Dr. Smith speaking to the Ireland International Conference on Education, 2019
Colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada are increasingly becoming ethnoculturally and linguistically diverse which is partially due to increasing enrollment of international students. Currently, 1.4 million international students choose to study at Canadian and U.S. post-secondary educational institutions, which increased by 7.1 percent between 2015 and 2016 (Canadian Bureau of International Education, 2016; Institute of International Education, 2016).
Currently, campus internationalization initiatives focus primarily on external areas including education abroad and student exchange, recruiting international students, and institutional partnerships (Helms, Brajkovic, & Struthers, 2017). However, this is expected to change as more institutions are developing academic-related internationalization initiatives (e.g., international or global student learning outcomes, related general education requirements, foreign language requirements). Robin Metros Helms, director of the American Council on Education Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement, suggests that “We need to make sure that faculty are engaged in and central to internationalization efforts.” (Redden, 2017) To do this, faculty will need to critically examine their role in campus internationalization and implement teaching strategies that address international student success factors.
This study explored the promising teaching practices for teaching linguistically and culturally diverse international students by identifying the teaching practices that have high levels of international student satisfaction and student learning. The research team hopes to fill a gap in the literature by giving a student voice to this topic. Our hope is that faculty who engage in the identified teaching practices will become more engaged in campus internationalization and improve international student success on their campuses.
Dr. Smith served as the principal investigator for this study. A four-person research team guided the research. Students in the International Student Learning Community participated in the development and implementation of the research plan. University of Windsor Outstanding Scholars and a Mitacs Global Intern supported research activities.
This study is now completed.
