The difference between teaching and learning styles across cultures and

the opportunities this presents

Dr S. Devlin

Senior Lecturer and Teaching Fellow

School of Computing and Technology

Session Goals

To introduce you to some different, culturally embedded, styles of T & L

To encourage you to think about what are your goals and values as a teacher, and whether these might be different to those of teachers from other cultures

To contextualise these goals and values according to who your students are and what sort of learning situation/environment you and your institution provide for them

Questions

How do you currently teach your modules? How do you ‘manage your classroom’? Is your method of LTA effective for all your

students? How and when do you measure your

effectiveness? (formative v summative?) How can you aim for greater effectiveness?

How do you currently teach?

How do you frame your lesson? Are students involved in this process?

How do you pace your lessons? What factors affect your pacing decisions? Do you identify particular groups of learners as your pace makers? Which learners?

How does the physical environment affect the way you teach, e.g. with regard to the above?

How do you make use of space, body language and your voice?

Classroom Management

i.e. enabling a situation in which effective learning can occur

The best learning environment is one which is friendly, interactive and thereby encourages risk-taking i.e. participation (Wilson 96, Frazer 87)

Management problems may arise “due to classroom expectations from the students’ culture being unfulfilled in the host (ESL) culture” (Crookes, 2003:142)

Also due to tasks being too long/complex to complete within the classroom, by certain groups of students.

…

Teaching StyleQuestion 15: Do you feel the way you teach is conducive to

learning for Chinese Students?

52%

6%

29%

10%3%

Yes No Don't Know Cater For All No Answer

LTA GoalsQuestion 19: Do you believe that in designing your

module your goal was:

16.129%0.000%

77.419%

3.226% 3.226%

subjectcontentoriented

learningprocessoriented

both can't say n/a

Perception is that changesneeded mainly in monitoring and evaluation – not LTA

Question 4: If yes to Q3. What do you think these problems are:

0123456789

You have toprepare your

teachingmaterials in adifferent way

You have topresent yourteaching in adifferent way

You have towrite

assessmentsdifferently

You have tomark

assessmentsdifferently

You have toask different

kinds offeedbackquestions

You don’t getmeaningfulfeedback

Other

The Chinese TLA Environment

HE is an elite, pyramidal system - state provision for 7% of

eligible students, and is therefore very competitive

Competitive exam based nature of system = emphasis on rote

learning

Rote learning does not necessarily mean surface learning Very formal, didactic system

Exams are factual content based not essay-based

Mostly, assessment is individual - virtually no peer- group work

Strong peer (class mate) relationships

Personalization of teacher-student relationship outside the

classroom.

What do Chinese Students find difficult to adapt to?

Time management Being an independent learner Low levels of tutor contact time Limited number of attempts at a module Assessment regime The pass mark being 40% Their marks being a lot lower than in China Co-operation not competition (group work) Essay-writing, referencing, critical argument Loose peer relationship structures Participation – they are used to right/wrong, and teacher selects

a student Which parts of a lecture to note down/

understanding the discourse structure

Discourse Structure of lectures

We give:– Situation– Problem– Solution– evaluation

ESL students are used to:– Situation– What to do– A different situation– What to do– Etc.

i.e. less elaboration and evaluation

(From Tauroza & Allison, in Flowerdew 1994)

Writing

Students may have never written essays/reports before

They will be competent writers in their L1 but their L1 style/culture of writing may not be familiar to or valued by their L2 subject tutors– Chinese written arguments are implicit not explicit and

inductive not deductive. Students writing in this style will not make their points so explicitly – they expect the reader/teacher to surmise many underlying points e.g. in ‘cause-effect’ type arguments they will expect that you will grasp the cause just by reading the effect

Discourse structure is different – organisation, frequent headings rather than cohesive devices to signal topic change = ‘choppy’ to read

Kolb’s theory of learning styles

1. Concrete Experience2. Active Experimentation3. Reflective Observation4. Abstract Conceptualisation– Accommodators (1 & 2)

• Like active participation & independent study– Assimilators (3 & 4)

• Want the right answer, like organised lectures & demos

– Divergers (1 & 3)• Need to understand relevance. Like interactive

learning– Convergers (2 & 4)

• Need relevance and detailed presentation of info, work systematically but require tutor to be flexible

Preference for learning study @ Sunderland Visual

– books, whiteboard, don’t need oral explanations, can learn alone. Auditory

– hearing auditory explanations & reading aloud oneself, tapes, discussions, lectures.

