifaceted analysis of Chinese international
students’ success and struggle in the U.S. higher education system. Ma (2020) stated,
Chinese international students studying in the United States confront English
barriers that are more complicated than those of ESL learners in China. A lack of
vocabulary and a lack of familiarity with the English language learning
environment make reading and writing challenging and pose additional barriers to
class participation. (p. 163)
Neuby (2012) stated that Chinese students studying in the United States found the
classroom experience to be very different from their classroom experience in China and
further indicated that respect for and obedience to authority, stringent discipline, and
memorization remain essential elements of most Chinese classrooms. Empirical studies
on Chinese students’ learning experiences in the United States showed they are usually
uncomfortable with classroom activities that include participating in group discussions,
asking questions in class, and critical argumentations (Durkin, 2011). The author pointed
out that the unfamiliarity with American ways of teaching and learning experienced by
Chinese students is a type of learning shock, and this kind of learning shock normally
overlaps with the notion of culture shock. The usual university course in China is
delivered in a lecture format, where the students are passive and rarely ask questions or
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speak out (Neuby, 2012; Rajaram, 2013). Kuo (2011) reported that most of the
participants in the study noted that their language challenges were primarily in the
classroom or in interacting with other people. Due to the great differences in pedagogical
culture and expectations between the U.S. and China, Chinese students are bound to
encounter great challenges and difficulties in adapting to American pedagogical culture
(Perkins, 1977; Yan & Berliner, 2011a).
When Chinese students attend classes in a new university environment, they begin
to perceive themselves and their identity differently (Lombard, 2014). Obstacles
associated with the acculturation process diminish Chinese international students’
capacity to fully participate in their studies. In addition, the development of adaptive
strategies that interpret cultural differences and form revised mental constructs that
integrate those differences is not always purposefully managed in the classroom by the
student or the instructor (Rawcliffe, 2016). Valdez (2015a) revealed that the Chinese
international students who participated in his study referred to the Chinese teaching style
as spoon feeding when the instructor tells students exactly what to do, such as when to
take notes, and forces them to memorize information. According to Guo and O’Sullivan
(2012), Chinese students firmly believe that teachers are classroom authorities. This kind
of belief prevents them from treating teachers in their Western classroom as learning
partners who do not shoulder as much responsibility as their Chinese teachers did.
East Asian learners in general have been widely noted not to participate as
actively as their white counterparts in American classrooms (Ma, 2020). Ames and
Rosemont (2010) discovered the cultural norms best explained the phenomenon: “The
most influential spiritual tradition in China—Confucianism—categorically distrusts
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words and discourages speaking while putting a premium on actions. For example, in
Analects, Confucius writes, “The exemplary person wants to be slow to speak yet quick
to act’” (p. 93). Li (2010) examined the assertiveness of Chinese American students and
found that Chinese American students consider challenging their professors directly in
class inappropriate, and they believe they should seek out their professors after class and
discuss issues privately, rather than making a public scene.
According to Huang (2012), there are other factors of classroom transition that
Chinese international students experience in the classroom environment in the U.S. One
of the factors is the learning context. When Chinese international students take classes in
the U.S., their familiar learning context is lost. Therefore, Chinese international students
might have to spend more time and make more effort to synthesize information to resolve
their cognitive conflicts than their American counterparts in order to effectively
participate in classroom activities (Huang, 2012). One other factor is the learning content.
According to Zhao and Bourne (2011), the content of learning materials, especially for
the social sciences, is likely to be more relevant to American culture, and it might take
some time for Chinese international students to adjust. Huang (2012) concluded that
learning in a foreign environment involves the learners’ prior knowledge about cultural
taboos, social expectations, learning approaches, and the subject matter. What is
common sense for learners from the mainstream American culture may be novel to
Chinese international students.
Group Work
Compared to the Chinese classroom teaching and learning style, one
distinguishing characteristic of U.S. education is group work. Some researchers contend
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that, due to Chinese students’ limited prior knowledge of and skills for group work, they
do not show much enthusiasm for group work (Turner, 2006; Wong, 2004; Xue, 2013)
when initially exposed to an English-speaking environment. According to Mukminin and
McMahon (2013), lack of confidence made students afraid of participating in class
discussions since most international students believe that their English is not good
enough to participate in the group discussions.
Pedagogical factors might contribute to the difficulties of Chinese international
students’ participation in group work. According to Yang (2017), “Lecturing is still the
dominant mode of teaching used by Chinese teachers, although adopting group work as
an alternative teaching and learning approach has occasionally been practiced in some
Chinese schools and universities” (p. 37). Therefore, unfamiliarity or an unsatisfactory
experience with group work in previous educational settings can lead to negative
perceptions of group work, which consequently affect students’ attitudes and
participation (Yang, 2017).
Cultural factors affect Chinese students’ participation in culturally diverse group
work (Gram et al., 2013; Holmes, 2005; Wang, 2016; Zhang & Zhou, 2010). In terms of
how cultural factors affect Chinese students’ participation in culturally diverse group
work, Wang (2016) conducted a 1-year academic study of six Chinese transfer students at
a UK university with 24 in-depth interviews. The analysis of data from the study blames
Chinese cultural inheritances for the students’ initial lack of participation in group work.
Some of Wang’s findings are consistent with the conclusions of a study conducted by
Holmes (2005) in a New Zealand learning context. Holmes investigated 14 Chinese
students’ experiences with group work. Both Holmes (2005) and Wang (2016) identify
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the negative effects of “face” on Chinese students’ group work participation. Face, or
mianzi in Chinese, is a sociological concept original to Chinese culture and salient in
Chinese communication. It is “an image of self, possessed by a person through their
interest in how they are regarded or judged by others, and face is a social representation
of a person reflecting the respect, regard or confidence others have in them” (Qi, 2011,
p. 287). Ma (2020) conducted research on why Chinese students tend not to speak up in
American classrooms. She stated,
The test-oriented education system in China and profound cultural factors relating
to speech behavior are central to an understanding of why these students tend not
to speak up. Traditional Chinese culture, which values actions over words and
emphasizes speaking appropriately, has left deep imprints on Chinese education
and society, influencing how Chinese students are taught—namely, to keep their
heads down and their mouths shut. (p. 181)
Xue (2013) investigated 14 Chinese international graduate students’ experiences
with group work and the effects of group work on their English communicative
competence. Some participants in the study complained that the rapid speed of English
speakers in the classroom contributes to Chinese students’ listening comprehension
problems and consequently makes it difficult for them to respond to teachers and peers.
Besides the issue of speed, accent is also reported to contribute to listening difficulty.
Zhang and Zhou (2010) reported that the students had difficulty in understanding the
accents of multicultural faculty members. According to Yang (2017), unfamiliarity or an
unsatisfactory experience with group work in previous educational settings may cause
students to form negative perceptions of group work, which consequently affect their
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attitudes and participation. The students in Xue’s (2013) study complained about various
accents from their American peers. The research results showed that these participants’
attitudes toward group work went through changes from initial inadaptation or dislike to
later adaptation or acceptance, and the time for their adjustment ranged from half a year
to a year. The results also revealed that group work greatly improved their English
communicative competence in terms of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic
competence, and strategic competence. Rienties et al. (2013) emphasized that engaging
students in group work in classroom discussions and providing opportunities for them to
share ideas with experiences will benefit international students in improving their
academic performance in order for them to best gain from their classmates’ experiences,
perspectives, and cultures.
Academic Writing
Academic writing has been identified as one of the major challenges Chinese
international students face in U.S. graduate studies. Zhang and Zhou (2010) pointed out
that writing papers is a challenge for Chinese students, and even students who graduated
from English-medium schools in China admitted their writing abilities were not adequate
for the requirements in Canadian universities. Yang (2017) reported related issues
concerning Chinese international students. Those issues include but are not limited to
vocabulary and sentence-level accuracy, rhetorical organization, subject content, and
English academic writing expectations and conventions.
Qian and Krugly-Smolska (2008) found that some graduate students in electrical,
mechanical, and chemical engineering all cited limited vocabulary, sentence-level
difficulties, and paraphrasing as being their main challenges in writing a literature review.
28
Gao (2012) conducted a study of Chinese students’ writing experiences and reported that
the Western style of directness or linear clarity was valued and taught in both Chinese
and English academic writing at Chinese universities. Zhang (2018) pointed out,
By the comparison of national cultures and writing styles, it is found that the main
differences of Chinese and British academic writing styles exist in students’
comprehension of academic argument, the way of utilizing others’ achievements,
and the structure of academic writing styles. (p. 118)
Along with problems with vocabulary or sentence-level accuracy and organization,
subject matter can also present a writing problem. However, there has been limited
research on this topic. Gao (2012) investigated three graduate students’ intercultural
experiences with academic writing in English and concluded that the unfamiliarity with
the subject matter of their respective disciplines was a major challenge. The issue with
this finding is that the sample was too small, and it was only focused on the area of
education discipline. To address the issue of academic writing expectations and
conventions, Yang (2017) stated that the fact that academic writing expectations and
conventions in English often feel alien to Chinese students; this lack of familiarity,
combined with their limited knowledge of these conventions and expectations, causes
difficulty with performing writing tasks. Zhang and Zhou (2010) conducted a study with
a focus group; some of the participants recalled that they had never been required to write
a paper over 2,000 words in English before, and some had no idea how to use APA style.
They concluded that Chinese international students had not received sufficient writing
training before studying abroad.
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One other challenge defined for Chinese international students in academic
writing is critical writing. It is very difficult for Chinese students to meet the expectation
of using a Western critical approach in writing (Edwards et al., 2007; Gao, 2012; Qian &
Krugly-Smolska, 2008). This conclusion may be due to the Chinese cultural belief that
published texts are authoritative and should not be questioned (Qian & Krugly-Smolska,
2008). Yang (2017) concluded that Chinese students’ difficulty with undertaking a
critical approach to writing is a complex issue, as it involves many dimensions, including
culture, language, and subject matter. The author also indicated that it is less likely for
students to write critically if they are unable to read critically and fully understand the
content. The topic of critical thinking will be the next topic to review.
Critical Thinking Skills
There have been various definitions offered for critical thinking in the literature.
Critical thinking involves the introspection of reasoning to improve thinking
(Lucas, 2019). Weissberg (2013) concluded that what most definitions have in common
is that they involve the use of reason to create depth in thinking. Chinese international
students lack the critical thinking experience found in Western classes (Huang & Brown,
2009). Yang (2017) supported the conclusion and stated that, in addition to not believing
they should take responsibility for their learning, a lack of understanding about Western
critical thinking and the critical pedagogy required for independent learning also hinders
Chinese students from becoming independent learners. Guo and O’Sullivan (2012)
pointed out that critical thinking is greatly valued in Western academic practice and
culture, while it was absent in Chinese education philosophy until the 21st century. Their
study further indicated that unfamiliarity with the concept of critical thinking inhibited
30
students from initially adopting Western critical thinking and pedagogy. In their study,
some participants thought critical thinking was simply about taking the opposite position
and criticizing the author. Yang (2017) pointed out that these findings may reflect an
inaccurate understanding of English terms resulting from insufficient language abilities.
Also, they highlighted the difficulties caused by the absence of such educational values in
students’ previous learning contexts.
Floyd (2011) conducted a study of Chinese students’ critical thinking
performances in Chinese and English at Macquarie University, Australia. The researcher
had a group of 29 students and a group of 26 students take the Watson Glaser Critical
Thinking Appraisal both in Chinese and English. The data from the study indicated that
critical thinking is closely correlated with the language used. Both Durkin (2008) and
Guo and O’Sullivan (2012) also acknowledge cultural differences can be a major factor
that affects the acquisition of critical thinking skills. Guo and O’Sullivan (2012) also
found that traditional Chinese values of teachers being absolute authorities in the
classroom as well as harmony and compliance added to the difficulty students had with
developing an understanding of Western critical thinking and developing the relevant
skills.
Lucas (2019) conducted a narrative case study on four Chinese graduate students,
and his research results revealed that student understanding of critical thinking varied;
however, three predominant themes emerged: critical thinking was connected to
innovative thinking, independent thinking, and a questioning attitude. In terms of why
Chinese international students struggle with critical thinking, his research indicated that
one of the reasons is that critical thinking was connected to different educational
31
practices between the U.S. and China. The other reason is due to inadequate background
knowledge about the topic under discussion, according to one of the participants.
However, the downside of Lucas’ (2019) research is that the sample size was small.
Cultural, Social, and Psychological Adjustments
On top of language barriers and academic challenges, Chinese international
students also face unique cultural, social, and psychological adjustment issues.
According to Almurideef (2016), culture is about the values of acknowledgment,
interpretations, expectations, and behaviors. International students who come to the
United States from different cultures find sociocultural adjustment is difficult for them.
The author further stated that international students encounter adjustment difficulties that
differ from those of domestic students, such as culture shock, homesickness, loss of
social support, discrimination, language barriers, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and
academic adjustment (Almurideef, 2016). American customs and values can be very
different from those of their home country, and they might have “culture shock” (Rienties
et al., 2013). International students face the shock of being unfamiliar with the language
of the new country. The process of cultural adjustment is viewed as a struggle for young
Chinese international students in the United States (Flannery & Wieman, 1989;
Hendrickson et al., 2011; Jung et al., 2007). When Chinese graduate students first enter
U.S. institutions of higher learning, not only do they enter a new program of study, but
they also connect with a distinctly different culture simultaneously (Cheng &
Erben, 2012). Li et al. (2010) specified that academic culture shock is directly associated
with the learning environment of an academic institution. Lillyman and Bennett (2014)
stated that many international students have reported the adaption as a positive
32
experience, though the process might be challenging. Cultural adaption is perceived as a
process that enhances international students’ intercultural communication competence
(Lillyman & Bennett, 2014). Ma (2020) stated that Chinese international students feel
marginalized due to their race and foreign status, and they feel removed from some of the
campus culture. The concept of neoracism is helpful in accounting for the lack of
belonging on the part of Chinese students in American higher education. Chinese
international students, though not disadvantaged in economic terms, are marginalized
socio-culturally (Will, 2019). Research concluded that intentionally supporting domestic
and international student interactions are important in developing the cognitive skills,
effective communication skills, and cultural awareness of all students (Arkoudis, et al.,
2010).
Recognizing the importance of Chinese culture, Bodycott and Lai (2012)
examined the influence of Chinese culture on the decision to undertake cross-border
higher education. By conducting surveys and interviews with Chinese students working
toward undergraduate degrees in Hong Kong, Bodycott and Lai (2012) found that,
despite the profound social and economic changes that have occurred in Chinese society,
traditional Confucian values were still followed by Chinese students and their parents.
Understanding how cultural factors influence the improvement of international students
in higher education is necessary for faculty to learn the best practices in the education of
international students (Li et al., 2010). Li et al. (2010) emphasized the importance of
“increasing the awareness of the cultural diversity in the higher education settings to
better support international students’ learning experiences and gain competitiveness in
the international higher education market” (Li et al., 2010). Lin and Scherz (2014)
33
advocated using cultural strategies to decrease the academic challenges experienced by
international graduate students from Asia.
In addition, Charles-Toussaint and Crowson (2010) revealed that U.S. students
perceive international students as threats to their educational, economic, and physical
well-being, values, beliefs, and social status due to prejudices against immigrants.
Besides lack of support and prejudicial attitudes toward them, decreased communication
increases anxiety and decreases social interaction with others while creating a negative
stereotype regarding these students’ behavior (Oramas et al., 2018).
In terms of psychological adaptation, Lillyman and Bennett (2014) stated that
international students experience a mix of excitement and anxiety when they first arrive
in the host country. Adapting to a new culture is viewed as requiring a dynamic shift in
personal identification (Tran, 2011). The process is a dual process that includes cultural
and psychological change. International students who choose to study in the U.S. may
face various other stressors in the host country (Kim & Kim, 2010; Lillyman & Bennett,
2014). Ching et al. (2017) supported the argument and verified that, for most
international students, the decision to study abroad generally involves a large personal,
social, and financial investment. Therefore, international students may feel the pressure
to succeed as a result of this investment. In addition, Asian Americans are perceived as
the role-model ethnic minority in mainstream American culture. Often, it is assumed that
Asian Americans are free from psychological problems (Sue, 2013; Yeh & Inose, 2003).
Due to the Chinese government’s one-child policy, many Chinese international students
come from one-child families. Parents and extended family of Chinese international
students often commit significant amounts of money for their son or daughter to study
34
abroad, with substantial financial risk to the family (Bodycott & Lai, 2012). Behind the
financial support are the high expectations from family, friends and relatives.
Another major pressure comes from international students’ fear of failing to fulfill
the expectations of others and themselves. They want to demonstrate their achievements
to their family back home. Because they want to save face, most of the Chinese students
who have mental health issues would not seek help from counselors or other resources.
Research has shown that international students do not usually seek assistance, especially
for mental health. There has been an increase in suicides as well as depression rates of
Chinese international students in the United States. According to Yoon and Jepsen
(2008), Asian students were less open to counseling than other international students due
to their feeling of shame and losing face regarding this type of treatment offered by
universities. The findings from Lee (2019) and Sa et al. (2013) supported Yoon and
Jepsen’s (2008) finding regarding Asian students’ reluctance to seek counseling. Despite
decreased mental health, however, students do not seek counseling services as they learn
to rely on family and friends in difficult times (Lee, 2019). Living abroad without family
support in an unfamiliar setting exacerbates the marked differences between the two
cultures, and students may abuse cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs (Sa et al., 2013). Mesidor
and Sly (2016) affirm that, although these students do not seek mental health
counseling—due to their lack of understanding of its benefits, language proficiency,
gender, and/or culture—institutions can play a significant role in educating and providing
the resources to help students adjust. A survey released in 2013 by Yale researchers
found that 45% of Chinese international students on campus reported symptoms of
depression, and 29% reported symptoms of anxiety (Han et al., 2013). The rates are
35
startling, compared with the roughly 13% for depression and anxiety among the general
population in American universities (Gao et al., 2012). In general, the lack of cultural
and social capital of Chinese international students in the U.S. adds to the difficulties of
the adaptation process (Bertram et al., 2014).
A review of the literature indicates that Chinese students are exposed to an
education system with different expectations and requirements from those in U.S.
universities. They grow up in a complex culture, very different from the one they
encounter in the U.S. Lack of support and acculturative stress add to their struggles
during their transition into U.S. universities (Oramas et al., 2018).
Lee (2013) pointed out that financial stressors and career concerns are challenges
that Chinese international students face while studying in the U.S. Unlike other countries,
such as the United Kingdom and Australia, which give international students 20-hour
work permits, the United States only authorizes international students to work on campus.
They need to apply for Optional and Practical Training (OPT) if they intend to apply for
jobs in the U.S. Compared with Canada, the UK, and other Western countries, the U.S.
has the strictest legal restrictions on international students working in the U.S. (Lee,
2013).
For international students who move to the U.S., the transition is significant, and
they are in great need of support to smooth the transition (Ching et al., 2017). As
mentioned by Lowinger et al. (2014), the transition to the United States can be difficult,
given that Chinese international students have to learn to function in a new language and
in a new environment with different cultural norms while adjusting to leaving behind
their families and support networks. During an 11-year review focused on the
36
psychological status of East Asian international students, Li et al. (2014) found that these
students’ psychological status was closely related to their English proficiency, length of
stay, attitudes toward seeking help, acculturation level, and depression. Several studies
specified that newly arrived students may express more anxiety and frustration with
regard to the language barrier, academic challenges, and general culture shock, while
students who have been in the United States longer may be better adjusted (Lin, 2012;
Yan & Berliner, 2011b).
Fundamental Differences between Chinese and American Education Philosophy
and Practice
Lynch (2019) compared both Chinese and U.S. educational systems and pointed
out three major differences. First of all, the aim of education is different. Chinese
students are taught from a young age that learning is critical to success and that discipline
and strictness are required in that pursuit. American education, on the other hand,
focuses more on creativity and how the student will use the knowledge in society.
