East, West, which is the best? The adjustment of international students to teaching strategies in host universities

Abstract

As a result of economic globalization, the western universities are moving swiftly towards educational internationalization and searching for international markets. At the same time, Chinese universities are opening their doors wider to invite western partners for educational cooperation. The numbers of international students have increased due to cooperative educational programs between the East and the West. However, helping international students make an adjustment to a new learning environment in host countries remains a quandary. This paper reports a comparative study on the impact of teaching strategies on international students’ understanding on the pedagogical differences between home countries and host countries. It was discovered that international students had experienced three stages of attitude change in transition, namely, “rejection, adaption and cohesion” revealing how culturally determined teaching strategies lead international students’ attitude changes in accepting pedagogical differences.