The changing student profile at Service, Hospitality and Tourism Management Programme in Denmark
Anna Hammershøy, University College Nordjylland, Denmark
Abstract
Using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance) as a theoretical foundation, this paper presents a two-phase qualitative research which aims to identify the reasons of different classroom and study behaviours of international and Danish students in the context of a short-cycle higher education programme in Hospitality and Tourist management in Denmark. The findings indicate that the international students (originating from countries of East Central Europe and the Baltics) demonstrate more passive classroom behaviour and experience more challenges in implementing principles of problem based learning, in particular group work, due to exposure to different didactic approaches in their home countries. It is suggested that these differences should be recognized on the part of the study programme, and culture training and academic support with focus on PBL should be offered to new international students.
Key Words
East Central European students, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, classroom and study behaviours, problem based learning (PBL), group work
Theme 1 – Education futures
Introduction
University College Nordjylland (UCN) is based in Northern Denmark and offers a two-year higher education programme in Service, Hospitality and Tourism management (“study programme”). Two of the possible fields of specialisation are Hospitality management and Tourism management. The inflow of foreign students entering a short-cycle higher education in Denmark has been increasing in the last decade (Danmarks Statistik, 2014), and the study programme has similarly seen a raise in the numbers of international students (internal statistics). The study programme is now divided into two streams: Danish, with the language of instruction being Danish, and International, taught in English.
The majority of international students in the study programme come from the countries of East Central Europe and the Baltic countries (internal statistics). There are international students of other origin in the study programme, but their numbers are currently insignificant.
The presence of students from abroad at UCN is a recently new phenomenon. Denmark offers free higher education to students coming from EU countries and Switzerland (Study in Denmark 2014), and that, combined with the perceived high quality of the provided education (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education, 2014) makes Denmark a highly attractive option for young people choosing an international education destination in Europe.
Although the education of EU students in Denmark is being financed from the EU funds, analyses show that attracting foreign students to Denmark has a positive effect on the national economy (Ibid.). With the changing profile of students entering Danish study programmes, it is highly relevant to evaluate whether Danish education in its existing form is as effective for students coming from abroad as for their Danish counterparts.
As a lecturer in both Danish and International streams of the study programme the author has observed some differences in classroom and study behaviours of Danish and international students. A review of the average examination grades of international and Danish students also revealed a mismatch: the GPA (grade point average) for Danish students in 2009-2013 is 7.0 compared to 4.88[a] for international students (internal statistics). That triggered the following questions:
- Do international students respond to the Danish didactic approaches differently from their Danish counterparts?
- What is the cause of the differences?
- How can the study programme adjust to the changing student profile?
The proposed thesis is that the didactic approach used at UCN and in the Danish higher education system has a number of distinct characteristics which are unfamiliar to most international students enrolled in the study programme. Moreover, the international students would be influenced by their different cultural backgrounds, which might affect their responses to the teaching techniques employed in study programme.
This paper presents a research in progress comprising two phases: investigation of the lecturers’ perceptions of classroom and study behaviours of Danish and international students, and exploration of the international students’ perceptions of their academic experiences in the study programme.
Problem-based learning
The didactic model employed at UCN along with some other Danish tertiary education institutions is known as problem based learning (PBL). This model employs such principles of didactics as problem orientation, interdisciplinary approach, exemplarity, experience-based learning, peer learning, and cooperative learning in groups (Krogh and Aarup Jensen, 2009).
PBL is considered a corner stone of Danish tertiary education didactics. This approach emphasizes active learning by students (collaborative learning) as opposed to traditional instruction, its principles being summarized below:
- Problem orientation, where students have to identify a research problem and find solutions based on subject-related knowledge, methods and theories relevant to the specific problem. (Krogh and Aarup Jensen, 2009)
- Participant direction, where definition of the problem and the choice of work methods lie with the students, while an appointed supervisor has a guiding and consultative role (Bitsch Olsen and Pedersen, 2008).
- Group work, where problem-solving is carried out by collaborating in groups. This approach presupposes shared participant responsibility for self-directed learning. (Krogh and Aarup Jensen, 2009).
The above principles are the foundation for the teaching approaches used in the study programme. Teaching alternates between lectures and workshop-based classes. For each class there are assigned readings aimed to help students to understand the lectures and participate in class discussions. Classroom interaction presupposes two-way exchange of information between lecturers and students. Students are expected to actively participate in class discussions. They are also encouraged to ask questions during the lectures, to express their opinions and even to challenge the lecturers’ statements.