Secondly, the structure of education is different. Chinese teachers focus on educating a
large group of students, while U.S. teachers are encouraged to focus on individual
students’ specific learning needs. Finally, societal expectations are different. In Chinese
society, there is a high value on learning, and Chinese parents have high expectations for
their children on education for future success, while American parents tend to view
education and learning as just another part of their children’s lives. Worthman (2010)
stated that Americans try to use acceptable and stable ways to express their love and exert
authority over their college children. Therefore, their children’ self-esteem is high, and
they are self-dependent and have exceptional social skills. Meanwhile Chinese parents
37
worry relentlessly about being the best, and Chinese parents will sink to degrading and
shaming their own children to produce uniform perfectionists (Dinsmoor, 2011). Chinese
parents believe that their intense focus and involvement in the lives of their children will
help produce the results they expect.
From a pedagogical approach, there are fundamental differences between Chinese
and U.S. education systems in teaching method, curriculum design, assessment of
learning outcome, and education of students’ personal characteristics and morality.
Donnellan and Edmondson (2019) conducted comparative studies of different
teaching/learning styles in higher education at universities from China and the U.S. This
study examined project-based teaching and learning at undergraduate business courses
over 3 years. Their research paper presented an argument that learning outcomes are
influenced by cultural and pre-college education differences. The model Chinese
institutions utilize is more of a collaborative repetition, whereas the one U.S. institutions
utilize is more of an individualist, critical thinking model. One of the results from this
study of two universities revealed that students from testing conducted in China scored
lower in the five critical thinking categories than their U.S.-university counterparts. Ma
(2020) compared the tradition of oral eloquence to the test-oriented education system in
China, and she concluded that Western learning emphasizes the role of communicating,
articulating, and debating in its teaching and learning spaces. Since contemporary
Chinese education system is geared toward the ultimate college entrance examination,
oral communication is not part of the test, so it is not a priority education goal.
When Chinese international students enter U.S. higher education institutions to
pursue a higher degree, they are transitioning from the Chinese education system to the
38
U.S. higher education system. Therefore, it is important for the researcher to review the
literature on the fundamental differences between the U.S. and Chinese education
philosophy and practice.
Doran (2014) pointed out that the Chinese educational system is significantly
inclined toward Confucianism, which fundamentally places teacher respect and authority
at the heart of learning. On the contrary, the U.S. education system is student-centered
and focuses on developing individual students’ distinct abilities, principles, and personal
creativity. While the Chinese students are guided more by views that are aimed at
producing harmony, American educational practice emphasizes values that are
intrinsically based on individuality, impartiality, and distinctiveness (Durden et al., 2014).
Fraise and Brooks (2015) contended that American educators are focused on the
development of individual students’ creative and critical thinking abilities through
employing classroom debate and the critical analysis of the issues that are discussed
through research-based varying opinions.
Cheng and Erben (2012) stated that the most important difference is that Chinese
teaching practice is centered on memorization. The Chinese education system is more of
an inactive style. Creativity and critical thinking are often not encouraged. This notion
could be due to class sizes and an overabundance of content that students are forced to
memorize. Further research is needed to investigate the inactive learning style of Chinese
international students. Reid and Dixon (2012) pointed out that because there is an almost
complete lack of critical thinking skills required and a lack of creativity in typical
Chinese teaching and learning styles, students who seek education in America find the
transition from memorization to analysis and debate very difficult to adapt to.
39
In terms of the differences in educational practice, Gist (2014) stated that Chinese
educational practice aims at the complete, unquestioned, and unfettered reception of the
academic information they are given. Conversely, U.S. educational practice focuses on
cultivating students’ ability to critically question, analyze, and challenge the knowledge
they are taught in the classroom. Malone and Medhora (2014) added that the driving
force behind the Chinese academic system is the accumulation of abilities, but the U.S.
system of education is driven by creativity. In terms of the education process, the
Chinese educational philosophy gives great significance to how much knowledge is
acquired by students, but American education philosophy emphasizes students’ actual
ability to critically and aptly employ the knowledge they receive creatively (Ballenger &
Ninness, 2013). One other difference pointed out by Zhang (n.d.) is that Chinese
educational methods challenge students to consistently and constantly work and study
hard, often to the detriment of Chinese students’ individual aptitudes and interests. A
strong contrast between Chinese and U.S. educational philosophy demonstrated by Yin
(2014) is that the U.S. education philosophy urges students to follow their own natural
interests. Yin believes that this will give them added confidence in working hard in areas
of their academic pursuit in the long run. Ballenger and Ninness (2013) further stated
that the Chinese and American educational systems both have practices that are
advantageous and disadvantageous.
According to Cramer and Bennett (2015), the Chinese education system is chiefly
focused on teachers, study materials, and memorization, while the American system
appears to encourage students’ creativity and active participation. Lucas and Villegas
(2013) pointed out that the differences in teaching style between the Chinese and U.S.
40
educational systems create greater challenges for Chinese international students than
most other nations’ international students. Ruggs and Hebl (2012) understood that most
Chinese students are totally accustomed to teacher-centered lectures in class with a very
controlled curriculum, while in the West, students need to find the correct answers to
their assignments through their own research or from their notes taken during classroom
dialogues and lectures (Yao, 2016).
The consequence is that, when they arrive in the United States and begin their
studies in American institutions of higher learning, they have the expectation of being
taught in the same manner to which they were accustomed in China (Ruggs & Hebl,
2012). In U.S. classrooms, American teachers expect that their students will have the
understanding and ability of actively contributing in classroom lessons and learning
through reading and absorbing the information on their own and that they possess the
understanding of conducting oral presentations (Hipsky, 2012).
Bradley (2018) concluded that these challenges and unique facets that represent
the Chinese and U.S. education philosophies add credibility to the call for preemptive
academic training for Chinese international students in their international preparation
programs, before venturing out to engage in higher educational studies (Bradley, 2018).
Li (2013) also added that the need for international student readiness is supremely
important, and such cultural and academic forces should be addressed in Chinese students’
international university preparation programs in China before commencing their
university studies in the U.S.
41
Exploration of Similar Pre-master’s Pathway Program Models
There is limited literature on pathway programs offered by U.S. universities to
better prepare international students for graduate studies. Elturki et al. (2019) launched a
study to assess the first cohort of pathway students’ needs and their academic and
sociocultural experiences at a U.S. university. This study took place in pathway
programs at INTO Washington State University (WSU) facilitated by the Intensive
American Language Center (IALC). The IALC, an accredited English language program
founded in 1984, serves the INTO WSU partnership by providing academic English
courses and pathways. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 40
graduate and undergraduate students. A follow-up survey was designed, and 51 students
from the same cohort participated in the survey. Elturki et al. (2019) concluded that such
programs provide international students with a soft landing spot at institutions of higher
education where they receive a high level of support services while they refine their
academic and language skills in preparation for university study. After successful
completion of pathway programs, students are mainstreamed into their degree programs.
Comparing the preparation programs offered by Chinese and American
universities, Pope and Denicolo (2013) contended that Chinese international university
preparation programs employ language training and use American curricula and many
American teachers. However, almost nothing is taught that could help students assimilate
culturally, socially, or academically into their new academic environments. Xiang (2015)
advised that it is important for Chinese international students to realize the difficult initial
stage of graduate study in the U.S., and it is necessary for them to be proactive and
prepared to overcome the initial difficulties and successfully transition to the next stage.
42
Different institutions in different parts of the world use different names to
describe pathway programs, such as foundation program, international year one, or
preparation course. Beginning in Australia in 1994, Navitas was the first private
education company to develop university pathway programs for international students.
These programs were designed to provide quality academic experiences for international
students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels (Bataille, 2017). The University
of Adelaide was the first education provider in Australia to offer the post-graduate
program. The Pre-Master’s Program is taught over two semesters, with the first semester
focused on developing students’ study and research skills as well as English language
skills in academic writing, reading, listening, and speaking. After completing the first
semester of the Pre-Master’s Program, students graduate into the second semester of the
chosen master’s degree at the University of Adelaide (University of Adelaide, 2018).
The Cambridge International Pre-Master’s (IPM) program is a 9-month, full-time
program for students wishing to prepare for study at the master’s degree level at a leading
English-speaking university. The course is designed to develop students’ abilities in
research methods and practices, their English language and academic literacy skills, and
understanding of current and emerging themes in business management or engineering
(University of Cambridge, 2019).
Pathway programs allow international students time to adjust themselves to the
cultural and social environment in the host country. Pan et al. (2013) pointed out that
establishing a social network in the host country can contribute to international students’
adjustment to the new environment. According to Lin and Scherz (2014), the prevailing
social relationships international students face in higher education included those with
43
instructors and staff, native English-speaking peers, and community members. Oramas et
al. (2018) stated that international students struggle with the reality of coming to a new
country, finding a place to live, establishing their finances (e.g., bank account, credit
cards), dealing with transportation issues, and living in a new community with minimal
support. De Araujo (2011) confirmed that social support derived from family, friends,
and faculty is a critical resource to buffering stress and improving mental health.
Research by McFarlane (2013) demonstrated that international students most
often endure their toughest challenges in areas such as reading comprehension, critical
thinking, and research when they transition into their new and unknown environment.
Liu et al. (2014) believed that such preparation material is not only important, but also
vital to Chinese international student success in American university studies. The trend
of offering pathway programs at U.S. universities has been increasing over the past
decade. Such programs provide international students with a soft landing spot at
institutions of higher education where they receive a high-level of support services while
they refine their academic and language skills in preparation for university study (Elturki
et al., 2019). Pathway programs support the globalization of campuses through the
diversity of students, the expansion of curriculum, and broader opportunities for faculty
and staff (Bataille, 2017).
It is worth mentioning that the term “bridge program” is often interchangeably
used to describe preparation programs for preparing international students for U.S.
undergraduate and graduate programs. However, bridge programs are normally referred
to as short-term summer programs.
44
Summary
This literature review aimed to discover the challenges facing Chinese
international students in graduate studies at U.S. universities. The conceptual framework
of the impact of Confucianism on the Chinese education system and the influence of
NCEE as well as their impact on Chinese student learning was provided as the foundation
of the literature review. The review of empirical literature demonstrated the challenges
Chinese international students face in the areas of language barrier, academic difficulties,
and cultural, social, and psychological adaptation. The fundamental differences in
Chinese and U.S. education philosophy and practice were also investigated. The review
of the literature also serves the function of identifying a gap in the research of the current
study topic. Almost no literature exists on the key practices of pathway programs that
address the needs and challenges of Chinese international students in U.S. graduate
programs. The main aim of this research effort is to determine, through a case study, the
key processes and procedures of the pathway program at the selected U.S. university in
preparing Chinese international students for graduate studies in U.S. universities in terms
of coping with the identified challenges.
45
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
A qualitative research methodology was used in this study. This chapter begins
with the introduction of the qualitative methodology, followed by its applicability and the
rationale for the selection of the method. I then present the qualitative research design
with the description in detail of the setting, sample, data collection, data analysis, and my
positionality. A summary is provided as a conclusion for this chapter.
The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the key processes and
procedures of the pathway program from the perceptions of Chinese international
students, who had participated in the pathway program, as well as related faculty
members and university administrators. There were three main research questions.
RQ 1. What are Chinese international students’ perceptions of the ways in which the
structure of the pathway program impacts their ability to overcome the language
barrier and academic challenges and cope with cultural, social, and psychological
adaptations?
RQ 2. What are faculty members’ perceptions of the ways in which the structure of the
pathway program impacts the ability of Chinese international students to
overcome the language barrier and academic challenges and cope with cultural,
social, and psychological adaptations?
RQ 3. What are university administrators’ perceptions of the ways in which the structure
of the pathway program impacts the ability of Chinese international students to
overcome the language barrier and academic challenges and cope with the
cultural, social, and psychological adaptations?
46
Qualitative Research
Creswell (2014) explained that a qualitative approach is needed when the topic is
new and the subject has never been addressed with a certain sample or group of people.
Another important characteristic of qualitative research defined by Merriam and Tisdell
(2016) is that:
The process is inductive, that is, researchers gather data to build concepts,
hypotheses, or theories rather than deductively testing hypothesis as in positivist
research. Bits and pieces of information from interviews, observations, or
documents are combined and ordered into larger themes as the researcher works
from the particular to the general. (p. 17)
Qualitative research methodology strengthens academic studies since a qualitative
approach assists researchers in comprehending the perspectives of students, teachers, and
educational administrators (Choeda & Dupka, 2016). Creswell (2014) pointed out that
researchers’ own personal training and experiences also influence their choice of
approach. Therefore, researchers need to explicitly declare their roles and identities in
the study and provide their personal biases. Adler (2015) stressed,
Qualitative research assumes that what is learned by researchers as they conduct
the study can shift what is studied and how the study is conducted; thus, changes
in the research design may take place while the study is underway, in other words
the research design evolves or is iterative. (p. 7)
In alignment with the fundamental basis of qualitative research design, I
employed a case study research methodology. Case studies are among the most
commonly employed qualitative research methods in educational research (Yin, 2014).
47
A case study is an in-depth description and analysis of a bounded system (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). Yin (2018) defined it as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a
contemporary phenomenon (the ‘case’) within its real-life context, especially when the
boundaries between phenomenon and context may not be clearly evident” (p. 16). The
case study I employed for this study is a unique one that has a clear boundary, which is
the 1-year pathway program at a public university in California. This study intended to
examine the key processes and procedures of the pathway program from the perspectives
of Chinese international students who had participated in the program as well as related
faculty members and university administrators. Therefore, a qualitative case study
method was most suitable for this study. The study emphasized the importance of
understanding a problematic situation based on the participants’ views and experiences.
According to Creswell (2014), “Case studies are a design of inquiry found in
many fields, especially evaluation, in which the researcher develops an in-depth analysis
of a case, often a program, event, activity, process, or one or more individuals” (p. 14).
Since the purpose of the case study was to examine the key processes and procedures of
the pathway program, I attempted to acquire an in-depth understanding of the program
from international students, faculty members, and university administrators who had
participated and been involved in the program by collecting and analyzing their
perceptions. Participants of this study were those Chinese international students who had
finished the pathway program and were enrolled in graduate programs as well as the
faculty members and university administrators who were involved in the program at the
selected institution. To understand what challenges Chinese international students face in
their graduate studies in the United States and to investigate the key processes and
48
procedures of the pathway program, it was important to examine their educational
experiences and personal views when they navigated the pathway program. Finally, the
product of a qualitative inquiry is richly descriptive (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The data
gathered in the form of quotes from participant interviews and field notes and documents
will support the findings of this study. In summary, the study fits within a case study
framework since it investigates a bounded system (Creswell, 2014), i.e., the experiences
of several participants within a particular context.
A qualitative case study approach was the most appropriate methodology for this
study for several reasons. First, the pathway program model is new, and key processes
and procedures have not been thoroughly examined. By the same token, neither have the
experiences of the faculty members and university administrators who were involved in
the program been investigated. Thus, a qualitative methodology was useful for data
gathering and analysis to generate trends in the participants’ perspectives. Secondly, the
goal of the study was to investigate the key processes and procedures of the pathway
program. The data collected from the participants regarding their perceptions of the
program enhanced the research with rich and comprehensive information on this topic.
Because the collected data are rich, comprehensive, and in depth, the findings from this
qualitative research contributed to closing the gap in the research in this area since the
available literature is limited in providing a deep understanding of the pathway program
model.
Research Methods
In this section, I will provide a description of each of the elements of the research
design.
49
15
16
24
28
32
38
44
48
106
324
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Saudi…
Myanmar
Japan
Hong Kong
Taiwan
India
Indonesia
Korea
Vietnam
China
Setting
This study took place in a public 4-year university in California, with the
pseudonym Kaile University (KU). KU is a regional state university and is located in
Los Angeles county in Southern California. KU enrolls more than 28,000 students, of
which approximately 1,050 are international students representing over 70 different
countries and regions. As a regional comprehensive university, the mission of KU is to
serve mostly local residents. This has led to international student recruitment and
services not receiving enough attention historically.
As of Fall 2019, there were 324 Chinese international students enrolled in degree-
seeking programs at KU. The number of Chinese international students made up over 38%
of the entire international student population at the university. As shown in Figure 3,
Chinese international students formed the largest group of international students in KU.
Figure 3
Breakdown of KU International Students by Country, Fall 2019
Note. From Kaile University. (2019).
Out of 324, only 25 Chinese international students were enrolled in graduate
programs at KU, which made up approximately 7.7% of total Chinese international
50
students at KU. The newly enrolled international students in KU graduate programs
declined from 54 students in 2016 to 25 students in 2019. For Fall 2019, the total
enrollment number for graduate programs at KU was 1,463, and 176 of them were
international students, according to data provided by the California State University
Institutional Research and Analyses Data Center (2019). The percentage of international
students in KU graduate programs was 12%, and the newly admitted international
students to KU graduate programs was 1.7% of the total number of graduate students.
The fundamental change of the admission policy has also put all prospective
international students to KU at a disadvantage. In Fall 2017, there were 27 Chinese
international students who applied for KU environmental design-related master’s degree
programs, and none of them was admitted due to the new policy. The recent policy
change has resulted in widespread declines in international student enrollment in other
academic colleges as well. As discussed in Chapter 1, it is extremely challenging for
international students to meet all the requirements for admission to U.S. graduate
programs.
Redden (2017) reported that international students make up the large majority of
full-time students in many graduate science- and engineering-related programs. The
report found that 81% of full-time graduate students in electrical and petroleum
engineering programs and 79% in computer science programs at U.S. universities are
international students. Compared to the national data of international student enrollment,
it seems that KU is below the average. There was an urgency for KU, as a polytechnic
university, to increase the enrollment of international students in its graduate programs.
This need was one of the main reasons KU was chosen as the site for study with the focus
51
on this particular group, as Chinese international students formed the largest international
student body at KU.
In terms of the institutional mission, the objective for international student
enrollment in KU graduate programs was also in alignment with the institution’s
academic strategic plan. For the purpose of increasing the enrollment of KU’s graduate
programs, the Global Education Program (GEP) at KU created a pathway program named
3+1+Master’s Program. In addition, the program was designed with the intention not
only to better prepare prospective international students for graduate program admission,
but also to address the issues related to the denial of conditional admission. Students who
have completed their first 3 years of study at their home university and have met the
academic and language requirements for KU’s 3+1+Master’s Program can participate in
the 1 year of upper-level undergraduate study at KU. During the “+1” year, students
have the opportunity to study a combination of English as a Second Language (ESL)
courses and undergraduate upper-division courses in their selected major. For students
who have completed the first 3 years of study at their home university, KU and the
students’ home institutions will establish an agreement to ensure that certain credits the
students earn in their KU undergraduate courses can be transferred to their home
university toward earning an undergraduate degree. During this year, a student can take
12 units of KU courses per semester (Fall and Spring). Out of the 24 units, up to nine
units can be later transferred to KU’s master’s program upon approval by the department
of their master’s program. It is worth mentioning that the pathway students have the
freedom to apply for master’s degree programs at other institutions or take a career path
after they finish the pathway program at KU. The pathway program was created in early
52
2015, and the first enrollment in the program started in Fall 2016. It is a relatively new
program. Therefore, it is both critical and important to evaluate the key processes and
procedures of the pathway program.
Data Sources
For the selection of the participants for this study, I applied the purposeful
sampling method. The purposeful sampling was selected because it reflects the average
person, situation, or instance of the phenomenon of interest (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
To qualify for participation in this study, the prospective student candidates had to meet
the following conditions:
Be a Chinese international student
Be studying at the graduate level at KU or other U.S. universities
Have obtained an undergraduate degree from China
Have completed the pathway program at KU
I selected 10 Chinese international students, six faculty members, and five
university administrators for this study. The total sample size was 21. I chose these three
groups with the purpose to examine the key processes and procedures of the pathway
program from different perspectives. There were three groups of Chinese international
students I excluded from this study: Chinese international students who were currently
enrolled in the pathway program, Chinese international students who were directly
admitted to KU graduate programs, and Chinese international students who earned an
undergraduate or high school degree in the U.S. or country other than China. The
participants were chosen based on their knowledge and experience of the pathway
program. I purposefully selected three Chinese American faculty members and
53
university administrators who may have faced similar challenges when they went through
their graduate studies in the U.S. The perceptions about the pathway program enhanced
the trustworthiness and validity of the research as well as my positionality as the
researcher. The student participants were interviewed twice in both semi-structured
interviews and focus-group interviews with the purpose of enhancing the trustworthiness
and validity of the research.
