Home> Archive> 2013> Volume 3 Number 6 (Nov. 2013)
IJSSH 2013 Vol.3(6): 576-581 ISSN: 2010-3646
DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2013.V3.306

“I am not what you thought I should be”: Learning Accounts of Chinese International Students in Canada

Zhihua Zhang and Wei Zhang

Abstract—This paper describes part of the findings of the first author’s dissertation research on the learning narratives of some Chinese international students in Canada. Based on data collected using narrative inquiry, the authors specifically pick stories on how the participants described, understood and interpreted memorization, critical thinking and classroom participation in Mountain University in Vancouver. This paper questions the assumptions of the learning approach that Asian international students may take, and points out that instructors and teaching assistants in the Mountain University lack knowledge and awareness of the academic learning experiences of Chinese international students. The voices of international students are thus silenced. The findings indicate that the participants did not display evidence of active negotiation for potential changes in the classrooms of Mountain University.

Index Terms—Chinese international students, critical thinking, deep and surface learning, narrative inquiry.

Zhihua Zhang is with the Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada (e-mail: zza28@sfu.ca), and Heibei Normal University.
Wei Zhang is with Tangshan Vocational and Technical College, Hebei, China (e-mail: zhangwei1215@hotmail.com).

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Cite:Zhihua Zhang and Wei Zhang, "“I am not what you thought I should be”: Learning Accounts of Chinese International Students in Canada," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 576-581, 2013.

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