Theoretical models of culture shock and adaptation in international students in higher education

Culture synergy and pedagogical adaptation
Cortazzi and Jin (1997) argued that Chinese and British students are likely to have different
assumptions about student and teacher roles. In the view of Chinese students, a good teacher
should be a knowledge model who teaches students what and how to learn with clear guidance,
and even a moral model who sets an example for students to follow and takes good care of
students. Correspondingly, a good student in China should respect teachers and learn by receiving
instead of criticising what teachers say. However, from the perspective of British teachers, a good
teacher should be a facilitator and an organiser, helping students to develop creativity and
independence. Students are expected to participate and engage in dialogue, and engage in critical
analysis instead of just absorbing what the teachers say. Cortazzi and Jin (1997) argued against

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simply expecting sojourning students to assimilate host nation ways, because these aspects of
culture were deep-rooted, and change could be seen as a profound threat to identity. Instead, they
proposed a process of ‘culture synergy’, asking for mutual efforts from both (host) teachers and
(sojourning) students to understand one another’s culture.
The proposed concept of culture synergy has clear advantages. First, many learning-related
problems in intercultural classrooms might result from mismatched expectations between teach-
ers and students. Second, the introduction of the concept of culture synergy suggests a mutual and
reciprocal process – teachers may learn from students by understanding the students’ cultural
traditions.
However, merely asking for mutual understanding is not enough without understanding the
processes involved. Recently, as a result of the rapid increase in the number of international
students, both students and host teachers have been becoming more aware of pedagogical
differences in one another’s culture. Further research is, therefore, needed to clarify current
teacher and student expectations in order to learn how mismatches occur, and to begin to
explore how they might be resolved. Figure 2 illustrates one way in which we suggest future
research on the relevant processes might be extended, using the example of Chinese students
studying in the UK.
Figure 2.
Relationships between the educational expectations of UK teachers and Chinese students.
In Figure 2, the terms ‘match’ and ‘mismatch’ should be understood as implying approximate,
not exact, matching. The process of mutual adjustment by both teachers and students towards a
maximised academic outcome will not necessarily occur to the same degree in both directions. In
some cases, Chinese students might adapt more to the host way of teaching and learning, and in
other cases it might be the other way round. This process of adaptation might be influenced by a
number of factors, such as individual differences in both teachers and students, and situational
factors such as Chinese students coming as a group or as individuals. The focus here is on the
interaction between teacher and student perspectives and reciprocal adaptations. One implication


  




   





  
 
 
 

 

 
 

  



  
 
 


 
 
 

 

 
 
 

 

  



 

 
 
 

  

 

 
 
 



  


 





 
  



  

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Figure 2.
Relationships between the educational expectations of UK teachers and Chinese students.

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of this approach is that it suggests the possibility of preparations by teachers and students to facil-
itate mutual adaptations both before and after departure.