Data Collection and Management
Braun and Clarke (2013) specified that the most basic definition of qualitative
research is that it uses words such as data, collected, and analyzed in all sorts of ways.
Structured interviews are the preferred and most efficient way to gather data for a
qualitative research investigation (Creswell, 2014). Semi-structured interviewing was the
main instrumentation of this qualitative study. The interview protocol is included in
Appendix B. I developed three different sets of questions for the three groups (see
Appendix B).
A semi-structured interview format was used for this study, and each interview
lasted between 45-60 minutes. All the interviews were conducted virtually by Zoom due
to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. All the participants in the same group were
asked the same questions (see Appendix B) in each interview. I asked follow-up
questions for clarification or obtaining deeper understanding of a participant’s response.
The virtual interviews were recorded in the Zoom system and by using an audio recorder.
The interviews were transcribed for analysis, and the transcriptions were coded and
analyzed for valuable findings.
54
During the interview process, I encouraged the participants to answer the research
questions about their experiences (both positive and negative) openly and thoroughly. I
made sure that the Zoom meeting environment was private, free from interruptions, and
convenient for the participants. In terms of procedures, I followed the following steps.
Step one: Obtained approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to
the data collection process.
Step two: Emailed the participants and described the purpose of the study and the
proposed use of the data that would be collected for the study.
Step three: Met with the participants, distributed and explained the participants’
rights, collected signed informed consent forms, and conducted interviews.
The participants were informed that the study was confidential, and all data were
used in the study by using pseudonyms to make sure that no information revealed a
specific participant’s identity. I also informed the interviewees that they could end the
interview or withdraw from the study at any time during the process. The interviews with
Chinese international students were conducted in Mandarin Chinese, which was the
students’ first language and mine as well. The purpose was to minimize
miscommunication and maximize the richness of the raw data given by the participants. I
also conducted a focus-group interview with the selected students. The purpose of
conducting the focus-group interview was to create a supportive environment, asking
focused questions to encourage discussion and the expression of differing opinions and
points of view (Marshall & Rossman, 2016). All interviews were video and audio
recorded, and all interview audio recordings were transcribed and filed in a safe place.
At the end of each interview, I asked permission to contact them in the future if
55
additional information should be needed or some of the information should need to be
clarified through a second interview. Following the individual interviews, I conducted a
focus-group interview of the 10 Chinese international students. In addition, I performed
the analysis of documents pertinent to this study to ensure reliability. The data files,
including audio clips of interviews, transcripts, and file of memos, were stored in my
passcode-protected computer at my home for a minimum of 3 years after the completion
of this study.
Audio recordings of the interviews were the main data source of this study. The
first step of the data management process was transcribing the interview conversations.
For the interviews that were conducted in Mandarin Chinese, I invited a peer researcher
who is bilingual in English and Mandarin and who is also an international educator in the
same field for peer review of the transcription. The audio data were transcribed,
reviewed, selected, and then translated from Chinese to English for the purpose of data
analysis.
Data Analysis
Marshall and Rossman (2016) stated that, in a qualitative study, data collection
and analysis typically go hand in hand as the researcher builds a coherent interpretation.
The data analysis is a complex procedure that involves moving back and forth between
concrete bits of data and abstracts, between inductive and deductive reasoning, and
between description and interpretation (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). After data collection,
I analyzed the raw data by sorting the data, identifying trends, patterns, and themes
through coding.
56
Interview responses from the students, faculty members, and university
administrators were coded based on the categories of Saldaña’s coding themes. To code
the data, I selected In Vivo Coding, Provisional Coding and Evaluation Coding for my
coding process due to the nature of my study. Charmaz (2014) stated that in vivo codes
can provide a crucial check on whether the researcher has grasped what is significant to
the participant. Saldaña (2016) labeled In Vivo Coding as “natural coding” and “emic
coding.” I want my readers to “hear” the words or phrases from the participants
themselves. The interviews with Chinese international students were conducted in
Chinese in order to “hear” their authentic “voice” and to obtain their true feelings about
the pathway program. The raw data would enable my readers to better understand the
participants’ difficulties and challenges from an emic perspective as well as the impact of
the pathway program on their ability to cope with challenges. Thus, I was able to ensure
that the accuracy of the raw data is participant-inspired rather than researcher-generated
(Saldaña, 2016).
I applied Provisional Coding since Provisional Coding is appropriate for
qualitative studies that build on or corroborate previous research and investigations
(Saldaña, 2016). This method allowed me to code my data with key words, phrases, and
concepts that would be consistent with my literature review. I initiated and completed
the literature review before conducting the interviews. Provisional Coding was used as a
“reality check” to compare with a predetermined list of challenges Chinese international
students face in their U.S. graduate studies.
In terms of Evaluation Coding, it was appropriate because my study was focused
on evaluating the impact of the key processes and procedures of the pathway program on
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students’ ability to cope with the identified challenges. Patton (2015) defined program
evaluation as the systematic collection of information about the activities, characteristics,
and outcomes of programs to make judgments about the program, improve the program’s
key practices, and/or inform decisions about future programming. Saldaña (2016) pointed
out that it is the systematic collection of information about the activities, characteristics,
and outcomes of programs to make judgments about the program, improve program
effectiveness, and/or inform decisions about future programming. I also applied the
color-coding method to identify the participants’ responses in terms of the impact of the
pathway program on their abilities to handle the identified challenges and suggestions for
improvement.
An analytical approach was the practice of investigation to break down a problem
into its fundamental parts needed to resolve it (Bradley, 2018). As a final step of the data
analysis, I identified the relationships and developed an interpretation of the data.
Creswell (2014) noted that an interpretation in qualitative research means the researcher
draws meaning from the findings of data analysis. I presented the findings in Chapter 4
of this study.
Trustworthiness
Marshall and Rosman (2016) pointed out that articulating the elements of sound
design for trustworthiness has been critical for the development of qualitative
methodologies. Validity is one of the strengths of qualitative research and is based on
determining whether the findings are accurate from the standpoint of the researcher, the
participant, or the readers of an account (Creswell & Miller, 2000).
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I addressed the trustworthiness issue from the following approaches. First,
multiple sources of data collection were used for the purpose of triangulation. In addition
to interview transcripts for both individual and focus-group interviews, I used documents,
audit trails, memos, member checks, and follow-up emails to provide validity for this
study. As supplemental data, I collected and compared the student participants’ English
proficiency scores when they entered the program and when they left the program. The
selected participants were related students, faculty members, and university
administrators. The collective feedback from the three sources provided a comprehensive
overview of the key processes and procedures of the pathway program from different
angles. Merriam and Tisdell (2016) asserted, “Triangulation using multiple sources of
data means comparing and cross-checking data collected through observations at
different times or different places, or interview data collected from people with different
perspectives or from follow-up interviews with the same people” (p. 245). For each
interview, I wrote detailed notes as an audit trail to ensure the validity of the study.
Merriam and Tisdell (2016) stressed, “An audit trail in a qualitative study describes in
detail how data were collected, how categories were derived, and how decisions were
made throughout the inquiry” (p. 252). I applied member checks in this study.
According to Merriam and Tisdell (2016), member checks is “a strategy for promoting
validity and reliability, which is taking tentative interpretations/findings back to the
people from whom they were derived and asking if they are plausible” (p. 259). Finally,
I provided a detailed and comprehensive review of my roles, positionality, and reflexivity
of myself during the research process in order to avoid bias.
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Researcher’s Positionality
As the researcher for this study, I am well positioned as both an insider and an
outsider. I completed my bachelor’s degree in China and earned two master’s degrees in
the United States. In terms of related working experiences as a practitioner, I was a high
school English teacher for more than 5 years and a college English instructor for nearly
10 years in China. In the United States, I worked as an academic advisor at a tier-one
research institution for more than 4 years. It is worth mentioning that two of the four
years I was working 20 hours at the language institute and the other 20 hours at the
university advising center. My role was to familiarize the language program students
with and get them prepared for the university degree programs. I also taught a business
class as an adjunct instructor at the same institution. Altogether, I have worked in the
U.S. higher education system for more than 25 years as an international education
administrator. This is the fifth year that I have worked in my current position as the
director of the Global Education Program at KU. I am also the advisor of the Chinese
Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) at the institution.
My background as a Chinese international student and my over 25 years of
experience in the field of international education and administration, especially my career
as the academic advisor at a top U.S. research institution, have provided me with in-depth
knowledge, expertise, and leadership skills on the research topic. My many years of
experience working as a high school English teacher in China and as an adjunct instructor
at a U.S. institution add another layer of authority in terms of the nature of the study.
My role in this study is unique. With the background knowledge and expertise as
a student, educator, and administrator in China and the U.S., I am familiar with policy,
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pedagogy and learning, and the teaching style of both Chinese and U.S. education
systems. This knowledge and expertise add trust between the study participants and me.
The participants were willing and eager to share their perspectives, as they would
consider me to be their peer and because I had similar experience and could understand
their voices. Thus, I had the privilege to obtain richer data during the data collection
process, which enabled me to better understand the participants’ perceptions in terms of
the context. In addition, my bilingual ability made the data collection process smoother
and more effective, especially during my interviews with the Chinese international
student participants.
When I finished my high school study in China, I attended Gaokao. The pressure
of passing the exam has left a permanent “impression” somewhere in my brain. Up to
this day, I still occasionally have nightmares of struggling to solve a problem during the
exams. I echo participant Phillip’s argument on limited education resources in China.
Without the reform of NCEE in China, I would not have had the opportunity to go to
college due to my family’s lack of social capital, and it is worth mentioning that I was the
only female student of my high school who passed the NCEE and was admitted to
college among the senior students who participated in Gaokao that year. Participant
Sophie commented on the pressure the students feel in order to pass Gaokao with high
scores. China’s exam-driven fever also has a significant impact on teaching, especially in
the secondary education system in China.
I worked in China as a high school English teacher for over 5 years after I
graduated from a 4-year college in the early 80s. I was teaching the senior-level class
English at the high school where I graduated from. There were about 70 students in one
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class, and I had to teach four classes. On top of my teaching load, I was also a class
advisor/teacher, the teacher who is in charge of a class. Therefore, I was under double
pressure to make sure that the entire class I was in charge of would score high in all the
tested subjects. On the other hand, I had to make sure that the students (roughly 280 of
them) would pass the NCEE with high scores in the subject of English. Because the
evaluation system put so much emphasis on students’ test scores, those teachers who
have low-performing students would have a bad reputation at the school and in the
community. On top of my double-duty heavy load of teaching and managing the senior
class, I had to spend time tutoring the low-performing students so that they would not put
me in a disadvantaged position in the evaluation. Ironically, it was similar to that of the
No Child Left Behind policy the Bush Government enforced in the American K-12
system. In those years as a high school teacher, I spent many extra hours in the evening
and on weekends tutoring my students. On top of the stress related to teaching and being
the class advisor, I also had to face the stress and pressure from the parents. Some of the
parents did not take responsibility for helping their children, and they put the pressure
mainly on the teachers. Peer pressure was another source of stress. I had to “compete”
with my peers at the same school as well as peers from other schools in the district in
terms of teacher evaluation. Under all kinds of pressure in trying to help their students
get high scores in Gaokao, teachers are not able to spare time and effort to work on
fostering students’ ability to think creatively or to engage them in any extracurricular
activities or events.
My position at the U.S. institution and my familiarity with the topic might bring
researcher bias into the study. It is worth mentioning that the Global Education Program,
62
which I am the director of at the institution, is not considered one of the stakeholders in
terms of student admission, class enrollment, and the evaluation of their academic
performance in comparison to the structure of the pathway program at KU. I applied
validation strategies to ensure that the participants’ points of view are clearly and
thoroughly demonstrated.
Ethical Considerations
Merriam and Tisdell (2016) advised that, in qualitative studies, ethical dilemmas
are likely to emerge with regard to the collection of data and in the dissemination of
findings. I paid close attention to ethical issues by minimizing the risk to the participants.
At the beginning of the interview, l explained to the participants that their participation
was voluntary and that they had the right to stop the interview at any time. Because the
conversation was carried out in Chinese, there was no risk of any language-barrier-related
misunderstanding of the purpose of the data collection. I made it clear that pseudonyms
were used for all participants. I followed the institutional guidelines closely when
conducting the interviews as well as during other related procedures. All the participants
signed the informed consent forms, and I ensured that they understood the purpose of the
research. It is worth mentioning that the main stakeholders are the students who
participate in the program, the English Language Institute, and related academic colleges.
A good case study researcher, like any other social scientist, strives for the highest ethical
standards while conducting their research (Yin, 2018). I maintained the highest ethical
standards during this investigation.
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Summary
In this chapter, I started with the discussion of qualitative research design with the
focus on qualitative case study methodology followed by the background, rationale, and
context of the study. I then introduced the data collection and management procedures,
including data collection method, protocol, and timeline. In the data analysis and
interpretation section, I laid out data analysis procedures and validation strategies. I
concluded the chapter with my strong positionality as the researcher of the study.
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CHAPTER 4
FINDINGS
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the key processes and
procedures of the pathway program from the perspectives of Chinese international
students who have participated in the program as well as related faculty members and
university administrators. The goal was to examine the experiences of program
participants, faculty members, and university administrators of how the pathway program
impacts the preparation of Chinese international students for graduate studies in U.S.
universities, especially in coping with the identified challenges.
The pathway program at KU is designed to better prepare international students
for success in U.S. graduate programs. Most of the current pathway program practice in
the U.S. is focused on preparing international students for undergraduate programs. The
pathway program offered by KU is a unique program. What is unique about the program
is that the Chinese international students can enroll in the program during their senior
year of undergraduate studies at their home university. The pathway program is specially
designed for those students who are academically qualified but need to improve their
English proficiency for admission to U.S. graduate programs. Students enrolled in the
pathway program take a combination of English language classes and KU prerequisite
courses. The prerequisite courses help the students get familiar with their area of study
prior to admission. After completing the pathway program, students can transfer the
credit units earned at KU to their home university to obtain a bachelor’s degree from
China. The bachelor’s degree would also be considered one of the key elements for their
admission to the U.S. graduate programs. The university hopes to develop the program
65
as an innovative model to not only get the international students fully prepared for
graduate program admission, but also to increase international student enrollment.
Therefore, it was important to evaluate the impact and the effectiveness of the pathway
program’s services to determine if it meets its purpose. The evaluation process also
helped to identify areas of the program for improvement.
I interviewed three groups of participants, which consisted of Chinese
international students, faculty members, and university administrators from KU. Ten
Chinese international students who have participated in the pathway program, six faculty
members who have had pathway students in their classes, and five university
administrators who have been involved in the program development and implementation
process were selected for interview in this study. The participants were from both the
College of Engineering and College of Business since the two colleges are the home
colleges of the pathway program academic disciplines. The research questions were as
follows:
RQ 1. What are Chinese international students’ perceptions of the ways in which the
structure of the pathway program impacts their ability to overcome the language
barrier and academic challenges and cope with cultural, social, and psychological
adaptations?
RQ 2. What are faculty members’ perceptions of the ways in which the structure of the
pathway program impacts the ability of Chinese international students to
overcome the language barrier and academic challenges and cope with cultural,
social, and psychological adaptations?
66
RQ 3. What are university administrators’ perceptions of the ways in which the structure
of the pathway program impacts the ability of Chinese international students to
overcome the language barrier and academic challenges and cope with the
cultural, social, and psychological adaptations?
Research Question One: The Perceptions of Chinese International Students of the
Pathway Program
RQ 1. What are Chinese international students’ perceptions of the ways in which the
structure of the pathway program impacts their ability to overcome the language
barrier and academic challenges and cope with cultural, social, and psychological
adaptations?
Participants’ Profiles
In this chapter, I present the significant findings in qualitative data collected from
individual interviews with 10 Chinese international students, six faculty members, and
five university administrators. I also conducted focus group interviews with the 10
Chinese international students. According to Merriam and Tisdell (2016), the most
unique characteristic of focus group research is the interactive discussion through which
data are generated. To ensure triangulation and add trustworthiness to the data, I member
checked their responses after the interviews. All the data captured in field notes,
participants’ observations, and interview responses of the pathway program led to this
current study. The use of the triangulation method helped to safeguard the objectivity,
legitimacy, and trustworthiness of the study (Archibald et al., 2015). Table 1 presents the
demographic information of the 10 student participants.
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Table 1
Demographic Information of Student Participants
No. Pseudonym Gender Age First
Language Major
Years in
the USA
Graduate
Programs at
1 Harry M 25 Mandarin Transportation
Engineering 3 KU
2 Jason M 26 Mandarin Transportation
Engineering 3 KU
3 John M 22 Mandarin Geotechnical
Engineering 1
Northeastern
University
4 Phillip M 26 Mandarin Transportation
Engineering 3 KU
5 Sophia F 24 Mandarin Construction
Engineering 3 KU
6 Sophie F 23 Mandarin Construction
Management 2
University of
Southern
California
7 Susie F 23 Mandarin Transportation
Engineering 2
University of
Florida
8 Sylvie F 23 Mandarin Applied
Economics 3
University of
Southern
California
9 Vinson M 28 Mandarin Information
System 3
Cal State
Fullerton
10 Wilson M 25 Mandarin Information
Security 2 KU
The 10 student participants represented six different graduate programs, a variety
of five different U.S. institutions, and varied years of studying abroad. Out of the 10
students, four of them were accepted by research universities, one of them was accepted
by one of California State Universities, and the rest stayed at KU after the pathway
68
program. All the participants had more than 1 year of study-abroad experience, some as
many as 3 years.
All of the participants shared their transitional experiences and perceptions of the
pathway program at KU. The findings revealed that Chinese international students
encountered different challenges in order to adapt to the new environment. In the
following sections, I will focus on the main themes of findings in the student participants’
responses.
Theme 1: The Chinese International Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of the ELI
Language Classes of the Pathway Program
All the participants responded strongly to the concept of language barriers; they
considered language the biggest challenge. The student participants reflected on their
English-learning experiences in the English Language Institute (ELI) at KU and their
perception of the effectiveness of the ELI in helping improve their overall English
proficiency as well as their cultural understanding.
Improvement of Academic Skills
Many participants stated that the ELI programs not only improved their English
language proficiency, but also enhanced their academic abilities of public speaking,
academic writing, and library skills. Wilson shared a representative view that was
frequently expressed:
I think the language program provided me the opportunity to improve my
presentation skills. Conducting a presentation in front of the class is something
we have never been familiar with in China, a relatively strange thing, and it is
very challenging. Even in China, I seldom would talk in public, let alone
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presenting in English to non-Chinese audiences. The language program teachers
were very patient and kind. They taught me how to establish eye contact. The
eye contact concept is also new in terms of the Chinese culture [he said with a
laugh]. The teachers also provided me tips on how to position myself in the
classroom and how to pay attention to my body language. Without the training
during the pathway year, I would never be able to imagine how I could handle
presentations in the graduate program if I would have landed on the U.S. campus
directly from China. Now I feel very confident when I conduct my presentations
in my graduate program.
As part the academic skills, quite a few students commented on the improvement
of the language program in helping them enhance their oral communication skills. Susie
stated, “The group projects were very helpful. The group projects enhanced my ability in
communicating with my group mates and the instructors. I think my oral communication
skills were greatly improved in the language program.” Philip explained an additional
benefit of the speaking class in improving his oral communication:
What I liked most is the speaking class. We were asked to select a topic, create a
poster, and then present to the class. As the class level goes up, the presentation
time also increased accordingly. It was a huge help to me.
Vinson painted a detailed picture of the learning environment the language
institute provided:
The ELI provided a very good environment for us. Normally international
students feel more comfortable staying together with students from their countries.
