The development of a cultural enrichment course with an emphasis on academic culture for Thai students in the bilingual program

Abstract

The objectives of the study were 1) to develop the Cultural Enrichment Course with an emphasis on the academic cultures for Thai students in the bilingual program; 2) to investigate the effects of the course on the students’ cultural awareness on the differences of Western and Eastern academic cultures and; 3) to investigate students’ learning preference towards academic cultures. At first, the researcher surveyed the differences of academic cultures between foreign teachers and Thai students in a bilingual program. The instruments consisted of questionnaires, interviews, and reflective writing. It was found that there were the cultural disparities between foreign teachers and Thai students in six academic cultures. The cultural disparities were then developed into six modules of learning. Next, the researcher developed AIREE Instructional Model by integrating five teaching theories: Active Learning, Constructivism, Cooperative Learning, Experiential Learning, and Constructionism. The instruction started with explicit learning of basic concepts in academic cultures taught by the teacher. Then, the learning process gradually shifted to the student-centeredness to cultivate students’ cultural awareness. This course lasted 16 weeks. The instruments for evaluating the modules of learning were the pre and post cultural awareness tests, pre and post questionnaires, pre and post interview, and pre and post learning logs. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Quantitative analysis was presented through percentage, mean, standard deviation, and t-test analysis while qualitative analysis was done through content analysis. The statistical results revealed that students gained higher levels of cultural awareness at a significant level of .05. The qualitative analysis showed that students had positive learning preference towards applying Western academic cultures in the bilingual program. However, students were aware of the importance of the Eastern academic cultures. The study also showed that AIREE Instructional Model could raise students’ cultural awareness towards Western and Eastern academic cultures. In addition, it can be applied in the instruction and training for Thai and foreign teachers to make them aware of the differences of academic cultures.