Kinaesthetic– physical experience e.g role play, participation, field trips, combined

stimuli. Tactile

– hands on e.g. experiments, handling models/equipment. Writing down dictated instructions.

Group– studying with at least one other person, aids remembering

Individual– better understand, remember, progress when learn alone.

Major = best way to learnMinor = can do fairly successfullyNegligible = hard to learn that way

British – Major = Kinaesthetic– Minor = All others– Lowest mean = Group

Chinese– Major = Tactile, Kinaesthetic, Group– Minor = All others– Lowest mean = Individual

Japanese– Major = Auditory, Kinaesthetic– Minor = All others– Lowest mean = Individual

Think about your own classes. Is there a conflict between the stated preferences and your learning situation?

Cultural influences on work-related values Power Distance – autocracy vs equal & interdependent Individualism/collectivism – actions for benefit of self or group Uncertainty Avoidance – risk taking, scaffolding Masculinity/Femininity – clear division or overlap of gender roles Long/short term orientation – delayed gratification of social,

material needs etc, encompasses respect for tradition

(Hofstede,1980)

– Can you think of any examples of differences in behaviour among people, groups, or institutions which differ in their nationalities but are otherwise comparable?

– Can you describe any incidents of cultural conflict: differences in mental/behavioural attributes of people from different national backgrounds which were misinterpreted by at least one of the actors and led to difficulties in productive collaboration?

– Can you describe any cases of cultural synergy: the successful overcoming of differences in mental/behavioural attributes due to different national backgrounds, or even the use of these attributes as a source of additional strength in a multicultural team?

Implications for LTA: how can we aim for greater effectiveness?

There are as many ways to teach as there are are to learn

People generally do not stick to one style of learning

By implementing a range you can accommodate more students

BUT, you have to create a good learning environment and attempt to understand your students

Can we change the way an ES/FL student thinks – should we even try? One viewpoint is that any attempt will fail

“because participants are too constrained by the existence of well-established participation structures and interactional routines ingrained and definitional of the lesson as they jointly construe it” (Coleman, 1996)

Another is that we have too many different cultures to adapt to them all.

We need to support students’ attempts to assimilate while also valuing the cultural identity they hold. They all have strengths – we should build on them.

Creating a supportive environment

“It is almost impossible to predict what [a teacher] can draw out from the students before the teaching takes place, because what can be drawn out is entirely dependent on the context”.

“Showing interest in the students, making sure that the students know each other and encouraging each class to develop its own atmosphere are important factors They will help students feel comfortable in class and personalise the place where their learning occurs.” (Crookes, 2003:168).

Icebreaking: ensuring students know each other’s names; classroom management. (Only 13% of staff in my study used icebreakers in subject classes)

Cooperative learning: structured groups which compete for grades = supportive, social groups

QUESTION: What do you do to foster good inter-student relationships in your classes?

When preparing materials: Use clear, unambiguous and uncomplicated

language Avoid use of colloquialisms, jargon (unless subject

specific), slang, acronyms (unless subject specific), or locally specific text references

Assumptions of background knowledge should acknowledge that not all readers have the same cultural experiences

Assumptions of readability level should allow for English not being the reader’s first language

When lecturing: Avoid vague language, verbal ‘mazes’, and overly

long utterances

Assessment Introduce low risk assessment – allow students time

to learn what you want from them – and give regular feedback

You can increase a student’s self-perception and therefore motivation by “allowing a gradual approximation to a particular level of work through repeated revision of initially ungraded coursework” (Crooks, 2003:137)

Introduce more practical assessments or a wider range

Why not require only one piece of academically rigid written work, perhaps the project, rather than being obsessive about it in all modules?