At ELI, teachers would intentionally put us in the group with students from other
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countries. This kind of environment “forced” me to communicate in English.
The language program enhanced my listening and oral communication skills.
John further explained the benefits of the institute to the improvement of his
writing:
I think the English Language Institute (ELI) Level 4 and Level 5 writing courses
are quite helpful. At the very beginning, my classmates and I spent quite a long
time on the writing assignments. The ELI teachers helped us understand the U.S.
standards of the writing format. While in China, a typical English essay has three
paragraphs, which includes a very short opening in the beginning, a big paragraph
in the middle, and a very short conclusion at the end. When I arrived in the U.S.,
it took me a while to learn and adapt to the American writing style. We had many
opportunities to practice how to write essays on different topics. In short, my
English writing skills were improved in the areas of sentence structure,
vocabulary, and grammar usage as well as coherence and logicality during the
pathway program.
I had a follow-up interview with John on the academic writing topic, and he
indicated the APA writing guidelines are especially helpful. He expressed that he is now
more confident about academic writing in his future graduate program. When he talked
about his new confidence, he had a big smile on his face. In addition, Sophie pointed out
the benefits to her acquisition of library skills. Wilson provided an overall summary of
the benefits to his development of academic skills. He expressed:
I came directly from China without any language training and had not attended
any TOEFL or IELTS tests. I think the language program enhanced my listening,
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speaking, reading, and writing abilities comprehensively. These academic
abilities laid a solid foundation for my graduate studies at KU.
Improvement of Cultural Understanding
International students find it difficult to make friends and establish cultural and
social networks with their American peers when they have limited English and lack
experience and familiarity with American interactive behaviors (Gebhard, 2012).
Findings from the semi-structured interviews and the group interview were consistent
with the literature review in terms of the difficulties Chinese international students face in
adapting to the American culture. The participants felt positive about the impact of the
language institute in improving their understanding of American culture.
Harry explained that the language program provided the opportunity for the
pathway students to interact not only with American students, but also with students from
other countries. He said,
The language program provided me a great transitional time. The transitional
time had a great impact on my mentality—since we are all language learners and I
did not have the fear to communication with them. Actually, it was fun to learn
English with peers who are also from non-English-speaking countries since we
face similar challenges. This kind of cultural exchange made the transition to the
American culture smoother.
Sophia echoed the sentiment of Harry and added, “What I benefited most from
ELI was the cultural exchange. In the language school, my classmates are from all over
the world, and I learned a lot from them in terms of their culture and customs.” Sophia
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mentioned the difference between Chinese classroom culture and the American
classroom culture. She described:
For me, taking classes in ELI is an experience of the typical American classroom
setting. Chinese classroom culture is totally different from American classroom
culture. The ELI classes familiarized me with the American classroom style. I
felt less stressed after going through this transition than going to graduate studies
directly from China.
My first career job was an English high school teacher in China, and I obtained
two master’s degrees in the U.S. as an international student. I can totally echo the
students’ responses to the language barrier. The students’ perception of the language
program clearly demonstrated that the language classes of the pathway program not only
increased their language proficiency, but also enhanced their academic abilities and
improved their understanding of American culture so that they would be better prepared
to cope with the cultural and academic challenges of their graduate studies in the U.S.
Theme 2: The Chinese International Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of the
Prerequisite Classes of the Pathway Program on Their Ability to Cope with
Academic Challenges
The prerequisite classes are a very important component of the pathway program
structure. The structure provides the pathway program’s students a passageway to take
the prerequisite classes, which they otherwise would not be able to take due to the change
in conditional admission policy by the U.S. federal government. One other advantage of
taking the prerequisite classes was that the students could transfer back some of the credit
units (as electives) to their home university to obtain their bachelor’s degree. One of the
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fundamental benefits for the pathway students to take the prerequisite classes was to get
better prepared academically for success in their graduate studies in the U.S. Based on
the literature review and the data analysis, I outlined the following four areas of academic
challenges Chinese international students normally face in the U.S. higher education
system:
a. Transition to the American classroom culture
b. Group work
c. Academic writing
d. Critical thinking
Most of the Chinese international students who participated in the interviews indicated
that the major challenges they faced in the pathway program were group work, academic
writing, and critical thinking skills. They shared with me their perceptions and
experiences of the impact of the pathway program on their ability to handle the academic
challenges. All of them felt strongly that the prerequisite courses were beneficial and
effective in helping them cope with the academic challenges. I will present the details of
the findings in the following sections.
Transition to American Classroom Culture
Wang (2013) pointed out that Chinese international students are unfamiliar with
lecture and classroom style differences. The typical Chinese classroom is completely
teacher-centered with virtually no student input, whereas the American classroom
emphasizes student interaction and participation. When Chinese international students
transition from the Chinese education system to the American education system, they go
through the transition from teacher-centered to student-centered learning environment. It
74
is critical that students learn to fundamentally change their ways of studying in order to
quickly adapt to the new classroom structure.
When I asked the student participants to comment on their experiences with the
transition to the American classroom culture, they were eager to share their feelings and
opinions. I noticed that Sophie had a big smile on her face when she shared:
Yes, I found it difficult to adapt myself to the classroom culture here at the very
beginning. I was so surprised to notice that my classmates could speak freely
without raising their hands and some even ate snacks in class. At the very
beginning, I behaved like an obedient student. Later, I found out all my
classmates were not as obedient as I was at all. But the class atmosphere was
very active. All the students were very active asking the professor questions
instead of simply listening to the professor.
Susie shared similar experiences and found that the American classroom culture
was very different for her to adapt to at the beginning:
When we were in college in China, most of the time, the professor passed the
knowledge to the students in the one-way direction. We seldom interacted with
the professor in the class. Here in the United States, we can communicate with
the professor as we like in class. We can ask the professor any questions during
class. The class size is very small, and there are only a dozen students. You can
directly express your thoughts to the professor. However, in China, there are so
many students in one class. The professor would come to the classroom to teach
and take off right after the class. If we have anything that we do not understand in
75
class, we will have no choice but to ask the professor before or after the class.
The professors in China do not have office hours.
In general, the relationship between students and instructors determines the
classroom environment. I have worked as a college instructor in both China and U.S.
education systems, and I have been a student in the two systems as well. For Chinese
international students, who are accustomed to the passive learning style, to be placed in
an active academic learning environment presents strong and critical challenges.
However, the students’ feedback on the prerequisite classes was positive in terms of how
the pathway program structure provided them the time and space to gradually transition
to the American classroom culture.
Group Work
Group work was identified as one of the major challenges Chinese international
students faced in the U.S. higher education system due to the students’ limited
background knowledge, the low confidence in their own perceived English proficiency,
lack of the skills for group work, and other culturally related reasons. The collective
mentality of Confucian heritage strongly influences Chinese students’ learning styles and
can be considered a major barrier for a transition to a highly individualized and creative
American classroom (Zhang, 2013). The student participants’ experience of group work,
especially their perception of the impact of the group work for their graduate study, was
extremely positive. Phillip explained the impact of the language program on his group
work experience:
In terms of group work, the language program was very useful to me in providing
me the basic skills for group work. In the language institute, we did the
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presentations to non-native English speakers. However, in the prerequisite classes,
our audiences were native English speakers. If I made a mistake, I would not
have the second chance to prepare again and make up. Without practicing doing
presentations to the non-native English speakers in the language institute, I would
not dare to do a presentation before the native English speakers. Last semester, I
was required to participate in a group presentation every 2 weeks in one of my
graduate program classes. Each group presentation lasted for over 15 minutes.
Each group member was required to talk about 5 minutes. Without the step-by-
step training from the pathway program, I would not be able to handle this kind of
stressful work.
Sophie shared her positive experience with group work. She said:
In fact, I did not have much difficulty with the group work. Because every time
when we did the group work, there were local students in my team. They
understood my situation and knew that I was a newcomer. I had some obstacles
in the English language and academic aspects. My teammates were very kind to
me. They would tell me my roles and responsibilities in the group project. The
help and guidance from them were very helpful, and I enjoyed my group work
experience.
Sylvie compared her group work experiences both the ELI program and
prerequisite classes:
If I had not had the experience of group work in the pathway program, I would
not be able to actively participate in the group work in the graduate programs. To
be honest, the group work experience from the prerequisite classes was more
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helpful to my graduate studies than that from the language program. Now I know
how to make myself part of the group and play my part. I no longer struggle in
the group work. I even have the desire to be the leader in the group activities.
In summary, typical American classes are comprised of different class activities
such as group projects, group discussions, group work, and other activities. These kinds
of activities enable and encourage active interactions between teacher and students as
well as students themselves. The students’ feedback confirmed the past literature review
findings. Group work provides international students the opportunity to share their ideas
and their experiences, which benefits the international students in improving their
academic performance and enhancing their social adaptation.
Academic Writing
Academic writing has been identified as a major challenge for international
students, especially for graduate students. Tran (2014) stated that academic writing is a
central part in most English-medium higher education institutions. It is at the heart of
students’ academic success since the assessment of students’ performance in higher
education is largely based on academic writing.
During the interviews, most of the student participants indicated that the ELI
language classes laid a foundation for their academic writing in the prerequisite classes.
They also specified that it was the prerequisite classes that provided them the skills and
enhanced their abilities for writing research papers. Vinson took a business writing class
as one of his prerequisite requirements since his major is related to information systems.
He noted that the business writing class helped him a lot in improving his business
writing skills in the graduate program. Vinson shared,
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I think English writing is a logical process. It focuses on the cohesion between
words and logical flow of the context. When I was in China, the professor
required us to use big words in English writing. Here in the United States, it is a
piece of good writing as long as it is reasonable and logically smooth. Plagiarism
is strictly prohibited, which is a basic requirement.
Vinson added, “As graduate students, we need to write essays and papers. The
ELI writing classes taught us APA and other related writing formats, which I had no
knowledge about before joining the pathway programs.”
When Jason first joined the pathway program, he tested at Level 2 on the ELI
placement test. Two and a half years later, he is now in his last semester to finish the
graduate program, and he also works as a research assistant for one of his professors.
During the interview, he proudly shared that he had published two papers in U.S. journals
and is now working on his third one. He said:
Chinese writing and English writing are totally two different animals. During my
study at ELI, I was taught how to write academic essays in English. The
instructor helped us with how to start the opening sentence and organize the flow
of content through logical and critical thinking. However, I found that there were
still a lot of differences in English academic writing after I took prerequisite
courses for my graduate studies. The writing practice at the English language
institute was not enough for me to meet the requirements of my prerequisite
courses. My English academic writing skills still needed to be polished and
sharpened. During the pathway program, I was fortunate to be invited by one of
my professors to participate in his “writing club.” The professor spent 2 hours
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every Saturday coaching and training us on how to write research papers and how
to get the papers published in academic journals. The professor advised that
academic writing is a continuous process of practicing. We were asked to keep
writing on different academic topics and submit one paper every other week. So
far, I have published two papers, and the third one is underway.
In general, the student participants’ perceptions of the impact of the pathway
program on their writing skills were very positive. Most of the participants felt that the
pathway program provided them a step-by-step support in enhancing their writing skills
from basic writing to academic-focused writing. This kind of support served as a remedy
for the Chinese international students to smoothly transit from their Chinese writing style
and mindset to the American way of writing. Jason’s story of success in writing was a
showcase of the effect of the pathway program in not only helping him to finish the
graduate program, but also enabling him to publish research papers in U.S. journals
during his graduate studies. In my follow-up conversation with Jason, he indicated to me
that he would continue to write and would like to become a scholar in his field of work in
the future.
Critical Thinking
Shaheen (2016) revealed that students from culturally and linguistically diverse
traditions are very different in approaching critical thinking tasks, which seems to affect
their academic performance adversely. Critical thinking has been considered the most
difficult academic challenge for Chinese international students. Chinese students display
an almost unquestioning acceptance of the knowledge of their teachers; this is coupled
with an emphasis on the Confucian ethic of “filial piety” (Cheng et al., 2011). The semi-
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structured interviews with the Chinese international students yielded different aspects of
critical thinking. The student participants defined critical thinking in different ways
based on their interpretation of the term. Most of the participants considered critical
thinking as challenging authorities. Influenced by the Chinese education philosophy,
Chinese international students are not accustomed to expressing their opinions, especially
different opinions, with the professors in class. John’s definition of critical thinking was
to critique and challenge authority. He stated:
If what the professor lectured in class is completely different from what I
expected, I might write it down first. After the class, if I reflect on what the
professor taught in class and find that it is still different from what I expected, I
will probably send an email to the professor or ask the professor in some other
similar way. One of the reasons is that there is not enough time for me to think
about and prepare my questions in class. I am afraid that I would not be able to
express myself clearly if I asked the professor in class, which would waste my
classmates’ time. In fact, critical thinking is very rare in Chinese universities. In
China, we only listen to the professors and not encouraged to express our opinions.
Phillip compared his experience of speaking out in English classes versus the
experience of speaking up in prerequisite classes. He noted:
In the English language class, I would definitely point out if the instructor’s
viewpoints were different from mine. However, I dare not do so in the graduate
program classes because I am afraid that I do not have the knowledge base to
speak out. Instructors of the English language classes are just teachers; however,
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professors of the graduate program classes are Ph.D. holders. You can easily feel
the gap between yourself and the professors.
Wilson stated a commonly expressed viewpoint of most of the student
participants:
Critical thinking is the most challenging part of my graduate studies. First, in
China we were taught not to challenge others and to respect the authorities. In
Chinese classrooms, teachers and professors are the authoritative figures. Second,
my language skills are not good enough for me to express myself even if I wanted
to “critique.” Third, most of the time I do not feel I have enough background
knowledge to participate in the class discussion.
Phillip connected his writing practice with the critical thinking concept. He
described:
When I was in China, we were often asked to write narrative essays in the writing
class. Teachers would normally ask us to write about a specific event and
describe if that event made us happy or not. However, when I joined the pathway
program, we were asked to write many argumentative essays in the ELI writing
class. For instance, I was asked to write essays on gun control. I was required to
express my viewpoint and explain the reason why I was for gun control or against
gun control. In my graduate studies, I may not encounter simple topics such as
gun control. However, the writing practice in ELI taught me how to collect and
organize evidence to support my viewpoint whether I was supportive of the
argument or against the argument. The writing classes also established and
developed my logical and critical thinking skills.
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Ma (2020) pointed out that Chinese students learn to find the answer in their test-
oriented education. Often, the answer is definite, which is hardly compatible with the
open-mindedness that accepts multiple answers and interpretations. From the Chinese
international students’ perspective, their struggle with critical thinking could be attributed
to their educational background and the acculturation to the American higher education
system. However, many participants admitted that the pathway program fostered and
enhanced their critical thinking skills, which is one of the fundamental principles for their
success in graduate studies in the U.S.
Theme 3: The Chinese International Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of the
Pathway Program on Their Ability to Cope with Cultural, Social, and Psychological
Adaptation
Li et al. (2017) advised that it is important to consider potential problems arising
during their initial transition period and their experiences acculturating into the American
culture and educational system given the increasing number of Chinese international
students attending American universities. Different from their experiences in dealing
with language and other academic-related challenges, pathway students’ experiences in
adjusting to the U.S. cultural and social challenges varied.
Cultural Acquisition
Most participants reported experiencing cultural shock, social isolation, and
loneliness. John shared that transportation is a huge problem in the Los Angeles area.
He specified that public transportation is very inconvenient in Southern California. Jason
indicated that the communication style is so different, and he had to deal with some
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awkwardness at the beginning of the program in terms of social interaction. Sophie
shared her happy story of making friends with her roommates and classmates:
I had two roommates at that time when I was staying at the university apartment.
Both of them are Filipino Americans, and they were very kind to me. We became
good friends. I also made friends with classmates during the pathway program,
and I still keep in touch with them. I think that new international students to the
United States should be open minded. I mean that new international students
need to accept and try things that are different from their home country. Keeping
a state of curiosity is the way to learn.
Phillip shared similar experiences and stated that his roommates were local
Americans at the university apartment. He described:
When I first arrived in the U.S., I could hardly communicate in English. My
roommates were very kind and friendly with me. They helped me find local
restaurants and places for shopping. Most important of all, they familiarized me
with the American culture and society. In addition, they also acted as my “free”
conversation partners [laughing].
Susie’s experience in making friends was different from that of Sophie’s and
Phillip’s. Susie also lived in the university apartment buildings. She indicated that she
was not able to make any friends because she claimed that her roommates were never
there. However, Susie did admit that she is a shy person and does not like socializing.
Susie added that she normally would hang out with her Chinese friends. One other
culture-related challenge for Susie was the American food and getting used to the cold
drinks and cold dishes. Susie was grateful that the meal plan was not mandatory, and she
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could cook for herself in the university apartment. Jason indicated that he did not have
too much trouble dealing with the cultural, social, and psychological adaptation since he
had traveled to Korea, Cambodia, and a few other Southeast Asia countries.
Social Adaptation
International students faced difficulties not only in the classroom, but also in their
social lives. They need to deal with different communication patterns, different value
system, signs, and symbols of social contact when they enter into a new culture (Wu et al.,
2015). Harry stated that he felt awful when he could not understand and enjoy the
American jokes and humor at the parties he was invited to. Susie shared an embarrassing
experience regarding receiving gifts at a Christmas party. Most of the participants
expressed difficulties in developing friendships with domestic students. John said:
During the first semester of the pathway program, I mainly took ELI classes. In
the language program, there were all international students. I did take one credit-
bearing prerequisite class. There was no opportunity for me to interact with
domestic students to develop personal relationship with them. Those domestic
students take off right after class.
Some of the participants had pleasant experiences at the ELI program and
university apartments. Wilson shared that the ELI classes, social activities, and his
American friends helped him a lot with his adjustment to the culture and society in
America.
Sylvie shared her positive experience with her roommates at the university
apartment:
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I learned to adjust to the culture and society through my American roommates and
classmates. I had three roommates at the university apartment: one who was local,
one from Mexico, another from Mauritius. We got along very well, and we
trusted and supported each other. It helped me a lot with the transition.
Psychological Adaptation
Numerous literary sources document international students’ psychological distress
as a result of culture shock, loneliness, and stress related to decreased adjustment
(Oramas et al., 2018). Li et al. (2014) found that the Chinese international students’
psychological status was closely related to their English proficiency, length of stay,
attitudes toward seeking help, acculturation level, and depression. In terms of
psychological adaptation, the responses from student participants varied. Most of them
expressed the psychological stress they had experienced was related to challenges with
the language barrier and academic difficulties. Sophia indicated that she felt very lonely
during the first semester in the U.S. Jason stated that he put the pressure on himself to try
to finish his master’s program on time even though his parents had never pushed him.
Vinson shared:
I do not have any financial burden or stress studying in the U.S. However, I give
myself pressure to do my best since tuition is more expensive here than that of
China. Plus, my parents are not young anymore; I want to graduate as soon as
possible so that I can go back to China to “repay” my parents and take good care
of them.
John echoed the sentiment of Vinson:
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As the only child of the family, I do have the pressure to study hard and to find a
nice job so that I can provide my parents a better life. My parents live in Beijing,
and living expenses are very high there, especially housing. Plus, the job market
is super competitive in Beijing.
Susie made a statement on behalf of the female students. She stated that her
parents did not have any high expectations of her since she is a girl. It is worth
mentioning that it is part of the Chinese culture that the son of the family is expected to
take the responsibility of the family. Sophie laughed when she shared that she had even
less pressure than that of Susie since she also has a twin sister.
In short, the student participants experienced different kinds and different levels
of psychological adaptation due to their English language proficiency level and their
academic background when they entered the program. At the same time, their family
structure and financial statuses also played a role during the adaptation process.
