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Student Perspectives on the Promising Practices for Teaching International Students
In our 2022 IGI-Global book, Handbook of Research on Teaching Strategies for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students, we explored the promising practices for teaching linguistically and culturally diverse international students by providing the student voice on such topics as culturally responsive education, pedagogy internationalization, teaching about academic integrity, student development and support, and online teaching and learning.
In our foundational work, we conducted a mixed methods study that reviewed the promising teaching practices to teach international students by evaluating the rate of student-satisfaction levels and perceptions of learning (Smith et al., 2019). The research design included a pilot study, an online survey questionnaire, focus-group discussions, and individual interviews. Research participants, with a response rate of 32 percent, were international students who studied at a mid-sized, comprehensive, public university in Canada. The primary research question is: What promising teaching practices yield high levels of international student satisfaction and perceptions of learning?
It was guided by three theories (Figure 1). The primary theory used is Tinto’s (1993) student integration model, which states that students must integrate into both social and academic settings, formally and informally, to create a connection with their postsecondary institution, resulting in them making a commitment to careers and educational goals. The researchers also relied on the work of Darby and Lang (2019), which highlights the connection between instructor personality and learning, and Tran’s (2020) framework for teaching and learning for international students, which underlines the importance of connecting with academic and social experiences.
Figure 1. Identifying Effective Teaching Practices (Smith et al., 2019)
Promising teaching practices received from respondents, that were reported as satisfied or very satisfied, varied from 49.7% to 82.9%. The teaching practices with the highest respondent satisfaction percentages (greater than 70%) fell into eight areas (Figure 2): academic integrity, assessment, assignments, clarifying expectations, communicating outside of the classroom, lecture design and delivery, verbal communications, and visual communications. All the promising teaching practices identified as having high levels of student satisfaction also have medium or high student perception levels of learning.
Figure 2. The Top Eight Promising Teaching Practices (Smith et al., 2019)
In the focus group and interviews (Figure 3), students’ responses were mainly positive. Most of them identified instructors as a key factor in the learning experience. Some characteristics (e.g., humour, encouragement and support, and the value of diverse cultures) were welcomed by students. Many practices were endorsed by students of all educational levels, including a student-centred approach, the use of interactive teaching methods, specific and prompt feedback, the use of practical experiences, a pleasant learning environment, and methods to support additional language learners. Undergraduate participants were interested in academic support, updated curricula, and partially filled slides in advance of class. They also emphasized the importance of experiential and applied learning, and close interaction with instructors. Graduate students spoke of the importance of a free learning environment, multi-modality teaching strategies, the use of digital and visual materials, and emotional, physical, and non-judgmental support from their supervisors. Teaching methods that led to students becoming bored and having heavy workloads, such as grammar-intensive teaching, and the use of the repeating-listening pattern of teaching and learning, along with a lack of encouragement, received dissatisfaction from students. There are some differences between course-based and research-based graduate student responses. Course-based graduate students commented on their course instructors and teaching methods, while research-based graduate students mostly commented on their relationship with supervisors.
Figure 3. Teaching practices that contribute the most to learning (Smith et al., 2019)
This study identified teaching practices that result in both student satisfaction and student perceptions of learning. Many students called for a multi-modal teaching style that combined traditional lectures and interactive methods. They also described some instructor characteristics as important factors in the student experience. Our research study found that the most promising teaching practices identified as having high levels of student satisfaction also have medium/high student perceptions of learning.
We are continuing our work through the creation of an online teaching international students website (https://teachintlstud.com/) that includes a professional development toolkit, resources for teachers, a professional community of practice, and a blog on teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students.
-Clayton Smith and George Zhou
REFERENCES
Darby, F., and Lang, J. (2019). Small teaching online. John Wiley & Sons.
Smith, C., Zhou, G., Potter, M., and Wang, D. (2019). Connecting best practices for teaching linguistically and culturally diverse international students with international student satisfaction and student perceptions of student learning. Advances in Global Education and Research, 3, 252-265. 24
Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. University of Chicago Press.
