Bridging barriers: An explorative case study of how culture influences learning and development in international education
Bibliographic record
Abstract
International education is a strategic priority for Canadian post-secondary institutions and a pillar of Canada’s immigration and economic strategy (Government of Canada, 2019). However, most international students come from countries with different cultural traditions and dimensions than norms commonly practiced in Canada. Educators of multicultural cohorts find that even well-prepared lessons often fail to engage all students and traditional methods of instruction seem to be ineffective within culturally diverse student groups, in which students have different approaches to learning (De Vita, 2001). Many international students experience barriers adjusting to Canadian teaching styles, methods of instruction and assessments, and transitioning from education to employment. Lack of Canadian work experience, language proficiency, cultural understanding, and soft skills, are commonly cited concerns expressed by employers (Drewery, Pretti, & Church., 2020; Grant, M. 2016; Johnston et al, 2021; Jackson & Pham, 2022). Applying Geert Hofstede’s (1984) framework of cultural dimensions to a qualitative case study methodology, this research explores how culture affects learning and development in international education. Guiding research questions examined: (1) how students come to discover cultural differences, transition, and adapt to international education, and (2) how instructors and support staff recognize, and support, cultural differences and barriers students experience in education and work-integrated learning. Eligible participants included international students registered at a Central Canadian Polytechnic and support staff working directly with international students. Thematic analysis identified four primary themes students experience within international education, (1) reduced power distance, (2) increased individualism, (3) the importance of finding friends and social support, and (4) self-efficacy in English language learning. Behavioural norms are both cultural and colonial constructs and international students, instructors, support staff, and managers understand, exemplify, and evaluate learning and development through established cultural conditioning. The consistency of data illustrates numerous commonalities and shared experiences which led to the postulation of the Axis of Intercultural Discovery and Development in International Education. Applying educational strategies that support recognizing and developing intercultural skills assists international students to identify, adapt, and apply learning strategies and work skills in accordance with Canadian cultural norms and employer expectations.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.012 | 0.015 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.021 | 0.009 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.006 | 0.006 |
| Open science | 0.005 | 0.010 |
| Research integrity | 0.004 | 0.006 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".