Theme 4: The Chinese International Students’ Overall Perceptions of the Impact of
the Pathway Program
The findings from the focus-group interviews were consistent with the results of
the semi-structured interviews in terms of the impact and effectiveness of the pathway
program. All the participants explained that the English classes they took in ELI helped
them improve their writing, listening, reading comprehension, and presentation skills,
which made the transition to graduate studies much easier. The participants reported
similar positive experiences with the prerequisite classes. They stated that the
prerequisite classes helped them with their research skills, familiarized them with the
graduate program classroom culture, and cleared the obstacles from their graduate studies
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in terms of graduate program admission. They emphasized that the pathway program
enhanced their confidence in their graduate studies in the U.S. Wilson indicated that the
pathway program provided a soft landing spot for his graduate studies. Susie stated that
joining the pathway program was the best decision she made in her life.
Harry is currently in his last semester of the Civil Engineering program, and I had
a follow-up interview with him regarding his overall impression of the pathway program.
His perceptions of the impact of the pathway program provide a summary and a
comprehensive picture of the effectiveness of the program:
The pathway program has greatly changed my life. I was lucky to participate in
the pathway program during my undergraduate studies, which paved a smooth
road for my graduate studies. Below is the summary of how the pathway program
has benefited me.
1) Through study at ELI, my communication and interpersonal skills in English
have improved a lot. Before I came to the United States, my English was very
poor, and I learned English mainly through memorizing words without putting
them in actual use. I joined the program with an iBT TOEFL of 60.
2) During the pathway program, I took some undergraduate classes before I
officially was admitted to the graduate program at KU. The teaching methods
in the pathway program are similar to those in my graduate studies.
Therefore, I adapted myself very quickly to course projects, presentations,
group work, etc. I did not have to spend much time in adapting myself to my
graduate studies.
3) The program provided me a great opportunity to open my mind and expose
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myself to a brand-new culture. I got myself exposed to the American culture
more deeply and made some local American friends to enrich my life.
4) During the pathway program, I developed my ability of being independent and
problem-solving since I had to rely on myself to solve various problems in my
life.
Pathway Program Services
During the semi-structured interviews, the student participants indicated that the
pathway program offered them personalized services in helping them adjust to the
cultural, social, and psychological challenges in addition to the academic support they
received. Susie stated that the pathway program staff at the Global Education Program
(GEP) were very kind and helpful. She said, “They do not only provide academic
support, but also logistical assistance.” Jason shared that GEP staff members connected
him with the president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), and the
president provided him a lot of help during the pathway program. He and his classmates
attended the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese New Year celebration event organized by
the CSSA, and they all felt a sense of belonging.
The student participants indicated that the ELI program also provided
opportunities for them to attend social activities such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and
Christmas holiday celebrations. In addition, the pathway program provided student
campus tours, city tours, field trips, and opportunities to attend sport games, social events,
and gatherings outside the classroom. Some participants indicated that the pathway
program staff members were very effective in communicating with their home university
in terms of credit transfer issues. The university apartments invited the pathway students
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to join their parties at the pool with the local American students. The pathway students
were also invited to the annual “Pizza with the President” event. Sophia shared a lovely
story of her experience at ELI:
I was very bad in communicating with other people during my first semester in
the pathway program. I am sort of an introvert. A staff member named Sarah
was very kind to me. Sometimes, she invited me to have meals together with her
in her home.
The results of the interviews were consistent with the literature review in terms of
international students’ cultural, social, and psychological adaptation. In general, the
student participants felt that the pathway program was helpful in their effort to cope with
the identified challenges.
The Chinese International Students’ Recommendations for the Pathway Program and
Incoming Pathway Students
During the semi-structured and focus-group interviews, all the student participants
offered recommendations for the program, including recommendations for the incoming
international pathway students. For the pathway program, many participants suggested
making the program orientation more effective by introducing different kinds of services
the campus offers to students, especially to international students. Harry expressed some
concerns about the balance of taking a full load of English classes and three three-unit
prerequisite classes at the same time. He recommended that it would be nice if the new
pathway students could be introduced to students who have gone through the pathway
program at the orientation when they first arrived. Susie suggested:
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The orientation should be better designed for helping us understand the
expectations of the program. We should be given a handbook of the program.
We wish that the pathway program unit could invite related professors and
students who have finished the program to the orientation event so that we can get
acquainted with them.
Jason expressed the challenge for him to try to communicate between KU and his
home university on the issue of transferring credit hours:
The pathway program needs to have better communication with my home
university on the issue even before we join the program. It was really challenging
at the end of the pathway year for me to make it happen. I had to finish the senior
project required by my home institution and work on the final exams during the
final week.
Other suggestions were related to getting more student advisors, concerns with
ELI placement tests, explaining U.S. academic expectations clearly, offering sessions on
study skills and academic success, and better communication with their home institution.
For incoming pathway students, the recommendations included but were not
limited to making friends with local students, adding more social activities, and better
communication with their home institution and the related units in the host institution for
credit transfer issues. Sophie recommended:
Be open minded and try to make friends with local students and other non-
pathway international students. It helps to create a sense of belonging. It feels
more comfortable to stay within a Chinese circle of friends. Try to come out of
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your comfort zone and make non-Chinese friends. This is the way to learn and
grow.
Jason suggested that incoming Chinese international students should be active in
joining other student groups:
I would like to recommend that incoming pathway students join CSSA. A lot of
the activities at CSSA can help you network and enhance your leadership skills if
you would like to run for the leadership positions. Make friends with former
pathway students and find yourself a mentor.
Some participants recommended that incoming pathway students take full
advantage of university student services, especially tutoring services and services
provided by the writing center and the library. Building a good relationship with
professors was one of the recommendations. Phillip advised international students should
not be shy. They should communicate with their professors timely and openly, especially
if they run into difficulties.
Research Question Two: The Perceptions of Faculty Members of the
Pathway Program
RQ 2. What are faculty members’ perceptions of the ways in which the structure of the
pathway program impacts the ability of Chinese international students to
overcome the language barrier and academic challenges and cope with cultural,
social, and psychological adaptations?
Table 2 provides the demographic information of the faculty participants.
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Table 2
Demographic Information of Faculty Members
Name Gender Title Academic
Department Courses Taught
Years of
Employment
at KU
Prof. Wang M Professor Civil Engineering
Transportation
engineering, machine
learning
11
Prof. Smith F Adjunct
Professor
Computer
Information Systems
Advanced information
technology auditing 1
Prof. Davis M Professor Civil Engineering Transportation engineering
and planning 5
Prof. Miller M Assistant
Professor
Computer
Information Systems
Programming and
application security 13
Prof. Johnson M Assistant
Professor Civil Engineering
Soil mechanic, geo
mechanics and foundation
design
4
Prof. Hill F Assistant
Professor Accounting
Accounting, managerial
accounting, cost
accounting, international
accounting
2
Six faculty members were selected for the study. Three were from College of
Engineering, and three were from the College of Business. They represented four
different graduate programs. They all had pathway program students in their programs.
In the following section, I will focus on the four main themes of findings in the faculty
members’ responses.
Theme 1: The Faculty Members’ Perceptions of the Impact of the ELI Program of
the Pathway Program on Students’ Ability to Cope with the Language Barrier
All the faculty participants expressed positive comments regarding the ELI
program in preparing the pathway program students to handle the identified challenges,
especially academic challenges. Prof. Wang is a Chinese American professor from the
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College of Engineering, and he worked with six of the 10 pathway students who
participated in the study. He stated:
I am in a great position to comment on this program based on my involvement
with the pathway students. I can clearly tell you that the pathway program has a
huge impact on those participating students, especially those students who came
directly from China with limited language capability. Through the pathway year,
they improved their language proficiency, went through cultural adaptation, and
developed teamwork skills. So, within the last couple of years, my overall
impression about the pathway program is very positive, and I wish I had had such
experience when I was a graduate student long ago.
Following the statement, Prof. Wang shared his personal experience dealing with
the language barrier as a graduate student from China:
When I came to the University of Arizona as a graduate student, it was tough at
the beginning. Even though I had taken intensive English courses back in China,
when I came over, everything was totally different. Things were beyond my
control. For example, I could not understand my graduate advisors, my fellow
graduate students, or my professors. When I communicated with them, I often
frustrated them due to my limited capability of expressing myself properly.
Prof. Wang also shared his perception of the impact of the ELI program on
enhancing the pathway students’ communication skills:
Jason is one of the pathway students who took my classes. You could tell his
language capability was also limited compared with other international students,
such as international students from India. Even though his English language
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capability was limited in the very beginning, he gradually improved his
confidence, and he can now better express his ideas clearly with the practice and
training from the pathway program.
Prof. Johnson concurred with Prof. Wang in terms of the language barrier the
pathway students faced; he shared:
John took my class. At the beginning, his English was not good at all. He could
not even speak in English. When he tried to speak to me, his English was very
much broken. I could tell that John was just trying to “translate” what I said into
Chinese and then “translate” back to English. It was difficult for him. But by the
end of the year, he did much better.
John’s undergraduate study was at Hohai University in China. Hohai University is
considered the top research university in the area of hydraulic and other related research.
John tested at Level 3 for listening and speaking when he first arrived. However, John
has a solid academic background and, through his hard work, he was admitted to
Northwest University after the 1-year pathway program at KU.
Theme 2: The Chinese Faculty Members’ Perceptions of the Impact of the Pathway
Program on the Students’ Ability to Cope with Academic Challenges
Fundamentally, all the faculty members believed that the pathway program had a
positive impact on the students’ ability to cope with academic challenges. Since some of
the faculty members only had one or two pathway students taking limited classes from
them, their responses varied. Most of the responses were centered around group work
and academic writing. Most of the faculty participants merged their perception of
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transition into American classroom culture with group work. A couple of faculty
members commented on critical thinking.
Group Work
Group work was a popular topic for the faculty participants. Prof. Wang, Prof.
Smith, and Prof. Johnson indicated that they had intentionally broken the pathway
program students up and added them to the groups without Chinese students. Prof. Hill
stated that she would have done the same if she had known that the Chinese student she
had in her class was from the pathway program. Prof. Wang shared his observation of
the pathway students’ transitioning to the American classroom culture and their behavior
in the group activities:
Transition to American classroom culture—I can give you a good example. Let’s
compare Jason and Sophia with Sophie and Sylvie. Jason and Sophia have
already been at KU for over a year, and the other two are considered newcomers.
So you can see their performances in the classroom are totally different. With one
more year of the pathway program training, Jason and Sophia feel more relaxed
and more active and would like to compete for the opportunity to express their
opinions. On the other hand, Sophie and Sylvie are kind of competing with each
other for not expressing their feelings. They try to be the last one to speak out.
Every time I walk around and ask students questions, these two girls always try to
look down and pretend not to see me or try to avoid eye contact. They just feel
shy, and they think the classroom activities are not important and their grades just
depend on homework submission and exam taking. That’s all! That’s all
classroom activities to them, but actually, the American students have a broad
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view of the classroom activities—they think the classroom should include work
both inside and outside of the classroom.
Prof. Davis shared a different kind of experiences with pathway students and local
students:
I always encourage Chinese international students to be more proactive. I mean,
they are still doing well if I call on them to participate. Comparing them to the
local students, they are, relatively speaking, too shy to ask a question. Even if I
try to give them opportunities by pausing multiple times to give students time to
compose the answer, I rarely, very rarely, would receive any responses from
Chinese students. Here are the local students. They are very active, and lots of
them, even if they do not have the right answers, always like to ask questions. I
think, at least they are listening attentively.
Prof. Davis also shared an interesting experience he had with two pathway
students taking one of his classes:
The problem is that I had to force them to be in different groups. Otherwise, they
tend to be within their own group, like the Chinese with the Chinese students.
After I blended them into other groups, everything worked out well, and I have
never heard any complaints from other students. This is good for both Chinese
international students and domestic students.
Prof. Smith had a positive experience with the pathway student in her class; she
shared:
Wilson fit right into my class. He participated during the class when we had a
guest speaker from KPMG accounting firm. He raised questions and actively
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joined the discussions. I observed him presenting his individual audit
presentation, and he indeed did a good job. He also participated in a group
presentation and was able to demonstrate how he was able to apply technical
theory to practice, and he worked very well with other group members in the
presentation.
Academic Writing
The responses to academic writing also varied among the faculty participants. A
couple of the faculty members indicated that they did not have direct experience to
answer the question. Prof. Hill stated that her class is primarily analytical and
computational based, and writing is limited for her class. Prof. Wang shared his positive
experience in working with the pathway students and trying to help them improve their
academic writing skills. He said:
I think I am in the best position to evaluate pathway students’ performance in
academic writing. For the academic writing capability, I think we need to give
them the opportunity to practice their writing. For example, Jason focused his
writing on the technical, the calculation, the computing areas at the beginning.
When Jason submitted his first paper to me, I was at a loss, and it seemed that I
needed to modify every sentence of his writing. But after I gave them some
training and through some group discussion in the weekly graduate students’
writing club, he improved a lot. You know students learn from each other. This
year, I asked him to get more involved in practicing writing journal papers. Guess
what? He published two papers already and presented at two conferences. Jason
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has two journal papers under review since journal papers usually take longer to go
through the reviewing process.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Prof. Davis when he shared his experience
in helping a pathway student improve his writing skills. Prof. Davis had one of the
pathway students in his class. He stated:
In my graduate courses, I do have some writing assignments for my students even
though they are in the engineering major. I require them to write—not like
answering yes or no questions. They need to pick a topic and share their ideas
and thoughts with other students in the class. The students are supposed to show
their justifications to support their ideas. It seems that the Chinese students
cannot really think outside the box. If you consider this one of the critical
thinking skills, that’s something I think that does need to be improved. But again,
that’s understandable. It really has a lot to do with how long you have been
exposed to this kind of culture. I think experience is very important.
Critical Thinking
When this question was asked, I received three different responses from three
participants. Prof. Smith connected critical thinking with cultural differences and stated:
I think Chinese students just need to be open minded. They need to understand
the culture, observe and learn about the social behaviors of the American people.
They need to respect and embrace each other’s differences so that they will be
more open to accept that.
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Prof. Davis related critical thinking to challenging the professors. He also agreed
with Prof. Smith that culture might have played a part in Chinese international students’
critical thinking behavior. He said:
I do not understand. They [the pathway students] never challenged me. Even
though I encourage them to challenge me in class, I have never received any
challenging questions from them. Especially in my graduate course, I do have
some writing assignments, even though this is an engineering class. I would ask
my students to pick a topic and to share with me what they think and why, and I
need those kinds of justifications. However, what they submitted to me were
standard answers. So relatively speaking, they do not really think outside the box.
This is what I consider as one of the critical thinking skills. This is the area I
think the pathway students need to improve. But again, that’s understandable. It
really has a lot to do with how long they have been exposed to this kind of culture.
So, I think that experience and practice is very important.
Prof. Wang provided a detailed description of how he tried to foster students’
critical thinking skills:
I think one of the best ways to do critical thinking training is to have the students
do the literature review. I usually get them involved into some topics for research.
They have not had the chance to touch on those research topics before. Let’s take
the four identified academic challenges for the pathway program students as an
example. During the literature review, they have to classify what they found into
different groups. I ask them to find the commonality and difference behind each
concept. The next step is that they have to ask themselves why, and then they will
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push themselves back to identify the cause-and-effect relationship. This whole
process identifies the issues to the topics, and then the students find the cause-
and-effect relationships. Through this entire process, the students get intensive
training about critical thinking. During each stage, they have to ask themselves
the major questions: what reason is behind it? when will this activity take place?
what would be the best results that may happen? when, why, what, and where and
for what purpose? With all these things together, students gain very intensive
critical thinking skills improvements quickly. Different professors may have
different preferred training methods for critical thinking. Since I did a lot of
research with my students, I encouraged them to do a presentation to share their
findings or research results with other students. At the same time, I require that
students apply critical thinking skills to do their presentation. From their
presentation, I can see that critical thinking has been embedded into the entire
group discussion.
Theme 3: The Chinese Faculty Members’ Perceptions of the Impact of the Pathway
Program on the Students’ Ability to Cope with Cultural, Social, and Psychological
Adaptation
All the faculty members shared their views and knowledge regarding the impact
of the pathway program on the students’ cultural, social, and psychological adaptation
except Prof. Miller, who indicated that he did not have direct experience to make a
comment. Some of the selected faculty members had more pathway students take their
classes. Therefore, they had more time to get to know students in terms of their cultural
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and social life. Prof. Wang shared a unique experience with one of his students, Sophia.
It is worth mentioning that Sophia took a few classes from Prof. Wang. He stated:
Sophia talked to me many times and told me that she was under a lot of pressure,
not just from the academic part, but also from her family. As a girl in her mid-20s,
she was confused and worried about her future in terms of whether to settle down
in the U.S. or go back to China. Like other typical Chinese parents, Sophia’s
parents urged her to find a boyfriend and get married after graduation. I had to
calm her down and told her that what she needed to do was to follow her heart. I
also advised her that she did not have to follow her parents’ guidance step by step
all the time, but keep the communication with her parents open.
Prof. Smith indicated that the pathway program prepared the students in her class
to better handle the cultural, social, and psychological challenges based on her
observation. Prof. Davis revealed a commonly recognized issue with Chinese
international students:
I think the Chinese social media (WeChat) is definitely helping and hurting them.
They are in the U.S. now, but they still rely on WeChat to connect with the
outside world. A lot of the social media, especially the one kind of media called
self-media in Chinese—some of the information from the self-media is not
accurate and even misleading. And also, I think they need to develop a habit like
watching TV like U.S. news and other news channels. They need to know what's
going on around them, and they need to have first-hand information rather than
something being translated through self-media with biases. I think they need to
buy a TV and watch U.S. news and other programs.
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As a Chinese American professor, Prof. Davis brought up another sensitive issue
about Chinese international students’ written communication style. He observed that
most of the Chinese international students still prefer to communicate in Chinese if they
have the choice. He shared:
The issue I would like to share with you sounds like a small one. When they send
me an email, I notice that the title of the email or their name they use was still in
Chinese. They do not even bother to change their computer system to be in
English. They are still using the Chinese operation system. I mean, [this is]
something very easy to change. This issue sounds like a trivial thing, but it means
a lot to the recipient. If you do not think you are a foreigner, no one else will
think you are foreign. Many Chinese international students never get out of their
“Chinese system.”
Prof. Johnson is an Iranian American professor, and he shared some of his
observations of the pathway students in terms of whom they hang out with. He noted
that the Chinese international students tended to hang out with other Chinese
international students. Prof. Johnson stated that he tried to separate them in group
discussions and class activities so that they would have more opportunity to work with
non-Chinese students. Prof. Hill echoed the findings of Prof. Johnson and expressed her
concerns about this kind of behavior.
Theme 4: The Faculty Members’ Overall Perceptions of the Impact of the Pathway
Program
All the faculty participants responded positively regarding their overall perception
of the impact of the pathway program. Some of the faculty members shared their
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personal experience as graduate students in the U.S. higher education system and how
they dealt with the language barrier as well as academic, cultural, social, and
psychological challenges. Prof. Wang also provided a comprehensive overview of his
perception of the pathway program:
When I first started my graduate studies at a U.S. institution, I was not as lucky as
the pathway students to have a specially designed program to help me cope with
the transitional challenges. I remember those days, and they were very tough. I
had to put in extra effort to improve my English proficiency and handle all
academic and other related challenges myself. The pathway program impresses
me in multiple ways. First, the program clearly establishes a platform where the
new international students can learn from each other how to adapt to the new
environment. Facing the various challenges as a part of the group greatly reduces
the students’ pressure while enhancing the students’ confidence. Second, the
well-designed courses and extracurricular activities allow students to enhance
their capabilities in a systematic as well as effective manner, which includes
language improvement, cultural familiarization, and academic preparation.
Finally, the program provides a peaceful “shelter” for the students during the
entire course of their study. In addition, the pathway program at KU not only
helps the Chinese international students with the preparation of their graduate
studies, but also prepares the students for their future career life in terms of their
enhanced communication skills and problem-solving ability.
Prof. Smith stated that the pathway program has helped the Chinese international
students better transition and adapt to the American classroom culture. She shared her
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observation of how Wilson collaborated and interacted with his classmates in terms of
building a strong bond and trust with his peers. Prof. Davis agreed with Prof. Smith’s
statement and shared his observation of Phillip’s progress during the pathway program.