Tran, L. T. (2020). Teaching and engaging international students: People-to-people connections and people-to-people empathy. Journal of International Students, 10(3), xii-xvii. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v10i3.2005
For more details on this study, see: Smith, C., & Zhou, G. (2022). Teaching culturally and linguistically diverse international students: Connections between promising teaching practices and student satisfaction. In C. Smith & G. Zhou (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching strategies for culturally and linguistically diverse international students (pp. 1-16). IGI-Global.
SEM and Systems Thinking
Christine Kerlin (2008) wrote that “Enrolment management is a comprehensive and coordinated process that enables a college or university to identify enrolment goals that are allied with its mission, its strategic plan, its environment, and its resources, and to reach those goals through effective integration of administrative processes, student services, curriculum planning and market analysis” (p.11). It is a holistic process that plays out across the student learning journey from inquiry to graduation. And its fundamental premise is that we must look at our enrolment health and sustainability throughout the entire student experience as we link, integrate, and extend enrolment management across our campuses.
Each of us has a role in developing and sustaining the SEM ecosystem on campus. We need to engage in shared responsibility. If SEM reflects institutional identity and culture, it becomes an institution-wide strategy owned by each member of the community. This is best achieved through lateral communication where open and frequent communication becomes part of the culture. Hossler, Bean, and associates (1990) said it well when they wrote “The more people involved in decision making, the greater the commitment to implementing the decision” (p. 35).
One of the best ways to do this is to adopt a systems thinking approach. Peter Senge (2006) described systems thinking as “…a discipline for seeing wholeness rather than parts, for seeing patterns of change rather than static snapshots, and for understanding the subtle interconnectedness that gives living systems their unique character” (pp. 68-60). Systems thinking allows SEM practitioners to create a fully embedded enrolment management system that engages campus leadership, faculty, the SEM steering committee, and operational working groups. We have long known that enhanced integration and participation of all key campus stakeholders is a necessary pathway to achieving enrolment management effectiveness on our campuses (Smith, 2000).
If you want to learn more about SEM and systems thinking, consider joining me for the “Systems Thinking is the Key to SEM Success” pre-conference workshop at this year’s SEMM Forum in Toronto on Tuesday, November 7th, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m, at the Mariott Downtown at Toronto Eaton Centre. In this workshop, participants will learn and discuss the basics of systems thinking and how institutions can introduce and support the implementation of an enrolment management ecosystem.
-Clayton Smith
References:
Hossler, D., Bean, J. & Associates (1990). The strategic management of college enrollments. Jossey-Bass.
Kerlin, C. (2008). A community college roadmap for the enrollment management journey. College and University, 83(4), 10-14.
Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. Doubleday. https://www.seeing-everything-in-a-new-way.com/uploads/2/8/5/1/28516163/peter-senge-the-fifth-discipline.pdf
Smith, C. (2000). The perceptions of college and university enrollment managers on the relationship between institutional enrollment performance and enrollment management effectiveness. College and University, 76(1), 15-19. https://doi.org/10.2190/DJCF-Q6MB-35AV-EBW
Pathways to Post-Pandemic Enrolment Growth in Higher Education
Recently, Stefanie Ivan, an enrolment management consultant and Royal Roads associate faculty, and I had an opportunity to facilitate a webinar on “Pathways to Post-Pandemic Enrolment Growth in Higher Education.” This is a follow-up webinar to the one we conducted on post-pandemic higher education enrolment trends (see my earlier blog) in February.
We asked participants to share their most effective strategic enrolment management (SEM) strategy efforts. We then asked them to describe strategies for enrolling and supporting international, Indigenous, and domestic learners. Lastly, we asked them to say a bit about the learner and student support they provided.
When asked to provide one word that describes the effectiveness of current SEM strategy efforts, the most frequently mentioned were disconnected, work-in-progress, and growing. Others identified include developing, unsure, hopeful but slow, disjointed, uninformed, innovative, ongoing, challenging, deepening, modest, and uncertain. It appears that the experience with SEM is quite variable with some saying it is stalled while others report it as in progress or growing.
We then asked about strategies in use to enrol/support specific types of students. Below are some of the comments we heard.
