Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'International education'

This quantitative study took place at a private international school in East Asia. The purpose of the study was to investigate United States college admission trends comparing International Baccalaureate Diploma Program candidates and International Baccalaureate non-Diploma Program candidates from the same school. Descriptive data was collected for the Classes of 2007-2012 and the two groups were compared based on the number of college acceptances for each group by year and as a whole, and the eventual collegiate success of the two groups once they matriculated to college, as measured by college persistence and graduation rates. The results of this study show there was a statistically significant difference between the mean number of college applications and the mean number of college acceptances per group, but there was not a statistically significant difference between the college acceptance rates for the two groups of students. There was a statistically significant difference between the matriculation rate of diploma and certificate students, but there was not a statistically significant difference between the graduation rates for the two groups of students. The information analyzed provides school stakeholders valuable data to explore the final educational outcomes for its graduates and determine if there is a significant difference in the college success of the two groups.

As the number of international students studying in the United States continues to grow, there’s the need to know how they cope in a host country and the challenges they encounter both in the classroom and outside in order improve education and prepare students for the future. The purpose of this study is to know how international students relate with one another both inside and outside the school setting. The study findings were taken from observation and interview from both graduate and undergraduate classrooms.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) program is an ambitious and challenging academic high school program. However, the IB program is not without its difficulties and shortcomings. Many IB students appear to sense various levels of social dissonance from the general student population. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate why nonacademic socialization is a significant problem between high school IB students and AP/traditional students. IB student/graduates and former/retired IB faculty members were used exclusively for this qualitative study. The focus of this qualitative study required analyzing the IB student nonacademic socialization lived experience. This qualitative study used a grounded theoretical methodology that included open-ended interviews. All interviews conducted were face-to-face, phone, or with the use of Skype technology. The coding analysis resulted in the emergence of four themes and sixteen subthemes. The four emergent themes generated a theoretical model that supported the central research question and two secondary research questions.

A new organization often encounters the “liability of newness” that increases its chance of failing as a start-up enterprise (Freeman et al, 1983). New organizations located in a foreign country also face the “liability of foreignness” (Zaheer & Mosakowski, 1997). By gaining legitimacy, organizations can obtain the resources they need to become sustainable. The liabilities of newness and foreignness aptly describe the international branch campuses that have been set up in China.

Scott’s (1995) institutional legitimacy pillars and Suchman’s (1995) legitimacy theory are combined to form a new conceptual legitimacy framework to understand legitimacy issues in China. This qualitative study selects seven cases to answer this research question: What strategies do the international branch campuses use to gain social support from different constituencies? The institutions studied are: The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University, New York University Shanghai, United International College Shenzhen, Dongbei University of Economy and Finance Surrey International Institute, Southeast University-Monash University Joint Graduate School (Suzhou), and The Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies.

Fifty-two interviews were conducted with senior institutional leaders, faculty, staff, students, parents, scholars, and employers. The research found that these international institutions did face the twin liabilities of newness and foreignness. However, being new and foreign could actually give these institutions legitimacy as well. The international institutions used all four strategies identified in the literature to gain the four pillars of legitimacy. An important caveat of the study is that the environment is significant in institutions gaining legitimacy, but the primary factor in acquiring legitimacy is the quality of their product.

This study has several limitations, including one missing case, fewer foreign interviewees, the uneven amount of information available at each institution, translation difficulties between two very different languages and cultures, and data provided by the institutions might be self-serving. The results indicate four avenues for further research. They are legitimacy thresholds; legitimacy from the perspective of the home institutions; the failed international branch campuses; education quality at these IBCs; and the evolving political dynamics in China.

The Swedish school reflects the society that we have today, a society with many different ethnical and cultural backgrounds. The purpose of this investigation is to study how the school is working with children that recently immigrated to Sweden. What kind of methods are they using at school, to get the best development as possible? Do the teachers manage to be concerned of the students in the school? What kind of reception do these children get in the school? What methods are the teachers using? And are these methods really the best to use to enhance the language and cognitive development of these students?

