IELTS Research Reports

Learning to play the ‘classroom tennis’ well:IELTS and international students in teacher education… the basic principles on which we have developed our teacher education programmakes explicit what we’re doing as teacher educators - we make our practice a basis forconversation with students. That doesn’t mean that they’ll agree with it or that they think thatwe’re doing the right thing because there’s always that disconnect in student-teachers’ mindsbetween what happens at university and what happens at school. We provide opportunities forthem to question their own practice through the experiences we set for them in the classroom.Making diversity a focus of educational practice was seen as valuable:We are talking about educational diversity rather than just one way of doing things. Thetruth is our teacher education courses are very culturally positioned. This is a sad thingbecause even though they have the intention to be internationalised they’re not entirelyinternationalised … They do mention international examples and sometimes draw onstudents to shed a little bit of light on another way of doing things but that doesn’t alwayshappen. Of course, international students don’t necessarily know much about their owneducation systems; they only know about their own experiences but they don’t necessarilywant to talk about that.Assessment in their academic program is a key source of anxiety for these students:There is an onslaught of assessment in teacher education programs. I said ‘onslaught’deliberately. It’s just interminable, and it’s really different. There is a lot of reflective writing.They’re not used to that. There’s a lot of writing plans, assessment tasks, rationale writing.Its different sorts of academic writing from what most people would be used to. Someinternational students are not used to any academic writing at all because they’ve beenthrough Science programs, so people aren’t as used to extensive writing, not used to this kindof writing. So assessment is a big focus throughout the year.Finally, the students’ need to have employment can compound many problems (it is this financialcomponent that often works against their being able to come early into the course, for example). Infact, one academic referred to students’ ‘double struggle’- the academic languages they had to masterand the need for paid employment while studying, which gave them less time to achieve that mastery.Students from cultures in which examinations were the only form of assessment at tertiary level werealso seen by some as having problems with attendance, though it was recognised that attendance wasequally affected by their need for paid employment.7.6 Where is the need for support most evident (e.g. through their study program,through the practicum)?Academics felt that support was equally needed through the practicum and the study program. Somealso felt that a greater support system was needed in schools, along with professional development forteachers. One particular kind of appropriate support suggested was ensuring that courses were longenough for LBOTE students to gain the necessary skills and familiarisation with Australian schoolingsystems – not allowing the students in one course, for example, to take the course in an acceleratedmode. LBOTE students, they argued, needed the time. Most academics were definite about LBOTEstudents not being allowed to take accelerated versions of the courses, though in some universities,marketing and recruitment practices worked against this (an issue discussed in Hyatt and Brooks,2009, pp. 34ff, 42-44, 51-52).IELTS Research Reports Volume 11113