He indicated the pathway program has “changed” the student:
Lately, Phillip has been approaching me with questions, and he has been very
active in the group project. In the group discussion, he would take the initiative in
interacting with local students. I could tell that the pathway program has not only
improved his academic skill, but also enhanced his confidence. He is now more
passionate about learning than before. I gave him an A for my class.
Prof. Miller stated that, in his opinion, the pathway program is very effective in
helping the Chinese international students manage the identified challenges. He said,
“When Wilson entered the graduate program, his GPA was relatively low. At the end of
his first year in my MSIS program, his GPA is above 3.5, which is fairly good.” It is
worth mentioning that Prof. Miller is considered a hard grader in his college. The
feedback from Prof. Johnson was also very positive; he shared his observation of John’s
progress in his class in terms of his improvement in group work and academic writing. In
an emphatic way, Prof. Hill pointed out that the impact of the pathway program on the
students’ ability to cope with the stated challenges varied by saying, “It all depends on
the students’ motivation and their desire to get involved in the curricular and
extracurricular as well as other culture and social activities.”
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The Faculty Participants’ Recommendations for the Pathway Program and Incoming
Pathway Students
During the interview, each of the faculty participants shared his or her thoughts
and ideas for the improvement of the pathway program in the future and also offered
recommendations for incoming pathway students. Prof. Wang suggested that, for the
pathway program orientation, the component of American and Chinese cultural
differences and tips on how to handle the differences be added to the agenda. He further
advised that the pathway program faculty and staff should encourage the students to get
involved in all the university activities and urge them to engage in all kinds of open
discussions. Prof. Davis added that academic college professors should be invited to
attend the orientation. The recommendation from Prof. Johnson was also related to
orientation. He suggested that previous pathway students be invited to attend the event,
and he reinforced that the previous pathway students can act as mentors for the new
incoming students. He indicated that this would be a great opportunity to connect
pathway students with related academic faulty members ahead of time. Prof. Smith’s
recommendations are related to networking and developing the pathway students’
leadership skills:
I suggest connecting the new students with the previous students who participated
in the program in the past. The previous students can share their learning
experiences with the new students. They can be the mentors and friends of the
new students. You can arrange some add-on weekend activities and site visits
with local companies or organizations such as Disneyland, NASA, Department of
Defense, etc., which can further help the students feel welcomed and make it easy
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for them to get involved. I think networking is crucial because you can meet new
people and make many lifelong connections through networking. I worked at
KPMG for 12 years and got to know a lot of people through building and
maintaining my network. It is also very useful to participate in professional clubs
or organizations, which will help the students with their future careers. As I
mentioned earlier, adding the management and leadership classes would enhance
the quality of the program. These classes will help the students overcome the
language barrier, improve their communication skills, and help them lead and
inspire other people.
Prof. Miller pointed out an issue related to academic advising for the pathway
students:
I was surprised to see one of the pathway students take CS1010. There is no face-
to-face lecture in that class; it is a computer-based, self-study class. Students
learn Microsoft Office software by doing computer projects and taking exams all
online. I do not think that is a good class to be recommended to the pathway
students to take. The solution to this kind of issue is very simple. ELI can focus
on advising students on language classes, and departmental academic advisors can
offer students advice on credit-bearing classes.
Prof. Hill advised that Chinese international students be open minded and reach
out to advisors and professors for help. She said:
It is okay to ask any questions because you are going through culture shock and
you are new. Rely on people you can trust and who can give you good advice on
how to survive and how to thrive in a different culture. I think it is really
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important because I have noticed students from China tend to stay together with
other international students. But it is really important you trust other sources such
as advisors and professors. They are always open, and they are approachable.
Feel free to email them, go to their office hours, ask them questions, and have a
talk with them. They do not mind if your English is not perfect, and it is better to
ask than be sorry.
Research Question Three: Perceptions of the University Administrators about the
Pathway Program
RQ 3. What are university administrators’ perceptions of the ways in which the structure
of the pathway program impacts the ability of Chinese international students to
overcome the language barrier and academic challenges and cope with the
cultural, social, and psychological adaptations?
Table 3 provides the demographic information of the five university administrators who
participated.
Table 3
Demographic Information of University Administrators
Name Gender Administrative
Title
Academic College
or Department
Years of
Employment
at KU
Years of
Employment in
the Current
Position at KU
Dr. Perry F Administrator English Language Institute 3 3
Dr. Lee M Administrator Department of Civil Engineering 22 6
Dr. Clark M Administrator Department of Technology and
Operations Management 15 3
Dr. Wood M Administrator College of Engineering 15 5
Dr. Brown F Administrator College of Business 12 1
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Five university administrators were selected for the study. Two were from the
College of Engineering, two were from the College of Business, and one was from the
English Language Institute (ELI). Among the five university administrators, two of them
were associate deans, two of them were department chairs representing an academic
department from each of the colleges, and one was the manager level administrator of
ELI at KU. It is important to note that three of them were involved in the development
and implementation of the pathway program. In the following section, I will focus on the
four main themes of findings in the university administrators’ responses.
Theme 1: The University Administrators’ Perceptions of the Impact of the ELI
Program of the Pathway Program on Students’ Ability to Cope with the Language
Barrier
All the university administrators felt positive regarding the ELI program in
preparing the pathway program students to handle the identified challenges, especially
academic challenges. Dr. Perry is an administrator at ELI, and her perception of the
impact of the ELI program on students’ ability to cope with the language barrier is unique
and comprehensive. She stated:
First of all, I have to say something about the phrase “language barrier.” I do not
think language is the barrier; I think that language is part of the experience. Since
students have studied English for a long time in their home countries for their
entire school years, and they have taken a language proficiency test in order to
qualify for the program, many of them have a proficiency score to enter the
university. So, presumably, language is not a barrier if they have met the
language proficiency requirement. So the question is, “What are the barriers?”
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Language programs, historically—I am talking the last 40 or 50 years in the
United States—have acted as the bridge from the education system and the culture
that students have come from to the new education system and the culture of the
other. In terms of integrating the students to the classes in higher levels in the
language program, the language is there, but the language environment that it is
spoken in is what is lacking. Therefore, it is, kind of, the culture and social use of
the language. Another part that is a really significant barrier, particularly (I think)
with the Chinese students, is that because they have studied English for a very
long time, the way that they talk in English and use English is something that is
done just to transact business, not really to communicate or interact in a way that
allows for complete understanding of our involvement. So they can carry out a
transaction with the correct language, but the way that it is used or the way it
comes across does not translate culturally and socially and politely. I think that is
what they learn in the language program. They learn what the appropriate use of
English is.
During the interview, Dr. Perry pointed out that language is not the barrier, and
she specified that “the inappropriate use of the language creates the barrier.” Dr. Perry
went on and shared her experience in working with the pathway students in terms of their
misuse of grammar in communicating with her:
They need to have an experience of opening their minds about their English. In
fact, I had 3+1+master’s students stand in my office and say that grammar does
not really matter because nobody checks your grammar in the university. When
they are talking to me, they have so many grammar mistakes in every sentence.
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They do not sound like they should be in the advanced level at all; they sound like
they should be in the lower level. With one of these 3+1+master’s students, I
wrote down three or four sentences exactly the way he said them while he was
talking to me. He was telling me, “Grammar is not important, and this class is a
waste of time,” but his grammar was totally messed up. I finished talking with
him, and at the end I said, “Can I share something with you? You know, I am
also a language teacher. I wrote down three or four sentences that you said to me,
and I want you to look at them.” When he looked at them, he was shocked. He
said, “I see. This is wrong.” That was the error he can fix when he is reading or
writing a sentence, especially when he is writing. When he is writing, he is in
control because he can look at it and reread it. When he is speaking, he is not in
good control because you cannot see that you are doing it wrong as you are doing
it because it is just coming out. So it is typically those kinds of interactions where
they have to open their mind about the language they’re bringing because they
feel fine about their language, but the language is in fact not good enough for
what they are going to be up against. The language is going to put off the native
speakers they are trying to be in group projects with. Because they are going to
hear the student speak, they are going to think this student cannot write this
section of the research they are working on. So the students need to open their
minds about their own language during the time at the language program, and that
is when they become ready to learn. We have students coming to the language
program and all they want to do is take their courses in the university for credit
and say, “These language courses are unimportant, and I do not want to do it,”
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and their language is terrible. I know you want your credit courses, but I want
your experience to be one where people respect you and like you and invite you to
join rather than hope they do not have to be in a group with you.
Dr. Lee is the former chair of the Civil Engineering Department. He shared his
perception of the ELI program by stating:
The student has the language barrier for sure. That is the reason why this program
is here. If the student should have very strong English skills, they could directly
apply to the regular graduate programs easily. The reason we set up this pathway
program is to address the students’ concern, students’ weakness, students’ needs
to overcome the English language barrier, academic challenges, and cultural
barrier. I think this program is designed to address all of the issues and provide
them opportunities to allow them to learn the subject matter at the same time they
can improve their English skills.
Dr. Clark is a department chair from the College of Business, and he echoed
Dr. Lee in terms of the design of the pathway program and explained the purpose of the
pathway program design:
According to our design, the first module, the language module, is created for
students to take the language classes so that they can overcome the language and
the cultural barrier. The purpose of the first module is for the students to take a
couple classes so that they can get used to the learning environment under a
different language setting. At the same time, we will arrange social events and
networking opportunities with local students and the local professional society to
familiarize them with the campus and social environment, which is to lay the
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foundation for the success of their future graduate studies and maybe their future
professional career in this country.
Dr. Wood is an administrator from the College of Engineering. He originally
came from Hong Kong to the U.S. He stated:
I do not have a lot of detailed data to respond to this question. But definitely,
language skills are important. I guess for students coming from a country where
their native language is not English, it can be a challenge. Speaking from my
personal experience, it was a great challenge at the beginning. I see that the
pathway program puts some good emphasis on English skills and training.
Dr. Brown is an administrator from the College of Business, and she approached
the impact of the pathway program on the students’ ability to cope with the language
from the angle of the program structure. She shared:
In terms of helping the students overcome the language barrier, I think it is a good
structure. A lot of students do have the English proficiency on paper. Maybe
their test score was great or at least okay. However, back in their home country,
they do not really have a lot of opportunity to practice the language. With this
pathway structure, they come to America and attend classes with the local
students. They can quickly adapt or learn what they are weak in. Then they get
an opportunity to study in the undergraduate environment. This is a very
important step. They would probably feel more intimidated if they jumped
directly into the graduate program. They would probably be afraid of saying
something wrong if they were in the master’s degree program. But with the
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pathway structure, they feel more comfortable to speak out, to practice, to make
friends, and to make comments compared to if they were in the graduate program.
Theme 2: The University Administrators’ Perceptions of the Impact of the Pathway
Program on the Students’ Ability to Cope with Academic Challenges
When the university administrators were asked to share their perceptions of the
impact of the pathway program on the students’ ability to cope with academic challenges,
their responses varied based on their degree of involvement and familiarity with the
program. Since some of the university administrators do not teach classes, their
perceptions are drawn from their interactions with the students. Most of the participants
focused their comments on group work, academic writing, and critical thinking.
Group Work
The participants all agreed that group work is a real challenge for the Chinese
international students, and their approach to the theme varied greatly. Dr. Clark related
group work with the active learning style, and Dr. Brown connected the group work
concept to American classroom culture. Dr. Perry shared a very interesting conversation
with a pathway student in term of his experience participating in group work:
I can give you an exact example of a Chinese student. She came with really good
English and really good pronunciation, and not a very noticeable accent even.
When she was put into groups in her university classes that she was taking, she
would say to me, “We have a group project to do this Friday, and I am really
worried about it.” I said, “Why are you really worried about it?” “I do not know
if they’re working on it or not—they’re not telling me anything.” I said, “Well, is
the group meeting?” And she said, “Yeah, we've met three times already.” I said,
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“Well, they must be talking during the meeting. What do they say?” She said,
“They are all talking and they’re all making plans, but they’re not asking me what
I think or what I want to do.” And I said, “What do you mean by not asking?”
She said, “Well, I’m there in the group, but they're not asking me anything.” I
said, “Are you asking them anything?” She said, “No, because they’re talking
and saying things.” I said, “So that’s what you should be doing. No one is going
to write you an invitation to get involved; no one is going to give you special
treatment to be a part of the group. You are already a part of the group; you have
to see how to behave in the group. It is your responsibility to speak up; it is your
responsibility to contribute fully, not to be invited to contribute.”
Dr. Perry related this kind of behavior to the cultural norms and further stated:
That could be out of an element of shyness because of feeling like an outsider or
because of being worried about not using English as casually as the other students
in the class. That is the other thing I get from Chinese students all the time: “the
other students speak really fast, and I cannot understand the professor very well.”
Group work, of course, is with one’s peers. That’s a different kind of English
because every generation uses its own slang. Communication in a group is based
on relationship. So, if students do not feel comfortable culturally and socially to
engage with their peers, they’re not going to learn the language. It will always be
a struggle.
Dr. Lee related group work with the concept of teamwork. He shared his
experience in involving the pathway program students in the senior project. He stated:
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Group work is very important. We cannot be successful by working alone. You
have to have a team, and the team works together to achieve a common goal. We
need to help the students understand the importance of group work. I had two
pathway students in the past 2 years. I involved them in the senior project design
group. They learned how to settle down with the other students. At the
beginning, they did not know how to speak English well, and they were nervous.
At the end, you know, after 2 years, they are comfortable when they talk with
other people in English. You could see the difference in terms of their enhanced
confidence.
Academic Writing
When asked about their perception of the impact of the pathway program on the
students’ abilities in academic writing, Dr. Lee stated that the students need to improve
their academic writing skills. He contended that the students were used to writing in their
mother language when they were in their home country. “The pathway program helps
the students improve their writing skills. That is one of the reasons why this program is
very important,” said Dr. Lee.
Dr. Clark agreed with Dr. Lee on the importance of enhancing the academic
writing skills of the pathway students. Dr. Clark emphasized the practice-makes-progress
philosophy:
Just practice. There is no other way. You just need to keep writing. If you write
more, and every time if you put more effort into writing, such as a single email,
you can improve your writing skills. I think it is a lifelong learning process, and
just keep writing. In terms of training these students, I think it is best to focus on
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their communication skills in terms of both oral and written at an early stage so
that they get used to it.
Being an administrator of ELI at KU, Dr. Perry related academic writing with
academic reading, and she claimed that academic reading is far more the challenge for
the pathway students. She said:
The students are in control of their writing. They know what they are thinking,
and they know what they want to say. They can get help with it. They can get
their writing edited and get the grammatical things fixed. As a matter of fact,
students can get help from the writing center. The academic reading presents a
huge challenge to them because they’re not in control of what they’re going to be
required to read, how much they are going to have to read, when that large
amount of reading is going to be due, and how much of the content will be
included in a test. One of the things the students are always surprised by and can
really be upset about is when they take the test in the class. They will say, “The
professor did not talk about that in the class.” I will say, “Was it on the syllabus?
Was it in the reading?” And I will look at the course syllabus with them and say,
“Give me the textbook. See this on the syllabus. Did you read this unit?” I
explain to them that the question on the test was from the reading because most
courses in the American university system are about 50% being in the lecture and
50% being in the textbook. If you do not do the reading or you cannot understand
the reading, you’re missing about 50% of what you're going to be tested on.
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Critical Thinking
All the participants shared their perceptions of the impact of the pathway program
on the students’ ability to handle the challenge of critical thinking. In addition, they
discussed their own perspective of the topic. Dr. Wood shared that he used to teach at a
university in Hong Kong, and he noticed that Chinese students may lack the skills to
express their critical thinking in class. Dr. Wood argued that this is a cultural issue and
advised, “We may need to educate them a little bit more about what critical thinking is
and why it is important.”
Dr. Brown echoed Dr. Wood’s point of view and stated that it might be due to the
cultural differences between the East and the West. She explained:
I think critical thinking actually impacted them the most. Maybe this is just a
cultural difference between East and West. A lot of Chinese students—well at
least those students I talked to from Taiwan—are used to being taught by the
professor and accepting whatever their professor told them. They learn,
memorize, and regurgitate. They really do not practice critical thinking. In the
American classes they participated in, most of the professors would require them
to think critically and ask them questions to inspire them to think. That is the
biggest challenge the students have found, and it is the biggest improvement they
have made in the pathway program.
Dr. Brown further stated that the students from Korea and Japan face the same
challenge:
As you know, in our Eastern culture, students were told to respect their teachers.
So they feel like they are challenging the professors if they ask them questions.
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This is part of the culture they grew up with. They were told that professors are
always correct, no question asked. Therefore, I think it is the issue related to
Eastern and Western cultural differences—not the issue simply with students from
Taiwan or China.
Dr. Lee had a different approach to the topic. He believed that Chinese students
had received training from their home country in terms of how to think critically. When
they come to U.S. institutions, the challenge is in expressing their ideas. He explained:
The students from the China, like the students from our country, are trained to
think critically, especially engineering students—they learn how to deal with the
math, how to deal with the equations, how to solve the problem through logical
thinking. But when they come here, they do not know how to say it. They have
very good ideas, but they do not know how to express their thinking skill logic or
how to share the ideas with other people. I think the pathway program provided
the opportunity for them to talk to people, pass on their thinking, share their
thinking with other students in the classroom.
Dr. Clark agreed with Dr. Lee’s point of view and claimed that most international
students have strong critical thinking skills. He stressed:
I think most international students are strong in critical thinking because of their
original training in their home country. In the U.S., the average level of students’
critical thinking ability is lower than that of students from many other countries. I
think actually it is the strength of the international students, but their weakness is
their lack of communication of that strength. If we combine good critical thinking
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skills with good communication skills, that would be a perfect solution to the
issue.
Dr. Perry had a unique approach to the discussion; she does not think that we can
teach critical thinking. She argued:
I am always annoyed when I hear people say, “I have to teach these students or
one group of students critical thinking,” because every human does critical
thinking. The truth is that every language and every culture influence how people
of that language and culture think. The different kinds of thinking sometimes lead
people to think that Chinese students in particular do not have critical thinking
skills, and that’s just not true. They are great problem solvers. They do not solve
them in a Western Anglo-Saxon way; they solve them in an Eastern way. So
what we need them to do is to adjust to other people’s styles of thinking and other
people’s critical thinking styles. It will impact their group work and will impact
their ability to learn in class and their ability to understand professors when they
go for help.
Theme 3: The University Administrators’ Perceptions of the Impact of the Pathway
Program on the Students’ Ability to Cope with Cultural, Social, and Psychological
Adaptation
All the participants agreed that it is challenging for international students,
especially Chinese international students, to go through the cultural, social, and
psychological adaptation process. In terms of the impact of the pathway program on
helping the students cope with the identified challenges, the participants’ responses were
quite different based on their observations or their involvement with the program.
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Dr. Wood stated that he did not have any direct experience of working with pathway
students. However, he hosted some Chinese visiting faculty members on the KU campus,
and he noted, “They tend to stick together. In my opinion, one of the best ways of
learning about a culture would be to immerse in the culture. I seem to see a lot of
Chinese students stick together as well.”
Dr. Clark also focused on the cultural differences and stated:
One of the most important components of this type of program is really to help
students get used to this culture, the Western culture. We really want to train
these students, our graduates, to be someone who can understand both the
Western culture and the Eastern culture. This will help them better transit from
one culture to the other.
Dr. Lee commented on the pathway program structure in terms of helping
students handle these kinds of challenges:
I think the students in this program have a lot of challenges they need to go
through, such as the English language barrier. Luckily, we have the English
Language Institute to help the students and prepare their English skills for subject
matter and to get them ready for graduate studies. That is one of the benefits the
pathway program provides to the participants. In terms of transitional cultural
skills, I believe that the Global Education Program, your organization, has
handled the logistics and helped prepare them so that they can understand what's
going on inside of the system. In terms of the social adaptation, the students can
team with their classmates and make friends with them so that they can enjoy
American life.
