Page 117 - Movers, Shapers, and Everything in Between: Influencers of the International Student Experience
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that their academic success is influenced by their English language proficiency and cultural knowledge (Andrade, 2006; Zhang & Goodson, 2011), as well as their ability to adapt to unfamiliar teaching styles and marking and grading metrics (Aubrey, 1991; Roberts et al., 2017).
Chinese and South Korean students—the 1st and 3rd largest groups, respectively, among international students—may be particularly vulnerable to academic stress because the education systems in China and South Korea differ greatly from those in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. A university survey by Han et al. (2013) found that the most frequently cited problem among Chinese international students was academic stress, followed by social isolation, culture shock, language difficulties, uncertainty about the future, financial stress, homesickness, lack of coping strategies/leisure activities, lack of familiarity with mental health counseling, lack of spiritual/religious life, long-distance relationship, and relationship with a counselor. These items support the idea that the frequency and intensity of student- staff and student-academic relationships and contact are at the core of academic integration as well as satisfaction.
The finding that integration plays a key role in satisfaction can be understood using an influential framework developed by Moos (1973) that describes the human environment in terms of three domains: (a) personal development or goal orientation, (b) relationships, and (c) system maintenance and change. An empirical test of this framework by Schönrock-Adema, Bouwkamp-Timmer, van Hell, and Cohen- Schotanus (2012) suggests that it is useful for assessing the quality of educational environments. A student’s level of integration is part of the relationship dimension, which includes “student involvement, affiliation, (emotional) support, and teacher support” (Schonrock- Adema et al., 2012, p. 736). Thus, Moos’ framework provides a theoretical basis for the assumption that higher levels of integration indicate higher quality educational environments.
Social integration is also associated with satisfaction, although to a lesser extent than academic integration. In the case of social integration,
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Discussion and Conclusions
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