A co-experience approach to improving international students’ classroom experience: a practice report from within an Australian higher education setting

Based on my experience teaching in a large metropolitan university in Australia, I discuss why we need to stop looking at the issue of international students through a deficit model, and look at the rich range of knowledge that our classrooms can gain from international students; many of them have been top performers in their home countries before they come here, but quickly get disheartened upon arrival in Australia when they find themselves stereotyped in a negative way, on top of all the culture shock and other adjustments they go through. I argue that the solutions go beyond just teachers and university support systems; we need to involve domestic students in making international students’ experience more positive, for they play a big part in an international students’ day-to-day experience in the classroom. Based on a participatory action research project within my own teaching practice, I argue that giving room for flexibility in content choice, assessment choice, and choice of modalities within the scope of a subject’s learning outcomes can yield positive results for all students as detailed in this paper