The overwhelming majority of international students in the study programme originate from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia (East Central Europe) and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (Baltic countires). Although there are profound cultural differences between these countries, they also possess some cultural commonalities (Browaeys and Price, 2011), being for several decades exposed to totalitarian regimes until the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Soviet rule has affected the national cultures of these countries (Browaeys and Price, 2011), and all the state institutions, including their systems of education (Szebenyi, 1992). When describing education in the former socialist countries, Samoff (1991) points out the paradox between the official doctrine and ideology and the practice of educational institutions:
“What is striking, however, is that the broader themes of socialist construction– participation, democracy, self-reliance, collective responsibility, critical questioning of authority, demystifying expertise – are so little visible in the schools” (Samoff, 1991, p. 14)
This statement neatly summarises the educational principles of the former socialist countries as an antipode of the Danish approach to didactics. Although the regime collapsed after 1991, its legacy and effect on national and educational cultures still lingers. It is therefore likely that students coming from these countries will find the Danish system unfamiliar and challenging.
Implications of national culture
It is established that educational traditions differ in various cultures. A number of authors recognize that teaching techniques that are effective with students from one culture are sometimes not effective with students from another (Johnson, 1991; Rodrigues, 2005, Li, 2012). A theoretical framework offering an explanation of the differences between Danish national culture and those of East Central Europe and the Baltic countries, is the cultural dimensions developed by Geert Hofstede.
It has been suggested by researchers that such dimensions as Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance would affect the way students handle principles of PBL, for example group work (Mohd-Yusof et al., 2013). Denmark’s low power distance and uncertainty avoidance make it easy for Danish students to participate in discussions, share their knowledge in collaborating on a problem, or even to argue with a lecturer. In cultures with higher scores on both dimensions such behaviour “is much less natural or may even be unacceptable”. (Ibid., p.4).
Power Distance is defined by Hofstede as “the extent to which less powerful members of organizations and institutions expect and accept that the power is distributed unequally” (Hofstede, 2011, p. 9). Uncertainty avoidance (UAI) is the degree to which the society is comfortable with ambiguity (Hofstede, 2011). According to Hofstede’s framework, there is a considerable difference in how Denmark scores on PDI and UAI dimensions compared to the home cultures of the international students (Table 1). There are therefore grounds to presume that international students coming from these cultures will have different expectations to the education process (e.g. the teachers are seen as authoritative figures and that students have a passive, recipient role).
Table 1: Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance scores for Denmark and the international students’ home cultures. Source: the Hofstede Center, 2014
National Culture / PDI / UAIDenmark
Romania
Lithuania
Bulgaria
Slovakia
Hungary / 8
85
42
64
100
38 / 14
79
65
73
41
71
Research and discussion
Research design (phase one)
This study is based on qualitative research and has been divided into two phases. In the first phase, four in-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with lecturers teaching in the Hospitality management and Tourism management specializations, each lasting from 45 min to one hour (coded L1-L4). The following topics were addressed: (1) Classroom behaviours of Danish and international students; (2) using PBL with both groups of students; and (3) whether lecturers adjust their teaching methods in Danish and international classrooms. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed. The results of the first phase of the research, briefly presented below, have laid the foundation of the second phase of the research (investigation of the international students’ academic experiences in the study programme).
Research results (phase one)
All respondents observed differences in classroom behaviours between Danish and international students and differences in study behaviours with regards to using principles of PBL, in particular group work. At the same time, none of the interviewed lecturers adjust their teaching style when they are Danish and international classrooms. One respondent admitted to “adjusting the level of formality”, allowing for more formal communication style in international classrooms.
All respondents were unanimous that levels of participation and engagement are higher in Danish classrooms, with international students showing more passive behaviour than their Danish counterparts:
Danish students are more confident in the way they approach the system, the way they approach the lecturer, they are used to engaging in a dialogue with the lecturer, to asking questions, to interrupting the lecturer to ask questions about the presented theory. It’s much more dialogue-based, and you can see they are used to that (L4)
Respondents refer to international students as shy and reluctant to offer their opinions when asked a direct question.
The respondents reported that principles of PBL, although taught in the first semester to both groups of students, seem to be easier to comprehend and implement for students of Danish origin. Danish students seem to be more comfortable with exercising a critical approach towards information presented to them during classroom teaching and in textbooks and overall academic literature.
In particular group work presents challenges to international student who usually have no experience with this form of studying and are unfamiliar with its principles.
