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Journal of Teaching and Learning
Vol. 16, No. 2 (2022), pp. 1–4
https://doi.org/10.22329/jtl.v16i2.7483
jtl@uwindsor.ca
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Editorial Comments
Connecting the Promising Practices for Teaching Culturally
and Linguistically Diverse Students with Student
Satisfaction
Clayton Smith
University of Windsor
George Zhou
University of Windsor
Partially due to the increasing enrolment of international students, colleges and universities in the
U.S. and Canada are becoming more culturally and linguistically diverse. According to the
Canadian Bureau of International Education (2021) and the Institute of International Education
(2021), more than 1.6 million international students chose to study at Canadian and American post-
secondary educational institutions in 2020.
Culture shock may be the first big discomfort faced by international students when they
arrive in the new host country; even so, this will not be the only challenge they face. As soon as
they move abroad to study, international students must adapt to new social and academic
environments. Beyond living arrangements, socialization, language barriers, changes in eating
practices, and in communication, international students must also face issues regarding their
academic life. They will not only deal with unfamiliar methods of teaching used by their
instructors, in a foreign language, but they will also have to alter their learning strategies and
preferences to a new learning environment. Unfortunately, though, few instructors have received
training for teaching international students (Paige & Goode, 2009; Tran, 2020), which results in a
less than optimal environment for intercultural learning.
Since 2020 and the outbreak of COVID-19, most students have experienced a change in
the way instruction is delivered to them. It is estimated that approximately 90% of learning was
online during the COVID-19 timespan (Radcliff et al., 2020). Yet, even before the pandemic, there
had been a rise in the popularity of online education in North America. Online learning is
increasingly being favoured by a growing range of students of various ages and diverse
backgrounds, including international students. However, several gaps have been found in online
teaching, including challenges faced by first-time online students, the impact of various course-
loads, and learning effectiveness for additional-language students.
As a result, to achieve higher-student satisfaction and perceptions of learning, instructors
should analyze their roles and implement new teaching strategies to facilitate international
Editorial Comments: Connecting the Promising Practices for Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse
Students with Student Satisfaction 16(2)
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students’ learning experiences. With the aim of enhancing their academic performances, both
offline and online, it is essential for educators to apply more promising teaching practices that
include measurable results, and report successful outcomes for students with diverse language and
cultural backgrounds.
Our recent research provides insights from three distinct studies regarding the promising
teaching practices. The first study (Smith et al., 2019) found that the most promising teaching
practices identified as having elevated levels of student satisfaction also have medium/high student
perceptions of learning. In the second study (Smith et al., 2019), the researchers examined different
preferences of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM
international students on twenty-two promising teaching practices. Slight difference was found in
the two groups regarding their most, and least, preferred teaching practices, or recommended
teaching practices’ changes. The major differences occurred in some specific areas, like
knowledge transmission and culturally responsive teaching. The last study (Smith et al., 2022)
explored the connection between the promising practices for teaching online international students
with international student satisfaction and perceptions of learning. It found that many teaching
practices, such as communication, sense of belonging, and marking schemes, are essential factors
in meeting students’ needs. Our 2022 IGI-Global edited book, Handbook of Research on Teaching
Strategies for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse International Students, collected further
research from across the globe focusing on promising teaching practices, teaching about academic
integrity, student challenges and support, and online teaching and learning.
The literature remains deficient, however, regarding investigating the experiences of
international students in the post-secondary educational context. Therefore, the six papers in this
special edition focus on amplifying the student voice through student satisfaction and student
perceptions of learning associated with the teaching of culturally and linguistically diverse
international students which is the focus of this special issue of the Journal of Teaching and
Learning.
First, Takhmina Shokirova, Lisa Ruth Brunner, Karun Kishor Karki, Capucine Coustere,
and Negar Valizadeh, in the paper Confronting and Reimagining the Orientation of International
Graduate Students: A Collaborative Autoethnography Approach, suggest that international student
orientation should be understood as a fluid, ongoing process rather than one with rigid boundaries
and timelines. Further, orientation programming should more deeply consider the intersecting
identities and positionalities of international students as multifaced individuals, as well as the
implicit expectations of one-way integration into settler-colonial Canadian society.
