When I initially considered my class action research innovation, and looked at how I could improve student learning in my classroom, I was immediately drawn to the difficulties International students face adjusting to a Western academic culture. These challenges include unfamiliarity with the Western educational culture; lack of Western academic background and lack of academic study skills (Huang & Klinger, 2006).
I considered how this transition could be improved by collaborative learning; as previous research discovered that collaborative peer learning encourages students to engage in content and higher order thinking which could greatly benefit international students’ academic writing and more importantly the understanding of the content. The studied benefits of collaborative peer learning included increased knowledge base, and is associated with deep rather than surface approaches to learning, resulting in important higher learning skills such as critical thinking, intellectual interest, as well as communication and information management skills (Ambrose, et al., 2017); leading to increased student learning (Abdi-Rizak, 2008). My own experience and findings confirmed this, showcasing that students found peer supported learning beneficial, allowing them to improve their research skills and better understand the content. The Think-Pair-Share activity, coupled with the digital technology utilised (Padlet), assisted International students with the transition, specifically with academic study skills and various coping strategies to support their academic learning.
I had expected a higher engagement level in the classroom activity, especially since it was in-class; unfortunately due to timetabling conflicts, and as this class was co-taught this term; I was not personally in class at the time (but had sent emails before and after students), which may have impacted student engagement. I had also failed to provide the other teacher an example of an ‘annotated bibliography’ and when I looked online to Padlet during the activity (remotely off campus in a housekeeping pantry), the structure was incorrect of the postings being uploaded, so I quickly called the teacher to ask her to provide an example! I have also since graded all the individual first assessments, and though academic theory was improved, academic writing did not.
On a positive, as the classroom action research directly related to the students first assessment; this gave them motivation as they foresaw a benefit in assisting with complete it, and I also told them it my last assessment and it would help me greatly!! Once the annotated bibliography postings were added to Padlet, it allowed for the entire class to access academic articles further assisting them with theory to use in their individual assessments.
Overall, the classroom action research innovation results were noticeable from the student’s perspective, but more substantial for my own teaching practices. I was able to investigate and implement an innovation that was simple, yet impactful and allowed me to observe this teaching strategy and its effectiveness. Peer collaborative learning is something that I will use more often in the future, due to student engagement and its proven usefulness. I was also able to present my classroom action research at the last Torrens University scholarship workshop, which I’m hopeful could provide others – insights into classroom teaching strategies to further engage students. And finally, my classroom action research highlighted the struggles International students encounter in transitioning to a Western classroom, which in itself I believe warrants further investigation and research.
References:
Abdi-Rizak, M. (2008). Effects of active learning variants on student performance and learning perceptions. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2. doi:10.20429/ijsotl.2008.020211
Huang, J., & Klinger, D. (2006). Chinese graduate students at north american universities: Learning challenges and coping strategies. Canadian and International Education, 35, 48-61.
