Appreciations of teaching methods across cultures: Lessons learned from international students

I. C. van Duren, T. A. Groen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Although cultural diversity of students is inspiring, teachers need to consider the variation in educational and cultural backgrounds as well as the different characters of the students. One strategy can be the application of student-centred learning. However, this may affect students that have been accustomed to different teaching strategies. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to assess the appreciation of international students for different teaching methods. A survey and a workshop were held to ask students for their experiences with different teaching methods before coming to ITC, their appreciation of student-centred learning, and to determine personal character traits. We found that differences between nationalities were rather small, although there were some suggestions that there are differences in attitude between individuals from different continents. The workshop revealed that teachers should better explain and justify their teaching methods as students do not always understand the reason why certain teaching methods are chosen. Besides, with a mixed group of cultures, teachers must stay aware that students sometimes prefer to give polite rather than honest indications on their learning.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSEFI 48th Annual Conference
Subtitle of host publication Engaging Engineering Education, Proceedings
EditorsJan van der Veen, Natascha van Hattum-Janssen, Hannu-Matti Jarvinen, Tinne de Laet, Ineke Ten Dam
PublisherSociete Europeenne pour la Formation des Ingenieurs (SEFI)
Pages1257-1263
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9782873520205
Publication statusPublished - 20 Sept 2020
Event48th SEFI Annual Conference on Engineering Education, SEFI 2020 - Online, Enschede, Netherlands
Duration: 20 Sept 202024 Sept 2020
Conference number: 48
https://www.sefi2020.eu

Conference

Conference48th SEFI Annual Conference on Engineering Education, SEFI 2020
Abbreviated titleSEFI 2020
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityEnschede
Period20/09/2024/09/20
Internet address

Keywords

  • Character traits
  • Higher education
  • Internationalisation
  • Student centered learning

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