International Students:
- Work closely with our key agents and agent relations management; strengthen relational networks
- Develop a personal connection to the institution and community
- Targeting markets that connect with Canada’s labour shortage areas
- Provide incentives that are appealing to international students
- Optimize admissions processes
- Utilizing a group effort to recruit international students
- Develop personal communications
- Have not returned to accepting international students yet
Indigenous Students:
- Focused listening and working with communities to address their concerns and needs; engaging communities through partnerships
- Developed an Indigenous strategic plan
- Established an Indigenous scholars’ circle
- Increasing and deepening supports
- Going to communities with incentives, application forms, and testing formulas for completion on-site
- We are not currently recruiting Indigenous students
Domestic Students:
- Balancing in-person and online events
- More first-year transition strategies to help retention and success
- Target movement in the job market and second-career students
- Utilize a blended delivery model for full-time and part-time students
- Work toward understanding what students and employers
- Reach out to withdrawn student
- Establish better support services, create more webinars/engagement, partner with community organizations, and follow-up strategies
- Treat in-country ESL/ELL students as domestic prospects
Learner and Student Support:
- Online advising
- Development of non-academic learning communities
- Increased/streamlined communications (phone, email, forums, chatbot, extended hours, weekends)
- 1:1 wellness check-ins
- Alternative accommodations for learners who need it
- A strong return to in-person and social and co-curricular activities
- Entering students into classroom settings right away to determine learning needs
Here is the Video from the webinar.
With so much to do to stabilize and grow enrolments during these post-pandemic days, it will be important to be strategic and there is no better way to do this than through adopting and implementing SEM!
-Clayton Smith
Canadian Post-secondary Enrolment Trends
Recently, Stefanie Ivan, an enrolment management consultant and Royal Roads associate faculty, and I had an opportunity to identify enrolment trends facing Canadian higher educational institutions for a series of Royal Roads University webinars. In this blog, I will share what we found.
Let me describe our methods. First, we reviewed publicly-available data on the web that included provincial data reports as well as those compiled by Higher Education Strategy Associates, Globe and Mail, Statistics Canada, Canadian Undergraduate Survey Consortium, and the Council of Ministers of Education. Second, we collected comments from our social media network and Canadian colleagues. Third, we received input from students currently enrolled in the Royal Roads University Graduate Certificate in Strategic Enrolment Management.
Here are some of the aggregate enrolment trends we uncovered:
- College enrolments are continuing to grow, mostly due to continued international student enrolment growth. Some declines were reported in the Maritimes. Also, there is a reduction in demand for trades programming due to low unemployment.
- University enrolment is mostly stable or recording slight increases/decreases. Some of this is due to part-time student enrolment increases.
- Students may be shifting away from big urban research universities.
- A slight increase in inter-provincial mobility was experienced in the Maritimes.
- Admission conversion rates are becoming less predictable.
- Completion rates have been impacted in some areas.
- There is a growing interest in a gap year for direct-entry high school students.
And here are the student-type enrolment trends we found:
- Indigenous enrolment and completion rates are lower than rates for non-Indigenous persons. But the Indigenous birthrate is still the fastest among the groups monitored.
- International student enrolments continue to lead enrolment growth.
- Attrition rates are still impacted by the pandemic and high school students who did not seem to be prepared for post-secondary studies.
- The enrolment mix continues to change. Visible minorities, learners with disabilities, and learners with mental health issues are increasing.
- Students want to be primarily on campus, with some hybrid instruction.
- Trust building with communities continues to impact some enrolment.
Here is the Video from the webinar.
We will be doing a follow-up webinar to explore the enrolment strategies that institutions are using to address these challenges. Feel free to share any strategies your institution is using or hoping to implement in the next year, and we will include them when we present on this topic for our follow-up webinar on Tuesday, March 21st. Here is a link to sign-up if you want to listen in or (hopefully!) participate in our discussion.
The times are certainly uncertain and changing.
-Clayton Smith
Interrogating Race and Racism in Postsecondary Language Classrooms
Language is power, in the hands of linguistic gatekeepers and the dominant class. From “coloniality of power” (Quijano, 2000) to “coloniality of language” (Veronelli, 2015, p. 113), English has become a “colonial language” (Kachru, 1986, p. 5) and a “language for oppression” (Kachru, 1986, p. 13), replacing the implementation of carrots and sticks in the colonial times in the form of instilling raciolinguistic ideologies of the centre into the periphery. Language is raced and race is languaged (Alim et al., 2016). Racialization, synonymous with racial classification, is a process of “Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race” (Rosa, 2019). The racialization of language subjugates, subordinates, dehumanizes, and others people of colour.
