Academic Culture In Different Countries

“Academic culture refers to the attitudes, values and ways of behaving that are shared by people who work or study in universities, for example, lecturers, researchers and students.” (Brick, J, 2009, p.2) What constitutes academic culture is different for students who come from different cultural backgrounds?

The academic culture is totally different for Malaysia and Australia. In Malaysia education, the teaching styles is more teacher-centered where teachers will be giving exactly all the information to students and students are not expected for give respond to teacher’s questions. It is called “spoon-feeding” learning styles in Malaysia. This learning style is very popular in Malaysia education because it makes the learning easier to students. Therefore, students don’t need to find any extra information for their studies. However, the teaching styles for Australia education is based on student-centered. Australian students are expected to play an active role during tutorial. Students need to have an active participation in discussion with their peers. Besides, students are able to challenge to lecturer or tutor because they can express their opinion.

In Malaysia, the education system is more exam-oriented. Therefore, “spoon-feeding” learning styles will make students only study for specific books or the notes that they get from teachers. Other than that, students will follow the instruction that given by teachers which is memorizing the notes and go for examination. In this approach, students don’t understand the knowledge they learned. So, they can’t become an active learner in the future. Conversely, Australian education system is more practical-oriented. They are focusing on student understanding. It is not just study everything without understanding the knowledge. Students are advised to voice out their opinion during discussion. It is a training program for them to become independent learners in the future.

MCD 1510 Learning Studies (Task 2)

Culture is an integral part of society. An individual’s attitudes, values, beliefs, arts, ideals, modes of perception, and habits of thought are greatly influenced by the culture in which he or she lives. Every society has a different culture, where people who share their culture also share their attitudes, specific languages, behaviors, values, and traditions. It is easy to know the culture background for a person based on their attitudes and behaviors. For example, the common perception of Australians is that they are informal, open and direct and say what they mean. They call people by their first name and say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to be polite. They are allowed to call teachers by their first name, even though they are students. This showed that they believe that people should be treated in the same way and the principle of giving people a fair go.

Conversely, most Chinese has a very formal culture when they talk to someone who has a higher status and older than themselves. They place their culture importance on hierarchy. They need to show their respect when talk to older people and people who has a higher status. Therefore, they call a person’s whole name which is his or her first and last name together. Other than that, Chinese has a lot of etiquettes during meeting, gift giving and dinning. Besides, greetings are formal and important and the oldest person must be always greeted first.

However, culture is not only about the different culture countries background. There is a culture named academic culture which is the culture of universities. Academic culture refers to the attitudes, values and ways of behaving that are shared by people who work or study in universities, for example, lecturers, researchers and students. New students have to learn new knowledge, new skills and new attitudes, values and ways of behaving; that is, they have to learn a new academic culture. Therefore, academic culture is unfamiliar to many students who come from different countries background.

English-speaking universities are the universities who have used the language of English as an instruction. However, it is not necessary that those universities are sharing the same academic culture although they are teaching in English. One of the ideas for academic culture is there is more than one way to approach a problem. Scholars tried to find the most useful answer when they are approaches to a problem in different ways. Each scholar presents their ideas in the way that he or she does agree with and criticizes ideas that he or she does not agree with. This shown that there are many scholars in English-speaking universities believe academic knowledge develops.

*don’t understand the ‘describe how many scholars in English-speaking universities believe academic knowledge develops.

MCD 1510 Learning Studies (Task 3)

Academic writing is a particular style of formal and expressive writing. In this form of writing, it should be third person, formally toned writing and precise words. Text 4 is another extract from an article on deforestation. There are several ways to show that this text is a piece of academic article. The purpose of Text 4 is to explain what happen after deforestation, so its tone is logical, rational and impersonal. It is logical because it outlines the happen after deforestation, so the reader can see the reasoning. Besides, it is rational because the article is based on evidence and research. It is important to use evidence and reasons in academic writing, because it shows whether the research is based on support or not support. Therefore, there is supporting arguments and facts for this article which the reader can check it. It is impersonal, because it is based on verifiable evidence not personal feelings. It is objective writing because the article is written in third person not first person. Other than that, it is a formal writing style because there is no slang, no abbreviation and complete sentences.

Based on the referencing, it is an authoritative website by government. This means that it is the website which reader can trust the argument and facts for the article. There are one more features of academic arguments can be identified. An academic article has the strength and logical order of arguments. The information should be giving verifiable to support the discussion when writing an academic article. Besides, this article is using formal words for the writing.

MCD 1510 Learning Studies (Task 4)

There are some major features of academic culture in University life. One of the major features of academic culture in University life is student voice should come through when writing academic work. This means that excessive cutting and pasting other people’s ideas is not encouraged. It is so called plagiarism when students are cutting and pasting other people’s ideas in their assignment.

Besides, student arguments need to be well supported to make their arguments stronger and avoid plagiarism. Otherwise, students are also expected to get the main ideas in other argument and critically evaluate the merit of argument.

Other than that, student arguments need to be logical and evidence based. This means you have to remain objectives or impartial. Therefore, there is supporting arguments and facts for this article which the reader can check it. After that, students are advised to engage in wide reading. It brings out multiple perspectives which are different opinion and have a range of arguments to support the point of view. This means that ideas are no black or white.