Abstract
Students’ engagement in academic readings has become a concern in Australian classrooms. There has been a strong call for innovative strategies to better engage students in academic readings and improve their understanding of this area. This study deployed a self-study methodology to examine what was offered by international academics and international students to help Australian universities overcome this crisis. Data were collected from the self-reflection of two international academics who have been studying and working in Australia for many years, journals of two international students, and emails of students sent to the first researcher. The findings revealed that the overemphasis on develo** ‘active learning’ in Australian education contributed to demotivating students to undertake academic readings and current pedagogical practices do not help students understand texts deeply. The study found that reading strategies offered from non-Western education such as ‘Hoc nhom’ (team reading) and ‘Doc so sanh’ (reading to find similarities and differences of the text) could be effective alternatives. It is worthwhile for future research to further pursue this research agenda by empirically examining how these non-Western strategies work in Australian classrooms. More research should be conducted to seek other non-Western reading strategies.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alatas, S. F. (2006). Alternative discourses in Asian social science: Responses to Eurocentrism. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Beck, U. (2002). The cosmopolitan society and its enemies. Theory, Culture & Society, 19(1–2), 17–44.
Bharuthram, S., & Clarence, S. (2012). Teaching academic reading as a disciplinary knowledge practice in higher education. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(2), 42–55.
Bradley, D., Noonan, P., Nugent, H., & Scales, B. (2008). Review of Australian higher education: Final report. Canberra: Australian Government.
Cabral, A. (2008). Reading and writing in higher education: A Portuguese case study. The Reading Matrix, 8(1), 64–77.
Cervetti, G., Pardales, M., Damico, S. (2001). A tale of differences: Comparing the traditions, perspectives, and educational goals of critical reading and critical literacy. Reading Online, 4(9). Retrieved January 20, 2018, from http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=/articles/cervetti/index
Chou, I. C. (2011). Understanding on-screen reading behaviours in academic contexts: A case study of five graduate English-as-a-second-language students. Computer-Assisted Language Learning, 25(5), 1–23.
Conway, C., Palmer, C., Edgar, S., & Hansen, E. (2014). Learning to teach graduate students: A self-study by students and a faculty member. Applications of Research in Music Education, 34(2), 54–60.
Cortazzi, M., & **, L. (1996). Cultures of learning: Language classrooms in China. In H. Coleman (Ed.), Society and the language classroom (pp. 169–206). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cross, M., Mhlanga, E., & Ojo, E. (2011). Emerging concept of internationalisation in south African higher education: Conversations on local and global exposure at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). Journal of Studies in International Education, 15(1), 75–92.
De Vita, G. (2002). Does assessed multicultural group work really pull UK students’ average down? Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 27(2), 153–161.
Fujimoto, Y., Hagel, P., Turner, P., Kattiyapornpong, U., & Zutshi, A. (2011). Hel** university students to ‘read’ scholarly journal articles: The benefits of a structured and collaborative approach. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 8(3). Retrieved January 10, 2019, from https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1193&context=jutlp
Gee, J. P. (2008). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. Oxford: Routledge.
Goody, J. (2010). The Eurasian miracle. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press.
Gu, L. Y. (2003). Jiaoxue gaige de xingdong yu quanshi [Education reform—action and interpretation]. Bei**g: People’s Education Press.
Haigh, M. (2009). Fostering cross-cultural empathy with non-western curricular structures. Journal of Studies in International Education, 13(2), 271–284.
Hellmundt, S. (2003). Research briefing the internationalisation of the tertiary curriculum: Linking intercultural communication theory with teaching and learning practices. Retrieved January 10, 2018, from http://www.heacademy
Hobson, E. (2004). Getting students to read: Fourteen tips. Retrieved February 10, 2018, from http://www.theideacenter.org/sites/default/files/Idea_Paper_40.pdf
Holliday, A. R. (2005). The struggle to teach English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Huang, Q. (2014). The hybrid tiger: Secrets of the extraordinary success of Asian-American kids. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
James, R., Krause, K., & Jennings, C. (2010). The first-year experience in Australian universities: Findings from 1994 to 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2017, from http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/research/experience/docs/FYE_Report_1994_to_2009.pdf
Jerrim, J. (2014). Why do East Asian children perform so well in PISA? An investigation of Western-born children of East Asian descent. Department of Quantitative Social Science. Working Paper No. 14–16
**, L. X., & Cortazzi, M. (1998). The culture the learner brings: A bridge or a barrier? In M. Byram & M. Fleming (Eds.), Language learning in intercultural perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography (pp. 98–118). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
**, L., & Cortazzi, M. (2006). Changing practices in Chinese cultures of learning. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 19(1), 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908310608668751
Kapoor, K. (2010). The humanities and the social sciences in India. Prabuddha Bharata. Retrieved February 10, 2018, from www.advaitaashrama.org
Keane, J. (2009). Life and death of democracy. London & New York: Simon & Schuster.
Lee, W. O. (1996). The cultural context for Chinese learners: Conceptions of learning in the Confucian tradition. In D. A. Watkins & J. B. Biggs (Eds.), The Chinese learner: Cultural, psychological and contextual influences (pp. 25–41). Hong Kong/Melbourne: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong/Australian Council for Educational Research.
Loughran, J. J. (2004). A history and context of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. K. LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (pp. 7–30). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.
Loughran, L., & Russell, T. (2006). Narrative accounts of self-study. Studying Teacher Education, 2(1), 1–3.
McInerney, D. M., & McInerney, V. (1994). Educational psychology: Constructing learning. Sydney: Hal.
McLaughlin, M., & DeVoogd, G. (2004). Critical literacy as comprehension: Expanding reader response. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 48(1), 52–62.
O’Connor, K., & Zeichner, K. (2011). Preparing US teachers for critical global education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9(3–4), 521–536.
Pham, T. (2014). Implementing cross-culture pedagogies: Cooperative learning at Confucian heritage cultures. Singapore: Springer.
Pham, T., & Renshaw, P. D. (2013). How to enable Asian teachers to empower students to adopt student-centred learning. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 38(11), 65–85.
Pham, T., & Renshaw, P. D. (2015). Formative assessment in Confucian heritage cultures classrooms: Activity theory analysis of tensions, contradictions and hybrid practices. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education., 40, 45. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2014.886325
Rao, V. (2014). Cultures of memory in South Asia: Orality, literacy and the problem of inheritance. New Delhi: Springer.
Singh, M. (2009). Using Chinese in internationalising research education. Globalisation, Societies & Education, 7(2), 185–201.
Singh, M., & Shreshtha, M. (2009). International pedagogical structures admittance into the community of scholars via double knowing. In M. Hellstén & A. Reid (Eds.), Researching international pedagogies (pp. 65–82). The Netherlands: Springer.
Spencer, L. (2012). Motivating law students to ‘do the reading’ before class: Appropriate extrinsic and intrinsic. Retrieved from http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/JlALawTA/2012/16.pdf
Stephen, B., & Keiko, Y. (2014). A tale of two councils. International Journal of Training Research, 9(3), 218–233.
Volet, S., & Kee, P. (1993). Studying in Singapore—Studying in Australia: A student perspective. Perth: Murdoch University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pham, T., Pham, L.H. (2021). Engaging Students in Academic Readings at Australian Higher Education: Experience Learned from Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) Education. In: Bao, D., Pham, T. (eds) Transforming Pedagogies Through Engagement with Learners, Teachers and Communities. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 57. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0057-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0057-9_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-0056-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-0057-9
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)