Join us as we interrogate race and racism in postsecondary language classrooms in our upcoming IGI-Global book. We will use the perspective of intersectionality between language and race in higher education classrooms, by problematizing raciolinguistic injustice and hierarchy with the monolingual and monocultural norm as a frame a reference, combating racism, linguicism, native speakerism, and neo-racism, as well as calling for changes, emancipation, and pedagogical paradigm shifts so as to teach English for justice and liberation (Huo, 2020). This book will investigate race and racism in postsecondary language classrooms, how race intersects with language, how power impacts and shapes language teaching and learning, and how hegemony and ideology perpetuate linguistic injustice and discrimination against racially minoritized students. It will examine how racism has created institutional, structural, and individual barriers for language learners in higher education, as well as potential strategies to combat racism, linguicism, and neo-racism.
We ask prospective contributors to submit research-based and data-driven chapters to elicit stories, counter stories, garner racialized experiences and perspectives, and represent resistant voices through multiple research methods, including but not limited to interviewing, observation, discourse analysis, narrative inquiry, ethnography, journaling, focus groups, surveys, and case studies. Here is the Call for Proposals.
Recommended Topics
- Race, racialization, and racism
- Intersectionality between race and language
- Language and identity
- Linguicism and linguistic imperialism
- Monolingualism, native speakerism, and standardization
- Native-non-native dichotomy
- Power, hegemony, and hierarch
- Raciolinguistic ideology
- Neo-racism (i.e., based on nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures)
- Accentism
- Language diversity and linguistic rights
- Raciolinguistic justice and social justice
- Discourses and stories in different geographic and language teaching contexts across the globe
- Narratives and counter-narratives
- Barriers, challenges, and resistance
- Lived experiences
- Multilingualism, plurilngualism, and translanguaging
- Anti-oppressive and decolonizing language policies
- Anti-racist and anti-colonial pedagogies and practices
- Critical pedagogies in global higher education language teaching contexts
- Ethical internationalization in postsecondary language classrooms
This book is intended for scholars, researchers, faculty, instructors, and professionals in English language teaching, higher education, language education, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, educational linguistics, anti-racist education, critical multilingual studies, translingual studies, and those who are interested in the research of race, language, and the area of teaching English cross-culturally and translingually in higher education classrooms, such as faculty and instructors, educational developers who design the inclusive, anti-racist, and anti-colonial curriculum, and administrators and policymakers who oversee academic, especially language programs. The book will also be useful for teacher candidates, non-native English-speaking students, undergraduates, and graduate students in TESOL/ESL, second language acquisition, and higher education programs.
Important Dates
- March 31, 2023: Proposal Submission Deadline
- April 14, 2023: Notification of Acceptance
- May 14, 2023: Full Chapter Submission
- June 27, 2023: Review Results Returned
- August 8, 2023: Final Acceptance Notification
- August 22, 2023: Final Chapter Submission
If you would like to discuss a potential book chapter idea, contact us at raceandlanguage@gmail.com.
-Xiangying Huo (University of Toronto) and Clayton Smith (University of Windsor)
References
Alim, S., Rickford, J. R. & Ball, A. F. (Eds.) (2016). Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas about Race. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Huo, X. Y. (2020). Higher education internationalization and English language instruction: Intersectionality of race and language in Canadian universities. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60599-5
Kachru, B. B. (1986). The alchemy of English: The spread, functions and models of non-native Englishes. Pergamon.
Quijano, A. (2000). The coloniality of power and social classification. Journal of World-Systems Research 6(2), 342-386.
Rosa, J. (2019). Looking like a language, sounding like a race: Raciolinguistic ideologies and the learning of Latinidad. Oxford University Press.
Veronelli, G. A. (2015). Five: The coloniality of language: Race, expressivity, power, and the darker side of modernity. Wagadu: a Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, 13, p. 108-134.
Professor SEM
My higher education career has been all about Strategic Enrolment Management or SEM. From the beginning to now (and more to come!), I have learned about SEM, implemented SEM, and taught others about SEM. So, from being a practitioner, practitioner-scholar, and now a scholar, SEM has been at the centre of my professional life. Normally, I would not write about such things, but I couldn’t resist. It is my own way of starting off 2023 with a smile and a sense of pride.