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Dr. Brown commented on one of the pathway program features that allows the
pathway students to stay with other KU students in the university apartments:
I think it is a great arrangement for the pathway students to stay in the university
apartments with other university students. They actually benefit more by living in
the apartments with local students and next to local students. I think they get all,
you know, 24/7 exposure to the cultural differences in the language environment.
Some of their roommates or classmates might be Asian Americans, but those are
ABCs (American Born Chinese), and most of them do not speak Mandarin. In
that case, they have to speak English with each other.
Dr. Perry shared her personal experience in working with the pathway students
for the past 3 years:
I have had the pleasure of working with and advising the 3+1+master’s degree
students in the 3 years I’ve been here—at least half of them. I’ve had pretty
frequent conversations with them. I think the area they grew most is
psychologically. First of all, they’re brave people to come. When they came,
they realized that they made this decision. When they run into things that are not
as they expected or not what they would like or not as easy as they want or not as
clear as they hope, they feel a lot of psychological pressure, anxiety, and
discontent. However, the campus is really diverse, Southern California is really
diverse, and people are all different. Since the students have the language
background, they can choose to eat in the restaurants of whatever food they’re
most comfortable with and to hang out with people that speak their language.
This is the beauty of Southern California. So, the students’ social and cultural
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adjustment in Southern California is much different from the students in the
universities that I worked with on the East Coast, where they did not have that
cultural and social situation and community around them. I feel like students that
come to Southern California have a huge advantage. They have a comfort zone.
Dr. Perry emphasized that, in the language program classes and activities,
teachers consistently make an effort to mix students up so that they're not with students in
their own language and culture. She elaborated:
We build individual connections, like the language partner arrangement where
they can have one language friend or conversation partner. In the university club
on campus, they actually do most of the things in the evening and on weekends
with our students. They also invite our students to attend those events and
activities.
Theme 4: The University Administrators’ Overall Perceptions of the Impact of the
Pathway Program
The participants responded positively on their overall perceptions of the impact of
the pathway program on the students’ ability to deal with the identified challenges.
Dr. Perry stated that, conceptually, the structure is sound. Dr. Lee was involved in the
early development of the pathway program, and he shared his experience and his
perception of the program:
After several months of open discussion and brainstorming on ideas together with
the GEP team, we decided to go with a 3+1+master’s program model, which is
the pathway program. At this time, we can see the program can be a supplement
system to allow the existing graduate program to have more students enrolled. At
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the same time, we gave international students options and opportunities to come
here to enjoy the American culture and explore the American education system.
As you can tell, the program benefits students in both education systems. I think
that’s very important. So far, the Civil Engineering Department at KU has about
eight students. After 3 years of implementation, I can say that the program is
good, the structure is fine, and it benefits all our students. In summary, the
structure by all means is the best structure: it is doable, it is feasible, and it is
expandable.
Dr. Brown was also involved in the pathway program development as a faculty
member from the College of Business. She shared:
I believe my involvement with the pathway program started in summer of 2018.
Actually, two other faculty members were thinking about developing a similar
kind of program at the time. They invited me to join the discussion of creating
this 3+1+master’s program with GEP. In summer of 2019, I started to work with
GEP to promote the pathway program. I started to visit universities in Taiwan
during the summer as a quick market survey to see if they were interested in this
kind of program. To my pleasant surprise, almost all the schools that I talked to
showed very strong interest in this kind of collaboration. In terms of the program
structure, I think this is a really good structure for not only just for Chinese
international students, but also for most of the international students when they
first come to the United States to study. I think the cultural and language barrier
is the biggest hurdle. The pathway program has built in the language and cultural
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options for the transition. The ELI classes and the prerequisite classes lay a solid
foundation for the students’ future graduate studies in the U.S.
The University Administrators’ Recommendations for the Pathway Program and
Incoming Pathway Students
All the participants shared their recommendations for pathway program
improvement and their suggestions for incoming pathway students. Dr. Lee indicated
that many more students could be recruited to the program if it could be described and
marketed in a way that encompasses all the possible options that students might want.
Dr. Lee also emphasized the importance of enhancing recruitment and enrollment into the
pathway program:
I think what we need to do is to improve the institutional support. I think we need
to give the university a clear message about this program. Hopefully, this
program is the one to help the university to get international exposure and to drive
the enrollment for master programs. The current situation at KU is that we lack
graduate students. So we need to have some kind of solid mechanism financially
and also institutionally to support the entire program. We need to enhance the
recruitment effort of the program. Eight students have already gone through the
program, and two of them have already attained their master’s degrees. We need
to share our success stories so that people can learn about our success. We can
use that as a case study to help students to understand this program is doable and
the program is beneficial to them.
Dr. Clark made recommendations that are related to international student
services:
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I think that is something that we want to improve on—to really provide good
quality service to these international students. For example, the I-20 application
process needs to be smoother. We need to create opportunities and put together
events for international students to network with local students so that they can
learn from each other. The tension between the U.S. and China is high right now,
but we can expand to other countries.
Dr. Wood echoed Dr. Clark and stated that it is important to familiarize the
faculty members with the pathway program. He indicated that the College of
Engineering will add a session in the new faculty orientation in terms of how to better
serve the needs of our international students. Dr. Brown provided more comprehensive
recommendations, which I categorized into the following three areas:
1. We have to separate the pathway students into two groups, one group with a
language proficiency test score that meets the program requirement and the other
below the requirement. We need to closely evaluate the students’ needs and
carefully create a study plan for them with balanced curriculum of the language
classes versus the university credit-bearing courses.
2. I know right now ELI has an advisor for students in this pathway program. But I
really think the advisement of how many academic classes to take should be our
academic college’s responsibility.
3. In terms of the placement test provided by ELI, we also have to keep in mind that
maybe students cannot speak very well or perform well right after their arrival.
They need time to adjust themselves to the new environment academically just as
they do culturally and socially.
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Summary
Chapter 4 discussed the findings of the three research questions. The purpose of
this qualitative case study was to examine the key processes and procedures of the
pathway program from the perspectives of Chinese international students who have
participated in the program as well as related faculty members and university
administrators. The goal was to examine the experiences of program participants, faculty
members, and university administrators of how the pathway program impacts the
preparation of Chinese international students for graduate studies in U.S. universities,
especially in coping with the identified challenges.
In this chapter, I provided detailed analysis of the data collected from students
who have participated in the pathway program, from faculty members who have pathway
students in their classrooms, and from university administrators who have involvement in
the program development and implementation processes. All the participants in this
study consider the pathway program effective, and they all agreed it has a positive impact
on the students’ ability to cope with the language barrier, academic challenges, and
cultural, social, and psychological adaptation. Chapter 5 provides conclusions,
discussion, implementations, and recommendations for future research, as well as a
comprehensive final reflection on the data presented in Chapter 4.
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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS, DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Chapter 5 will begin with a brief review of the purpose statement and research
questions followed by conclusions, discussion, implications, and recommendations for
further study. The chapter will end with concluding remarks. The purpose of this
qualitative case study was to examine the key processes and procedures of the pathway
program from the perspectives of Chinese international students who have participated in
the program as well as related faculty members and university administrators. The goal
was to examine the experiences of program participants, faculty members, and university
administrators of how the pathway program impacts the preparation of Chinese
international students for graduate studies in U.S. universities, especially in coping with
the identified challenges.
This chapter answers the following three research questions.
RQ 1. What are Chinese international students’ perceptions of the ways in which the
structure of the pathway program impacts their ability to overcome the language
barrier and academic challenges and cope with cultural, social, and psychological
adaptations?
RQ 2. What are faculty members’ perceptions of the ways in which the structure of the
pathway program impacts the ability of Chinese international students to
overcome the language barrier and academic challenges and cope with cultural,
social, and psychological adaptations?
RQ 3. What are university administrators’ perceptions of the ways in which the structure
of the pathway program impacts the ability of Chinese international students to
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overcome the language barrier and academic challenges and cope with the
cultural, social, and psychological adaptations?
Conclusions
The results of this study helped to identify the challenges Chinese international
students face in the U.S. higher education system and determine the effectiveness and the
positive impact of the pathway program on the students’ ability to overcome the language
barrier and academic challenges and cope with the cultural, social, and psychological
adaptations. Through synthesizing the results of the study and the analysis of the
interview data, four conclusions emerged in response to the research questions.
The first conclusion was that the language program is effective in laying a
foundation by providing basic training to the students in preparing them for graduate
studies in the U.S. The language barrier has been identified as the major challenge for
Chinese international students (Ching et al., 2017). Language programs are bridges, and
language teachers know how to assist the students across those bridges. The student
participants indicated that the language teachers were encouraging, positive, and very
friendly with them. Some students stated that the language teachers had a way of “setting
them at ease.” In this way, the language teachers helped to raise the students’ level of
confidence in using English in the classroom. Besides the training to improve students’
abilities in reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills, the English Language Institute
also served as a bridge for the international students to better adapt to the American
culture. In addition, the pathway students also had the opportunity to engage and learn
from other international students.
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The second conclusion was that the prerequisite courses were helpful in serving as
stepping-stones for the students in their transition to their graduate studies. The
participants described the prerequisite classes as stepping-stones for them to smoothly
transition from their undergraduate academic studies in China to the master’s degree
programs in the U.S. The pathway program students came from different universities in
China, and their academic backgrounds varied given the differences in the level of study
in their major field before joining the program. The student participants stated that the
prerequisite classes helped close the gap.
The third conclusion was that the Confucian philosophy had a great impact on
these Chinese international students’ performance, which supported the findings from the
literature. The literature review concluded and research findings further identified that
Confucian philosophy greatly impacts Chinese international students’ choice of study
abroad as well as their behavior in the classroom and the way they interact with their
professors and classmates (Choi & Nieminen, 2013; Durden et al., 2014; Kelly, 2011; Li
& Starr, 2012).
The final conclusion was that the differences of Chinese and American education
systems play a significant role in the Chinese students’ learning outcomes. Having had
the experience of navigating both the Chinese education and American education systems,
the student participants provided important insight into the advantages and issues of the
two systems. Many participants commented on China’s exam-driven education system
and provided their perceptions of NCEE as well as its impact on their academic
performance. All participants stated that the differences of the education systems had a
fundamental impact on their learning outcomes in U.S. graduate programs.
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Discussion
The Role of the English Language Program in Preparing Pathway Students for
Their Graduate Studies in the U.S.
The pathway program at KU is comprised of two major components: language
training and prerequisite classes. The purpose of designing the pathway program was to
get prospective graduate students fully prepared with the required language proficiency
and academic ability for graduate studies in the U.S. The English Language Program
(ELI) at KU is one of the two major cornerstones in the structure of the pathway program.
Limited English language proficiency has been identified as one of the most
challenging issues international students face in U.S. universities and colleges (Kinnucan,
2012). All the student participants stressed that the language training at KU was effective
to support their academic and social adaptation, and the training also laid a solid
foundation for their graduate studies. One of the student participants described ELI as
the soft landing spot where he started his journey of pursuing his graduate studies in the
U.S. All the faculty participants also confirmed the effectiveness of ELI in terms of the
academic performance of the pathway students in their classes.
Wilson is currently enrolled in the Master of Science in Information Security
(MSIS) program at KU; he shared:
I had English vocabulary, American culture, and English writing classes in the
English Language Institute. I benefited a lot from the American culture and
English writing classes. In the American culture class, I had the opportunity to
discuss some current affairs with my classmates from different culture
backgrounds, and we expressed ourselves in English. The communications with
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my classmates helped me to be more open minded. At the same time, the English
writing class helped me to realize the difference between Chinese writing and
English writing. English writing focuses more on the logic between sentences
and justification of one’s viewpoints and writing standardization. Learning the
proper format of writing and citations laid a solid foundation for my future
academic writing.
Phillip is currently in his last semester of a master’s degree program at KU; he
testified:
From my personal experience, learning in the English language program not only
improved my English, but also helped me understand the American classroom
culture and the way of thinking. This is a completely different way of teaching
from that in China. In addition, there are many students from different countries
in the class at the same time. At the very beginning, I was not used to this kind of
class atmosphere. However, my English proficiency improved rapidly through
teamwork and debates in the class. Even the students with very poor English
skills also benefited from participation.
During the interview, all the faculty participants emphasized that the ELI program
is important and effective in assisting the pathway students who need additional language
training not only for admission purposes, but also for preparation for their graduate
studies in the U.S. Dr. Perry is one of the administrators of ELI, and she shared some of
her unique points of view from the perspective of an expert in the field of language
teaching and administration. Dr. Perry contested, “I do not think language is the barrier.
It is the inappropriate use of language that creates a barrier.” I attained two of my
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master’s degrees from the U.S. higher education system as a Chinese international
student, and I also worked as a high school English teacher in China for many years.
Based on my experience and knowledge, I agree with Dr. Perry’s point of view and argue
that the identified “barrier” the Chinese international students encounter is related to the
culture they grew up with and the education system they went through in China. In
addition, I think that international students from other Asian countries would encounter
similar barriers. Dr. Perry also described in detail how ELI teachers try to help the
international students with the transition in their teaching practice. She shared:
Language programs are bridges, and language teachers know how to walk the
students across those bridges. Typically, language teachers are very encouraging,
positive, and very friendly with the students, which is the way to set them at ease.
Language teachers are always trying to raise the students’ level of confidence in
using English in the classroom. We have crafted in the curriculum assignments
that are the types of assignments that build up to the encounter in university
classrooms, but shorter and smaller so that they can do the assignment and receive
feedback right away and do the assignment again, incorporating the feedback for
a similar assignment. They get more practice with things as they are taught more
about it. So it becomes automatic to them to get involved in class discussion, to
learn how to disagree politely or ask for clarification politely. All the practice
helps impact their ability to learn the language. In this way, the language teachers
enhance the students’ psychological feeling of safety and their emotional
reactions to using a foreign language.
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The student participants further stated that the ELI program not only improved
their English proficiency, but also helped with their academic, cultural, and social
adjustment to the U.S. education system and American society. In addition to the
academic support, the student participants indicated that the extracurricular activities and
social events ELI offered were helpful for building friendships and sharing cultural
background with domestic students and other international students.
Academic Challenges and the Impact of the Prerequisite Classes
The prerequisite component was created to help the pathway students fulfill
graduate admission requirements. Otherwise, they would not be able to qualify for
graduate admission in the U.S. due to the federal government’s policy change on
conditional admission in 2016. The prerequisite courses also serve as stepping-stones to
help the students transition to graduate studies.
Phillip shared his experience in transitioning from ELI classes to prerequisite
classes:
It would be difficult for me to transition from the English Language Institute
directly to graduate studies without taking prerequisite courses in the pathway
program. The pathway program allowed me to select one university-level credit-
bearing course in the first semester, which was very good for me in consideration
of my poor English. Credit-bearing courses were a big challenge for me at the
beginning. It would be impossible for me to take three credit-bearing courses per
semester without participating in the pathway program. The pathway program
provided me a buffer zone in which I was able to know how many credit-bearing
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courses I could handle in consideration of my language proficiency and academic
ability.
Sophie is currently enrolled in a civil engineering master’s degree program at
USC, and she shared:
The credit-bearing prerequisite courses not only helped me get into the civil
engineering master’s degree program at USC, but also helped me a lot in my
current studies. I learned how to use civil engineering terminology in English
properly and learned how the civil engineering industry developed in America.
Additionally, I had a preliminary understanding of the American classroom
culture through group discussions and group projects. All these activities have
also improved my English speaking skills and teamwork spirit.
Prof. Johnson shared her point of view in terms of how the pathway program
prerequisite classes helped the student in his class:
I believe the pathway program helped the student in my class significantly with
his writing skills. Of course, this might very much depend on the nature of the
course that the students are enrolled in. In the case of my class, there were several
group assignments that the student needed to work in a team with other students
(mainly local, and native English speaking), and each student in the team needed
to have various writing contributions; this was significant especially in the project
assignment of the course, as it required a comprehensive report. So not only each
student needed to develop his/her own portion of the project report, but also they
could also see their teammates’ work and improve their part accordingly. I had
the pleasure to have a pathway student in my classes in two consecutive semesters,
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and the language-related progress (in writing and speaking) made by the student
over the two semesters was outstanding.
During the interviews, other professors commented on their experience in helping
improve and enhance the pathway students’ presentation skills and critical thinking skills.
All the university administrators who were selected for the interviews responded
positively to the structure of the pathway program. From the perspective of domestic
students, having pathway students take classes side by side with them provided the
opportunity for them to learn more about international students, which enhanced their
cultural awareness and global competency.
Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of Confucianism on Their Academic
Performance
Previous literature has concluded that Chinese education and learning traditions
have been tremendously influenced by Confucianism (Wang, 2006). In general, Chinese
students’ communication style has been influenced by Confucian ideology that makes
their classroom communicative norm different from other cultural identities (Shi, 2011).
The findings from the interviews were consistent and in alignment with the literature
review, and the results also enhanced the conceptual framework of this study. During the
focus group interview, Phillip reinforced his perception and joked about his carrying the
Confucian philosophy with him to the U.S. classroom when he commented on his
behavior in the group discussion:
When I got involved in the group work, sometimes I felt embarrassed to express
myself before my classmates. Deep in my mind, I think I am influenced by
Confucius’ philosophy of the golden mean. In my opinion, golden mean is
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neither left nor right, neither progressive nor conservative. I do not want to be
either at the top of the class or at the bottom of the class. I prefer to be
somewhere in the middle. In the group discussion, I have never been the first
person to speak out. But I managed to participate to some degree.
Elements of critical thinking pose difficulties for students who are steeped in the
Chinese education system, which is heavily influenced by Confucianism, particularly on
hierarchy and obedience (Li, 2012). It is important and interesting to notice that, when
the term “critical thinking” is translated into Chinese, it is normally translated as
“criticizing thinking.” That also explains why John’s definition of critical thinking is to
challenge the authorities.
The Chinese international students’ communicative style is also influenced by
Confucian ideology of “keeping face.” With the strong sense of face protection, Chinese
students’ verbal expression becomes an extension of their public image rather than words
and ideas (Shi, 2011). Chinese international students are very conscious about keeping
their “face,” and they consider it a shame to make a mistake in class. This explains the
phenomenon of why Chinese international students are viewed as inactive participants in
class. While they are “composing” the right answer for the question, their American
classmates have already spoken out the answer, and the professor has moved on to the
next question. In association with face culture, modesty and humility are other key
cultural components in Confucian cultural heritage (Zhang, 2013). During the interviews,
some participants shared that, many times, they knew the answers, but they preferred not
to speak out since they did not want their classmates to think that they were showing off.
When I asked the student participants whether they would point out in class if their
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professor made a mistake, all of them answered, “No.” The students indicated that they
would prefer to talk to the professor or email the professor after class because they
wanted to “save face” for the professor.
The Chinese international students’ perceptions of the impact of Confucianism on
their communicative performance in the classroom correlate with the previous literature
review. The findings also enhanced the conceptual framework for this study in terms of
the impact of Confucianism on Chinese students’ learning. In summary, Chinese
students grew up in the Chinese culture and were educated by the Chinese education
system before going abroad. Both Chinese culture and the Chinese education system are
greatly influenced by Confucianism. Therefore, it is of critical importance for faculty
members, researchers, and practitioners to understand the transitional challenges Chinese
international students encounter in the U.S. higher education system.
Students’ Perceptions of the Differences between American and Chinese Education
Systems and the Impact on Their Academic Studies in the U.S.
The differences between the American and Chinese education systems have been
discussed as a popular topic. Studies from Tucker (2011), Zhang (2013), and Heng (2016)
all stated that the differences between the two systems have an impact on Chinese
students’ academic performances in the U.S. Chinese international students are better
positioned to compare the two systems and potentially help address the differences, as
they have had first-hand experience with both education systems (Ma, 2020). The
student participants in my study received their undergraduate education in China, and
some of the participants were currently enrolled in American graduate programs. Two of
the participants had finished their graduate studies in the U.S. Based on the analysis of
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data collected from both individual and focus-group interviews, I presented their
perceptions of the differences of the two systems and the impact of the differences on
their academic studies in the U.S. with the focus on teaching and learning.
