Abstract
With the internationalisation of higher education in Australia, tertiary institutions have become extremely diverse. Despite this diversity, and the implications for teaching and learning, there is insufficient understanding of how students from diverse backgrounds approach their learning, or how they may differ in their learning behaviour from local students. Much of the available evidence tends to be anecdotal and based on generalisations. This paper reports on the results of a study that investigated learning diversity in a sample of 1235 undergraduate and postgraduate, local and international students in the Faculty of Commerce and Economics at the University of New South Wales. The study focuses on cross cultural learning behaviour in relation to international students because of a pressing need to understand the learning styles, needs and expectations of these student who comprise 30 of the Faculty's student population. The main source countries are in Asia and South East Asia. Through implementation of the Study Process Questionnaire, modified for the purposes of this study, significant differences were identified between local and international students on several constructs of their approaches to learning. The results support some of the findings and discussion in the literature on cross cultural learning and refute others. They serve to question some of the anecdotal evidence relating to the learning behaviour of international students, and have implications for teaching, learning, and diversity management in tertiary classrooms. [Author abstract, ed]
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CITATION STYLE
Ramburuth, P. (2001). Cross cultural learning behaviour in higher education : perceptions versus practice. UltiBASE, (May). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/764137998?accountid=9730