Do you penalise students for poor English in their assessments? Is this made clear in the rubric?

Good Practice Acknowledge and respect culturally diverse approaches to

learning Make use of multiple media and variety of activity thus

catering for different types of learners Support students who are having to adopt new

approaches – structured approach at personal tutorial or programme level, module level, school level, International Student Forum

Explain why you are asking students to do certain tasks in certain ways, and what will be the outcomes (convergers & divergers need relevancy!)

Provide opportunities for all students to reflect on and express their own sources of cultural influence, as well as the knowledge and experience they bring to the educational environment – don’t assume they don’t have anything to participate if they don’t volunteer

Create an open and inclusive approach to learning from others, and valuing the diversity of perspectives offered in group learning contexts

More Good Practice Give all students the opportunity and support to improve their knowledge

of and capacity to interact with people from diverse cultural backgrounds (through personal intervention or university-wide/school-wide initiatives e.g. mentoring module, cultural communication workshops, study skills modules).

Always make clear where assessment marks come from – if there are marks for English ability you should clearly say so

Provide opportunities for practice in elements of assessment that students may be unfamiliar with: critical analysis, discursive writing etc

Be careful with group work: allocate group membership that is integrative

Don’t be critical/give negative feedback in front of other students – save face

Direct your questions at named students – many cultures wait to be picked out by the teacher.

Involve international students – they will have different perspectives.

Good Practice Don’t expect academic writing from students who have not had

the opportunity to improve their English from their point of entry into the system.

Flowerdew (1994:113) suggests “building a lexical base for lecture instruction: generating lists of key terms for students to prepare prior to a lecture”– Useful in computing where not always time to provide

updated notes in advance + allows preparation without representing the whole thing

Structure your teaching so that you can learn from it – as you teach, not after the fact. You can’t know your students until you meet them, but you can have knowledge of possible needs and behaviours.

Introduce question breaks– “Any questions?” at end of lecture really means “That’s all

folks!” Introduce breaks where you ask students to write summaries of

what they’ve learned – practicing writing summaries should help students develop writing skills where they’re using their own words.

Why not try this? Tape one of your classes. Listen to it.

– How inclusive is your teaching? How do you ask questions? How long do you wait for answers, get students to join in, organise students?

Get a colleague to peer review your teaching – (materials as well as observation) – with respect to accessibility by all students

Get to know the EAP staff in your institution Sit in on an EAP class. Invite an EAP teacher to sit in

on one of yours. See if staff development at your institution has cultural

awareness training, and enrol on it Find out about all the cross-university study skills

modules (EAP, Mentoring, Effective Learning etc) that may be valuable for your ES/FL students

Opportunities: a final word

The increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of our students is not a problem. As professionals we are constantly seeking to improve, and we now have the chance to:– Increase our knowledge and draw on experiences

of other cultures during our teaching– Re-evaluate our beliefs as teachers– Give home students experience they wouldn’t get

because they no longer move away from home– Expand our skills - More diverse ways of TLA

which in turn benefits all students, including• Assess learning outcomes in many different ways which

may ensure more fairness across the board? E.g. focus more on practical abilities?

Recommended reading

McNamara, D. & Harris, R. (Eds.) (1997) Overseas students in higher education: issues in teaching & learning. Routledge.

Turner, Y. & Acker, A. (2002) Education in the new China: shaping ideas at work. Ashgate.

Crookes, G. (2003) A Practicum in TESOL: Professional development through teaching practice. CUP.

Flowerdew, J. (1994) Academic Listening: Research Perspectives. CUP