Zhang (2013) pointed out that China and the U.S. have different social and
cultural contexts. As a result, people in these two countries treat and educate their
children in different ways. Shi (2011) summarized that, in the American learning
paradigm, a large portion of learning was based upon a student’s active participation and
involvement in and out of class activities. In China, teaching manifests itself in a more
formal and detailed way, focusing on the contents from the beginning to the end, with
fixed answers given by the teacher (Shi, 2011). Some participants commented on the
differences in the grading system and the student and professor relationship. Vinson
finished his graduate studies in the U.S. and obtained his master’s degree from one of the
campuses in the California State University system, and this is how he compared the two
systems:
I think the Chinese education system puts more focus on the accumulation and
instillment of knowledge. The Chinese education system focuses on cultivating
students’ respect for knowledge and authority. The system also emphasizes the
importance of knowledge inheritance and its structure, while the American
education system puts more focus on the students' ability to apply what they learn,
including critical thinking. If you are a product of the Chinese education system,
you will have confidence in taking exams but have difficulty in the group project
and teamwork.
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Vinson also made a comparison of the effort both Chinese and Indian students spend on
their home assignments with that of American students:
Chinese and Indian students study harder than students from other countries.
They spend a lot of time and effort on the homework assigned by their professors.
American students are more active in class but spare less effort after class. I think
such a phenomenon has something to do with the way the American professors
teach. As American students are active in class, professors will give them extra
credit and high scores for their class participation. Sometimes, I found it difficult
to participate in class discussion since I do not understand the Americans’ point of
view.
Sylvie was currently in her second year of graduate studies at USC in applied
economics. She shared her perceptions of the differences of the two systems:
To my understanding, the difference between Chinese and American teaching
methodologies is a process of transferring from passive learning to active learning.
Students have more opportunities for class participation in the American
universities than in Chinese university classrooms. In Chinese universities,
professors impart knowledge, and students receive it. It is also called “spoon-
feeding.” However, the professors in the American universities impart knowledge,
and at the same time, while receiving the knowledge, students are expected to
provide their feedback to professors. It is a reciprocal process.
The differences in the grading system between Chinese and American education
has also posed a challenge during the transition. Susie stated:
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In Chinese universities, learning mainly means mid-terms and finals. For instance,
mid-terms account for 30% and finals 60% of the grades, or mid-terms 20% and
finals 80%. The mid-term exam and the final exam determine the final grade.
However, in the American universities, the final grades are based on many types
of exams and projects, and these assignments and projects are spread out
throughout the whole semester. For instance, homework accounts for 20%,
projects 20%, mid-terms 20%, finals 30%, and class participation 10% of the final
grade. This kind of grading structure motivates us to study hard from the
beginning to the end of the entire semester in order to perform well academically,
while in China, we normally cram for exams.
Jason added his point of view:
Some of my professors do not require exams, and they asked us to do projects
instead. These projects are closely related to the actual application of the
knowledge we learned, which is very helpful for students in job hunting. I have
also found that most of the employers do not ask for your GPA or how well you
performed academically. They are more focused on what experience you have or
what projects you have done. Between these two different education systems, I
prefer the American education system.
Academic writing has been identified as one of the major challenges for Chinese
international students (Zhang & Zhou, 2010). It is worth mentioning that the APA
writing style is something that the Chinese international students had never heard of
before coming to the U.S. As the advisor of the Chinese Students and Scholars
Association (CSSA), I have been involved in a case of a master’s-degree-seeking Chinese
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international student being suspended from one of the CSU institutions due to an
academic integrity issue. In actuality, the problem was that she failed to follow the APA
style in her citations.
The Impact of NCEE on Chinese Students’ Academic Performance
Ma (2020) pointed out that it is imperative to understand the Gaokao—the
National College Entrance Exam (NCEE)—if you want to understand the Chinese
education system. Ma (2020) further explained that the Chinese Gaokao, with its
relentless nature, cultivates endurance and strong study habits in students. The student
participants’ perception of the impact of NCEE on their learning supported and enhanced
the conceptual framework of the study.
Phillip shared his views of the exam-driven Chinese education system:
The education in China is exam oriented. The purpose of exam-oriented
education is talent selection. There are limited education resources available to
such a large population in China. Therefore, there is no better alternative other
than exam-oriented education for selecting qualified candidates to receive higher
education. Therefore, Gaokao is a fair way for talent selection in China.
However, an exam-oriented education will often not be applicable to future work
after graduation. Exam-oriented education can help students to accumulate
knowledge but will not help them improve their communication skills or problem-
solving ability.
Sophie added her point of view of the Gaokao as well as the differences of the
two education systems:
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I think the Chinese precollege education laid a solid foundation for us, especially
in math and science. However, we were treated as items on the production line
under the pressure of Gaokao. In China, you are considered a good student if you
can get high scores, while in the American education system, being book smart is
not enough. Students are evaluated on their participation in class discussions,
communication skills, critical thinking abilities, and more.
John related the exam-driven education system with the concept of ranking and
shared his personal opinion of the two education systems:
China is an exam-driven education system due to the impact of Confucianism.
Ranking is considered very important in China. When I was a student in China, I
studied hard to get a good ranking in my class since that was what my parents
cared about. The Chinese institution also cares about their ranking in the system.
In the American education system, students and professors are focused on seeking
the truth of knowledge and application of knowledge. I like the latter one better.
In summary, the findings from the interviews are consistent with the literature
review, and the findings showed that the differences between the two education systems
have great impact on Chinese students’ academic studies in the U.S. The American
education system is student-centered, and knowledge acquisition is through class
discussion and class activities. In terms of Chinese international students’ inactive
behavior in classroom activities, the students’ different cultural background and their lack
of background knowledge of the host country played a role in that behavior. The Chinese
education system is focused on knowledge construction and accumulation. The results
from the interviews showed that the American education system also puts emphasis on
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the application of knowledge and focused on cultivating students’ innovation and critical
thinking abilities. Some participants claimed that it is a good combination to have
undergraduate studies in China and graduate studies in the U.S. since the Chinese
education system equips the students with a solid base of knowledge, while the American
education system develops student’ application skills.
Wilson provided a beautiful summary of the differences of the two education
systems:
I think there are advantages in both American and Chinese education systems. I
do not think there exists the best education system in the world. It is the best
education system that fits its country the best. Although many people do not like
the Chinese education system, I personally hold that the Chinese education system
is the best fit for the actual situation of the development of the country. There
may be some changes in the education system when the country develops to a
certain level. I personally think the K-12 education in China is better than that in
the United States. However, the U.S. higher education system is more advanced
than China.
Sophia compared the two education systems based on her personal experience
from the pathway program:
Comparing the American and Chinese education system, I prefer the American
system. I enjoy KU’s learn-by-doing philosophy. The pathway program also
improved my communication skills and enhanced my self-confidence. My
communication skills will certainly help in my future job hunting since I can
better express myself. Plus, the field project provided me hands-on experience in
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terms of my working experience. I can tell my future employer what I can do
instead of what I learned in college. Some of my classmates in China have to be
re-educated after they find jobs since they cannot apply their knowledge to work.
The Impact of the One-child Policy on Chinese Students’ Academic and Social Life in
the U.S.
According to this study, China’s one-child policy had limited impact on these
Chinese international students’ academic and social life in the U.S. Among the 10
Chinese international student participants for this study, eight of them are the only child
in their families. The findings of this study revealed that the students made their own
decision to study abroad, and their parents did not impose any pressure or stress on them
with high expectations. The result does not correlate with the findings of past literature
since most of the research deals with the population of Chinese undergraduate students.
It is also worth mentioning that the role Chinese parents play in their children’s study-
abroad decision is also related to their own educational background and career success.
Most of the parents of the student participants are educators, government officials, and
business CEOs. Phillip’s father is the vice president of a research university in China.
The study showed that the parents of these Chinese student participants are
devoted to their education. The success of their parents also explains why the student
participants did not indicate any financial difficulties during studies in the U.S. higher
education system, including private universities such as USC. From the approach of the
institution, the full-paid Chinese international students have made great contributions to
American colleges and universities as a revenue-generating stream.
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Implications
This case study investigated the processes and procedures of the pathway program
and explored key factors that impact the students’ ability to cope with the identified
challenges. Based on the findings of the qualitative study, implications for institutions
and pathway programs and incoming students were generated.
Implications for Institutions
U.S. institutions should work on developing more opportunities and create
more activities for international students and domestic students to interact and
bond. Institutions should include international students in campus
conversations on equity and inclusion. International-student-related
departments and other student service units on campus should collaborate and
cooperate more extensively with each other in order to provide better service
to international students to foster a sense of belonging among international
students.
U.S. students, faculty members, and university administrators who work with
Chinese international students should be encouraged to develop a deeper
understanding of Chinese students’ unique cultural and educational
background, especially their special challenges and needs, so that they can
better assist them during the transition. U.S. universities should set up
institutionalized programs to intentionally connect international students with
domestic students. U.S. institutions also need to set up workshops to train
faculty members on how to best handle their classrooms with Chinese
international students.
146
Institutional support is needed to further develop and enhance the pathway
program so that it will provide additional services to international students to
ensure their success in graduate studies in U.S. higher education institutions.
Chinese students, who are minority students themselves, often hold biases
against other minorities (Ma, 2020). The diversity and race education such as
Black Lives Matter (BLM) should be built into the curriculum. All students
should be required to take courses in categories that include global
engagement, race, power, and privilege.
Implications for the Pathway Program
According to the results of the study, academic advising to the pathway
students should be enhanced. There should be more closely aligned and
coordinated efforts between advising provided by the ELI advisors and
academic department advisors. Peer advisors could be arranged for the
pathway students.
The ELI placement test and placement structure after the test should be
reevaluated. The study also revealed that the balance of ELI classes and
academic credit-bearing prerequisite classes should be further examined to
make sure that structure meets the needs of each individual student.
The pathway program could provide more social activities for the pathway
students to make friends with other international students and domestic
students. The pathway program could host cultural events to celebrate the
traditional American holidays as well as the holidays of pathway students’
own cultures. Through these kinds of interactions, international and domestic
147
students can enhance their cultural awareness and build friendships at the
same time.
Implications for Incoming Chinese International Students
The findings of this study advised that Chinese international students should
be open minded and take the initiative to make friends with other international
students and local students. In this way, they can create a sense of belonging.
They should be proactive in reaching out to professors, advisors, and their
classmates for help if needed.
The study also suggested that international students should take an active role
in the campus community and participate in student clubs such as the Chinese
Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) and the Multi-cultural Center.
They should take advantage of the student services the institution offers, such
as tutoring services and services offered by the writing center.
Chinese international students should expand out of their circle of Chinese
friends and get involved in the host country culture and society. This kind of
involvement will help their cultural and social adaptation process.
Recommendations for Further Study
This research is a single case study conducted at a public university, and the
sample size is relatively small since the pathway model is a new practice at the institution.
With a larger population, a quantitative research method could also be applied to verify
the findings of the current study. In addition, this study only focused on the model of
3+1+master’s pathway program. Future studies could be conducted on other program
148
models such as 3+2, 4+1, and 1+1 structures to examine the advantages and
disadvantages of each of the innovative pathway structures.
Secondly, the study was focused on Chinese international students. Future
research could expand the study to include students from other non-English-speaking
countries. In this way, the findings can offer comprehensive information for American
colleges and universities to better serve the needs of all international students.
Thirdly, this study only examined the experiences and perceptions of the students
who participated in the pathway program. Further studies could be conducted to compare
the academic performance of two groups of students, with one group of students being
directly admitted to graduate programs and the other going through the pathway program.
Furthermore, future studies could be conducted at multiple campuses, including research
institutions and private universities. The comparative study might generate more
practical information for students, educators, and institutions.
Finally, with the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, researchers
could investigate innovative online or hybrid pre-master’s pathway programs to enhance
the virtual exchange of international students.
Concluding Statements
This study investigated the key processes and procedures of the pathway program
from the perspectives of Chinese international students who have participated in the
program as well as related faculty members and university administrators. The findings
of the study provided answers to the three research questions.
The pathway program was developed to enhance the needs of the site institution
to increase the enrollment of international students to its graduate programs. The results
149
of the study revealed that the pathway program is highly beneficial in preparing the
Chinese international students for success in their graduate studies at U.S. universities.
The components of the language program and the prerequisite classes served as stepping-
stones for the international students to smoothly transition to graduate studies. The
pathway program structure also provided a safe environment for international students to
navigate the American education system, establish bonds with local students and the local
community, and enhance their confidence not only in their graduate studies, but also in
their careers. In addition, the findings from the participants’ perspectives and insights
benefit U.S. institutions in creating similar pathway programs to serve the needs of
international students. Furthermore, increased enrollment of international students
enriches the diverse learning environment with cultural perspectives. Finally, the
findings of this study benefit not only Chinese international students, but also
international students from other countries in their exploration of and preparation for
graduate study in U.S. universities.
150
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APPENDIX A
CONDITIONAL ADMISSION U.S. REGULATIONS
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APPENDIX B
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Interview Questions for Chinese International Students Who Have Finished the
Pathway Program and are Currently Enrolled in Master’s Programs At KU
Section 1: General questions
What name do you prefer to use as a pseudonym, and what is your major?
What was your undergraduate major in China?
What was your English proficiency level before you joined the pathway program?
Did you feel your level of English language proficiency was sufficient to deal
with everyday life when you came from China?
What are your overall perceptions of the structure of the pathway program?
o Probing question: Was it overall helpful for your graduate study
experience at KU? If yes, in what ways?
Section 2: Language barrier
How did the pathway program help you overcome the language barrier in better
preparing you for graduate studies?
o Probing question 1: How did KU’s language program help prepare you for
your graduate studies? Please think about in-class activities and out-of-
class assignments.
o Probing question 2: What were the areas where the language program
failed to prepare you for your graduate studies?
o Probing question 3: What were the areas you found particularly helpful in
your current graduate studies?
Section 3: Academic challenges
How did the pathway program prepare you to handle academic challenges?
o Probing question 1: Please think about and comment on your experience
with the transition to American classroom culture.
o Probing question 2: Please think about and comment on your experience
with group work.
o Probing question 3: Please think about and comment on your experience
with academic writing.
o Probing question 4: Please think about and comment on your experience
with critical thinking skills.
o Probing question 5: Among these four areas of academic challenges, what
were the areas where the pathway program was helpful in your graduate
studies? What were the areas where the pathway program least prepared
you for your graduate studies?
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Section 4: Cultural, social, and psychological adjustment
How did the pathway program prepare you to handle cultural, social, and
psychological challenges?
o Probing question 1: Did you experience any cultural, social, or
psychological stress during the pathway year? Was the pathway program
helpful in your efforts to cope with the challenges? If yes, how?
o Probing question 2: How did you learn about adjusting to cultural and
social life in America?
o Does the one-child policy have any impact on your study in the U.S.? If
yes, please comment.
Section 5: What is your perception of the prerequisite courses?
o Probing question 1: Were the prerequisite courses/credit-bearing classes
you took in the pathway program helpful to you in preparing for your
graduate studies? If yes, in what ways? If not, please also comment.
o Probing question 2: How many credits were you able to transfer to your
graduate program from the pathway program?
Section 6: From your perspective, what are the fundamental differences between the
Chinese and U.S. educational systems?
o Probing question 1: How did Confucianism impact your study in the U.S.?
o Probing question 2: When moving from the test-based Chinese education
system to the U.S. education system, which area has been the most
challenging to you?
o Probing question 3: How do you compare the two educational systems?
Section 7: Suggestions for improvement of the pathway program
From your perspective, what are the areas of the pathway program structure that
could be improved?
What suggestions do you have that you feel would be helpful for incoming
Chinese international students in future pathway programs at KU?
Please feel free to share any other thoughts on this topic.
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Interview Questions for Faculty Members Who Have the Pathway Students in
Their Programs
Section 1: General questions
Which college do you work at? What do you teach at the college? How long have
you worked at KU?
Can you please share your involvement experience with the pathway program?
What are your overall perceptions of the structure of the pathway program in
terms of your working experience with the students who have been through the
pathway program?
Section 2: Language barrier
Do you think the pathway program helped prepare the students in your program to
overcome the language barrier for their graduate studies? If yes, in which area do
you feel that the program helped the students the most? What are the areas that
you think were still problematic?
Section 3: Academic challenges
Do you think the pathway program helped prepare the students in your program to
handle the following academic challenges?
o Transition to American classroom culture
o Group work
o Academic writing
o Critical thinking skills
If yes, please comment on the students’ academic performance. If not, please also
comment.
Section 4: Cultural, social, and psychological adjustment
Do you think the pathway program helped prepare the students in your program to
handle cultural, social, and psychological challenges? If yes, please comment.
What are the areas that you think are still problematic?
Section 5: Suggestions for improvement of the pathway program
From your perspective as a faculty member, what are the areas where the pathway
program structure could be improved?
Please feel free to share other thoughts on this topic
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Interview Questions for University Administrators Who Have Been Involved in
the Pathway Program
Section 1: General questions
What is your administrative title? How long have you worked at KU?
Can you please share your involvement experience with the pathway program?
What are your overall perceptions of the structure of the pathway program?
Section 2: Language barrier
Do you think the pathway program helped prepare the students to overcome the
language barrier for their graduate studies? If yes, in which area do you feel that
the program helped the students the most?
Section 3: Academic challenges
Do you think the pathway program helped prepare the students to handle the
following academic challenges?
o Transition to American classroom culture
o Group work
o Academic writing
o Critical thinking skills
If yes, please comment on the students’ academic performance. If not, please also
comment.
Section 4: Cultural, social, and psychological adjustment
Do you think the pathway program helped prepare the students to handle cultural,
social, and psychological challenges? If yes, please comment. What are the areas
that you think are still problematic?
Section 5: Suggestions for improvement of the pathway program
From your perspective as a university administrator, what are the areas where the
pathway program structure could be improved?
Please feel free to share other thoughts on this topic.
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Interviews Questions for Focus Group, the Selected Chinese International Students
Ten selected Chinese international students will participate in the focus group. Each
participant will be given a specific number for identification purposes. Thus, participants
will identify themselves only using the designated number assigned to them. Participants
will be asked the following questions:
Section 1: Questions about the COVID-19 pandemic
How are you doing during the pandemic crisis academically and psychologically?
Do you think the institution provided adequate services to you in terms of helping
you cope with the challenges?
If an unexpected crisis should happen again, what kind of advice can you provide
to your institution, the faculty members, as well as future Chinese international
students?
Has COVID-19 changed your study plan and career goal?
Section 2: General questions
Why did you choose to study in the U.S.?
What is your aspiration for pursuing a master’s degree in the U.S.?
How did you learn about Western culture while in your country?
What sort of English language preparation did you have before coming to the U.S.?
What do you advise future Chinese international students in terms of English
preparation before arrival?
Do you have American friends? (If yes, how did you make the friends? If not,
what are the barriers to making American friends?) What has helped you to get to
know the American people/American society?
What is your definition of critical thinking skills? Can you comment on your
communication and critical thinking skills?
As you have experienced both the Chinese and American educational systems, in
what respects do you think your prior schooling in China helped or hurt you in
your education in the U.S.?
What are the fundamental differences between the U.S. and Chinese education
systems?
How do you define success? What motivates you to be successful in your future
academic life and career?
Section 3: Questions about the pathway program
How did you learn about the pathway program?
What challenged you most during the pathway program? How did you cope with
the challenges?
How would you describe the pathway program in terms of meeting your
expectations? Or not meeting your expectations?
What resources were available to you, or people who you reached out to for
guidance and preparing yourself for the master’s degree program? (For probing, I
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will mention international student services, friends, guidance counselors,
academic advisors, and other related university services.)
Who or what has influenced your educational experiences in the pathway program?
How would you describe their influence?
In what areas would you say that the pathway program may need to improve?
What suggestions do you have that you feel would be helpful for incoming
international students to the pathway program?
What suggestions do you have for the institution in terms of better serving the
needs of the pathway students?
Do you have any suggestions for faculty members who are involved in the
pathway program?