The methods I have been using to examine these questions have been qualitative. I have interviewed three teachers about their everyday work in a multiethnic school south of Stockholm. To get as much information as possible I also completed these reports with a two week observation period in their classes.

The theoretical attachment for this investigation has been theories related to children bilingualism and second language acquisition. Because the focus has been on the teachers’ perspective, I have also looked at research about how teachers should be working.

The results of the investigation shows what kind of methods the teachers are using in preparation class and in the regular class, the teachers are using methods that is making the children language. They are making sure that every child is being seen for his or hers knowledge.

The purpose of this qualitative research was to (a) explore the issues that international undergraduate students face during academic experiences at U.S. colleges and/or universities, (b) study the relationship between U.S. professors and international undergraduate students as measured by the extent of congruency between U.S. professors' and international undergraduate students' online survey results, and (c) propose appropriate guidelines for U.S. Teacher Leaders in adult classrooms to enhance international undergraduate students' learning satisfaction. The researcher used convenience sampling that included 96 participants at Lindenwood University, Saint Charles. The researcher conducted a focus group discussion with 14 international undergraduate students from 10 countries, an online survey with 70 international undergraduate students and five U.S. professors using the Modified Instructional Perspective Inventory (MIPI), and the in-depth interviews with seven faculty experts selected from the Education Department and the International Students and Scholars Office.

The results showed international undergraduate students are faced with five major issues including language, isolation, discrimination, professors' instruction techniques, and professors' behaviors in the classroom. The emerging themes in the focus group discussion were financial support, positive experiences, and suggestion for improving teacher leadership in the classroom. There was no congruency between U.S. professors' and international undergraduate students' perceptions on four factors of the MIPI—teacher empathy with learner, teacher trust of learners, planning and delivery of instruction, and accommodating learner uniqueness. However, there was congruency between U.S. professors' and international undergraduate students' perceptions on three factors of the MIPI—teacher insensitivity toward learners, experience-based learning techniques, and teacher-centered learning processes. This congruency level, however, did not indicate a good relationship between U.S. professors and international undergraduate students, but instead the professors' inability to balance the practice of learner-centered and teacher-centered teaching approaches in the classroom. The proposed Guidelines for U.S. Teacher Leaders in Adult Classrooms suggested processes to enhance International Undergraduate Satisfaction as follows: application of professors' beliefs (teachers' trust of learners and teachers' accommodating learners' uniqueness), professors' feelings (teachers' empathy with learners and teachers' insensitivity toward learners), and professors' behaviors (delivery of various instruction techniques and appropriate use of learner-centered and teacher-centered learning processes in the right context).

The purpose of this study is to determine what alternative forms of assessments are being practiced in a public school with an international programme and to explore the teachers` attitudes towards the use of alternative assessment procedures. Various assessment models and strategies have been investigated and discussed, as pre¬senting a part of the educational practice in the primary classrooms that engage the International Baccalaureate/ Primary Years Programme at the elementary school level (age range 6-11) in the years 0-5.

While defining my research problem, I have started from hypothesis that practicing of alternative assessment has an important positive role in the international schools supporting, promoting and improving student learning.

International schools are facing both challenging and complexity of assessment pro¬cess while striving to apply both national and international programs` recom¬menda¬tions concerning the testing.

Alternative forms of assessments are being used in conjunction with other forms of assessment, such as standardised tests, in order to assess both student perfor¬mance and the intentions of the International Baccalaureate/ Primary Years Pro¬gramme.

This paper investigates what alternative assessment practices (portfolio, perfor¬mance assessment, Exhibition, self-assessment) are being applied and used in the same school where the standardised tests are also being applied and used (text book tests, teacher-made tests, local and national test).

The hypothesis was supported and the study findings suggest that various types of assessments are needed to be utilized in order to fairly evaluate students` needs as well as that alternative assessment has an important positive role meeting individual student’s needs supporting a process of learning.