They (international students) divide the assignments, you take question one, I’ll take question two, then we’ll put everything together and we have a project. Whereas the Danes are more consensus-seeking, (…) we have to work on everything together, because they are used to that way of doing it. (L2)
The respondents reported that international students have more internal conflicts within their groups and need more help from lecturers in solving them. Conflict resolution is time-consuming for the lecturers and the negative mood and tension within study groups affects productivity and performance of the students.
In spite of the reported differences, it seems to be generally taken for granted that the international students should overcome group work challenges and learn the principles of effective group collaboration on their own, without offering them extra academic support. That appears to be one area which is in need of improvement on the part of the study programme.
Come to think if it, we never teach them how to work in groups, we actually never do, because that’s just something we do, everybody knows how to work in groups, right? (ironically) (L1)
Furthermore, the respondents do no adjust their teaching techniques to accommodate to the different cultural background of the international students, leaving the latter to overcome the “educational culture shock” and adjust to the Danish educational system and didactics on their own.
Research design (phase two)
The second phase of research is based on focus group interviews with international students, with the aim of identifying their academic experiences in the first semesters of their studies in Denmark. Focus groups as a research method were used before in intercultural research (for example Yoshida, Yashiro and Suzuki, 2013), the advantage being that the participants can inspire each other to share insights by agreeing or disagreeing with each other.
The selected participants are current UCN students who have completed their two-year education in the study programme and are in the process of studying towards their bachelor degrees. This phase of research is still in progress. So far two focus groups have been conducted, each including four participants and lasting 2.5 hours. The interviews were transcribed and analysed. Two respondents were from Slovakia, two from Hungary, two from Romania, one from Bulgaria and one from Lithuania, coded as S1-S8. It is planned to conduct further focus groups to increase the validity of the results.
For the focus groups the semi-structured approach was employed, with the topics provided for discussion being: (1) study experiences of the first semesters in the study programme; (2) similarities and differences of the education systems in their home countries and at UCN; and (3) initial experiences with using the principles of PBL: working in groups, classroom discussions and taking responsibility for own learning. The preliminary results of phase two are presented below.
Preliminary research results (phase two)
It appears that there are several recurrent topics emerging in the responses of the participants: (1) the novelty of the Danish educational system in the first semesters of their studies; and (2) the profound differences between the didactics employed in the study programme and their home cultures.
The participants described their first semester as confusing and “hard”. The entire education system, teaching style, the relationship with lecturers, the assignments, group work, class discussions as well as studying in English were new for the respondents. One participant described herself as feeling “very lost”, and that the first semester was “the worst few months” in her life.
With regards to PBL, the respondents appreciated its merits and acknowledged that they learned a lot, but it was difficult in the beginning. They had difficulties working in groups and writing assignments together, and understanding the requirements of a problem-based approach, thus confirming the observations and experiences of the lecturers.
All participants agree that the teaching approaches in the study programme are “completely different from back home”. The differences they point out concern the student-teacher relationship and teaching methods. The relationship between students and teachers in the students’ home countries is very formal. Teachers are seen as distant figures of high status, thus supporting Hofstede’s theory. The students feel nervous and anxious about addressing the teachers with questions. They have no experience in having an open discussion during classes, and in particular in challenging the professor’s opinion:
It is impossible to disagree back at home. The teacher actually feels offended. And we are all from similar backgrounds here, Eastern and Central Europe, so I think that is the reason. There is no foundation for discussion in high schools back at home. You listen, shut up and take notes. (S1)
It took time for respondents to adjust to the Danish system, to get used to the fact that in the study programme it is seen as desirable classroom behaviour to volunteer a question or an opinion, even if it contradicts the lecturer’s and to develop trust towards the teachers. They add though that some of their peers still, after five semesters at UCN feel very shy about expressing themselves in front of the class.
The participants assert that the “Danish way” of teaching, with interactive lectures, frequent workshops and its practical, hands-on approach to learning is more effective than in their home countries. They also find that the fact that lecturers in the study programme are more approachable and informal makes it a better study experience for the students.
Back home, we read a lot of books, we memorize a lot, but here they “teach us how to fish”, it is much more problem-oriented. And (in Denmark) we are not afraid to ask questions, to ask for help. (S2)
I like the friendly attitude, I feel like I can trust the teachers. It makes me feel more relaxed during studies and during the exams. (S3)
I like that you can freely express your opinions here, not being judged. (S5)
At the same time the participants stress that not all their peers share their perceptions. According to the respondents, there are students who prefer “knowledge to be poured into their heads” instead of taking responsibility for the learning process, and who are “struggling because they can’t get used to the system and to the way of teaching”.