Following a six-year run as director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) SEM Conference, Melanie Gottleib, AACRAO’s executive director, provided me with a special gift during our Toronto conference. It is a hooded sweatshirt with just three words imprinted on it, “AACRAO Professor SEM.” It fit 2022 perfectly with my promotion to professor last summer, being named editor-in-chief of Strategic Enrollment Management Quarterly, and the publication of the AACRAO book, “The Effectiveness of SEM in Canada: Reflections from the Field,” with long-time writing colleague Susan Gottheil. I will cherish it always!
Before rambling on, let me thank the many colleagues at AACRAO and my home institutions (the University of Maine at Augusta, Tallahassee Community College, State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, and the University of Windsor) who provided me with so much support over the years. Let me also thank the folks at Royal Roads University who allowed me to bring forward an idea we have been talking about in Canada for a long time; namely, the new Graduate Certificate in SEM (a shameless plug!).
Some of you may be wondering what this SEM thing is all about. Well, let me share a few thoughts.
While there are many definitions of SEM, the one penned by Hossler and Bean (1990, 5) is commonly embraced by the SEM community:
[Enrolment] management can be defined as an organizational concept and a set of systematic activities designed to enable educational institutions to exert more influence over their student [enrolments]. Organized by institutional research, [enrolment] management activities concern student college choice, transition to college, student attrition and retention, and student outcomes.
Subsequent writers have incorporated these words into their SEM definition: concepts and processes, institutional mission, and students’ educational goals (Bontrager, 2004); comprehensive process and academic contest (Dolence, 1993); comprehensive and coordinated process, and integration (Kerlin, 2008). The fundamental premise of SEM is that we must look at our enrolment health and sustainability throughout the entire student experience. Today, SEM has evolved to being a strategic component of institutional planning, resulting in:
- Instructional programs and services designed with intentionality, purpose, integration of effort, service efficiency, and positive interventions with students
- Integrated cross-campus collaborations and partnerships between faculty, administrators, and staff
- Use of assessment information-driven decision making
- Understanding how campus cultures impact enrolment management efforts
- Importance of shared leadership at multiple levels
Let’s simplify. The Cheshire cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland says, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Yogi Berra, of New York Yankees fame, adds “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” And today, we have got some great places to go!
With my glass is half full approach, I can see some magical destinations. The first one is all about social justice. When we started doing SEM in the late 1970s, higher education was still a place where only some could go. Today, the door is open for many more, but not all. We need to put our collective heads together to ensure that our doors, both at the front end and at completion, are open to all who wish to continue their education. This includes Indigenous and racialized students, low-income and rural students, first-generation learners, and so many more. Second, we need to find ways to mature SEM into what many of us hoped it would become; namely, a managerial and educational framework. We are pretty much there with the former but have more distance to go to achieve the latter. SEM could be and should be a contributor to both of these goals.
Let me end with a passage from “The Effectiveness of SEM in Canada: Reflections from the Field” (2022, 53) that captures a possible future direction that the SEM community can traverse in the years ahead.
As the changing economy, politics, and student demographics have hit our institutions, it is ironic that we have been reluctant to explore difficult decisions and be truly strategic. Over the past few years, we have seen institutions of all types respond to these shifting pressures in similar ways–looking to international markets to replace domestic students, trying to rebrand and evolved into a different type of institution (changing from two-year to a four-year college, or an undergraduate into a graduate research institution), focusing on student retention. Can we use the SEM toolbox in new and innovative ways? We hope that the insights provided by SEM professionals across Canada will help higher education colleagues in institutions coast-to-coast build strategic plans that support students and institutions.
-Clayton Smith
References:
Bontrager , B. ( 2008 ). A definition and context for current SEM practice. In B. Bontrager (Ed.), SEM and institutional success: Integrating enrollment, finance, and student access. Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
Dolence, M. G. (1993). Strategic enrollment management: A primer for campus administrators. American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and Datatel.
Hossler, D., & Bean, J. P. (1990). The strategic management of college enrollments. Jossey-Bass.
Kerlin, C. (2008). Community college roadmap for the enrollment management journey. College and University, 83(4), 11.
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