Linyuan Guo-Brennan, in the paper Making Virtual Global Learning Transformative and
Inclusive: A Critical Reflective Study on High-Impact Practices in Higher Education, reports a
critical reflective study on virtual global learning and shares high-impact, evidence-based
strategies to make virtual global learning more equitable, inclusive, meaningful, and relevant to all
learners in higher education.
Dhruba Neupane, in the paper Rethinking Methodologies: Implications for Research on
International Students, exposes the weaknesses of the deficit models of language, culture, and
competence and stresses the need to reshape international student studies in higher education as a
field of inquiry by foregrounding appreciative models and methodologies.
Elaine Khoo and Xiangying Huo, in their paper The Efficacy of Culturally Responsive
Pedagogy for Low-Proficiency International Students in Online Teaching and Learning, found
that students’ willingness to engage in high-impact language practice in a reading and writing
program and their perceptions of significant transformation show the benefits of the personalized
Journal of Teaching and Learning 16(2) C. Smith & G. Zhou
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support amplified by the application of culturally responsive pedagogy in online teaching and
learning settings.
Edward Cruz, Rosario Quicho, and Edwin Ibañez, in their paper Education Environment
and Role Transition of Internationally Educated Nurses Enrolled in a Bridging Program in
Ontario, Canada, reported that internationally educated nurses had a generally positive
educational experience within the bridging program they were attending. They also found a
significant relationship between the respondents’ perceptions of the teaching process within their
bridging program’s education environment and role transition.
Finally, Haojun Guo, Ju Huang, and Qiutong Zhou, in their paper A Narrative Inquiry of
Three Chinese International Students’ Academic Adjustment Experiences at Canadian
Universities, revealed the importance of native languages and how past experiences before coming
to Canada influenced students’ academic adjustment.
These six papers report the most recent studies in international student education, focusing
on different aspects from student orientation to language development, and from bridging program
to virtual learning environments. These papers also open up more research topics for future studies.
For example, the nature of student orientation itself needs more reflections from educational
scholars and practitioners. To step out of the deficit model mentioned by Neupane in this special
issue, we may think of using the word negotiation to replace the word orientation. Helping students
to be orientated to Western education should not be the central goal of university services. Rather,
culturally responsive services and pedagogy should be the action post-secondary institutions need
to take.
References
Canadian Bureau of International Education. (2021). The student’s voice: National results of the
2018 CBIE international student survey. https://cbie.ca/survey/
Institute of International Education. (2021). Open doors 2021.
https://opendoorsdata.org/data/international-students/enrollment-trends/
Paige, R. M., & Goode, M. L. (2009). Intercultural competence in international education
administration-cultural mentoring: International education professionals and the development
of intercultural competence. In D. Deardorff (Ed.), The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural
Competence (pp. 333–349). SAGE Publications.
Radcliff, J., Aaron, D., Sterle, J., G von Keyserlingk, M., Irlbeck, N., Maquivar, M., Wulster-
Radcliffe, M., & Jones, C. (2020). Moving online: Roadmap and long-term forecast. Animal
Frontiers, 10(3), 36–45. https://doi.org/10.1093/af/vfaa027
Smith, C., & Zhou, G. (Eds.). (2022). Handbook of research on teaching strategies for culturally
and linguistically diverse international students. IGI-Global.
Smith, C., Zhou, G., Potter, M., & Ammar, F. (2022). Engaging diverse international students:
Promising teaching practices. In J. Christensen Hughes, J. Mighty, & D. Stockley, Taking
stock 2.0: Transforming teaching and learning in higher education (pp. 48–68). Society for
Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
Smith, C., Zhou, G., Potter, M., & 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.
Editorial Comments: Connecting the Promising Practices for Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse
Students with Student Satisfaction 16(2)
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Smith, C., Zhou, G., Potter, M., Wang, D., Pecoraro, M., & Paulino, R. (2019). Variability by
individual student characteristics of student satisfaction with promising international student
teaching practices. Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal, 10(2), 3160–3169.
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.
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