Perceptions of the Host-National Peers in a Program Designed to Aid the Adjustment of International Students at the University of British Columbia Foreign students want and need social contact with people from the host country when they study abroad. The Counselling Psychology Department at the University of British Columbia has developed a peer program where Canadian students are paired with foreign students in an attempt to ease the feelings of loneliness and isolation which these foreign students often experience. This paper contains a review of related literature, a description of the peer program, an analysis of interviews with host-national participants and recommendations for improvements to the program. The literature review surveys the problems associated with foreign students on North American campuses, several theories of the adjustment process and programs designed to aid that adjustment. Some factors which help students adjust to a new environment are counselling and peer support. Host peers commented on how and why they became participants in the program. They revealed some of the problems associated with being a helping peer. The benefits they received from the program were many but they were able to identify several aspects of the program which could be changed to make the program more rewarding to themselves and to the foreign peers. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This study has been an attempt to investigate the process of cross-cultural adjustment of a group of 13 international students studying at the University of British Columbia. The "u-curve" theory of adjustment was tested. It was hypothesized that foreign students would have individual patterns of cross-cultural adjustment. General self-concept, academic self-concept, attitude towards Canadians and attitude towards Canadian culture were used as indices of cross-cultural adjustment. The self-concept dimensions were defined by Ishiyama's self-validation theory (1987,1988). The relationship between all indices were explored. The adjustment patterns of groups of international students (i.e; Male/Female) were also explored. The main method of data interpretation was visual analysis, using two dimensional graphs. C-statistic tests (Tryon, 1982) were used to test the statistical significance of the curves. Three dimensional graphs were also used for data interpretation. Interviews were conducted at the end of the study. It was concluded that the u-curve theory of cross-cultural adjustment was not supported across all. subjects. General and academic self-concepts were found to be highly related. Academic performance was found to have a strong influence upon academic self-concept. No causal relationship was discovered between attitudes about Canadians and Canadian culture. Finally, female western foreign students were found to have the most succussfull adjustment. This was followed in succession by non-western females, western males and finally, eastern males. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This research examines what facilitates and hinders the adjustment of adolescent international students attending public secondary school in Vancouver, British Columbia. The purpose of this study is to determine a set of categories that can be used by school personnel to, better assist newly arriving international students in their adjustment process. The critical incident technique developed by Flanagan (1954) is used for this research to discover what events facilitate and hinder the adjustment of these international students. Twenty-one secondary students, ages fifteen to eighteen, are interviewed from three different public schools in the Vancouver School District. From the interviews, a total of 352 critical incidents are used to develop seventeen categories which answer the question: What facilitates and hinders adolescent international student adjustment? To test for reliability and validity, four tests are carried out in order to establish the soundness and comprehensiveness of the categories including independent rater agreement, comprehensiveness of categories, participation rate, and expert validation. The results show that adolescent international student adjustment can be facilitated or hindered in the following ways: receiving encouragement or support, receiving advice or information, receiving help, appreciating others, being accepted, making friends, having fun, participating in activities, learning English, communicating effectively, speaking own language, performing well academically, experiencing less demand at school, making decisions, impressed with environment, experiencing dilemmas, and experiencing local annoyances. Portraits of adjustment and maladjustment are given as well as case studies in order to highlight the categorization system in both a general and specific way. The findings of this study contribute to the body of knowledge regarding international student adjustment because of its use of an adolescent, rather than adult, international student population. This research is also very practical in that it can be useful as a basis for individual and group counselling, various school-based and district programs, and general support and information for school personnel and newly arriving international students. Ideas for further research using this subject population are also suggested. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

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The purpose of this study was to examine the views of school board members in selected K - 12 American Sponsored Overseas Schools in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean as to their concerns and the relationship of those concerns to the variable citizenship. A questionnaire was mailed to 148 school board members in 16 schools in nine countries. A return rate of 56.1% of the school board members was obtained. The survey used in this study was divided into two parts. Part I of the survey gathered personal information about the school board members. Part II sought to obtain school board members’ views about the school’s organization, school board role and responsibilities, curriculum and instruction, staff and parents, and concerns. Cross-tabulation procedures and frequency distributions were used to report the data. The analysis of host country and United States citizens responses revealed that beliefs regarding the concerns of the school are not generally divided along the lines of citizenship. There were differences reported between the citizenship groups in the areas of mission of the school, enrollment projection, tuition rate for host country students, satisfaction with physical facilities, similarity in academic requirements to United States schools, compensation of foreign hire teachers, substance abuse programs and the extra-curricular activity program. The recruitment of good teachers was rated as the number one concern of both citizenship groups. Tuition increases and school finances were also rated as number one concerns by many of the school board members. / Ed. D.

Three groups of Southern Baptist foreign missionary parents, career, former, and new missionaries, numbering 492, reported their perceptions of the cognitive, social, emotional, and spiritual needs of young missionary children by rating sixteen goals for a pre-departure orientation on the variables of importance, responsibility and attainability. Mean scores of each of the variables were used to compute a criticality quotient, based on the Westinghouse Needs Assessment Model, to be used in determining the priority of each goal. Data analysis included total response, group response, and response by geographic location of the respondents. Implications were then drawn for the development of an orientation program for missionary children. No one category of need (cognitive, social, emotional, or spiritual) emerged as the most consuming for young missionary children. Rather, the goals related to the categories were well dispersed throughout the priority ranking. / Ed. D.

The purpose of the study was to determine the educational priorities of parents with children enrolled in American Sponsored Overseas Schools in South America, and to compare those priorities with their perceptions of school performance. Responsiveness was defined as the relationship between priorities and perceived performance. Parents of secondary students enrolled in member schools of the Association of American Schools in South America, Inc. were the population for the study. A purposive sample of four schools located in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay were surveyed. A low response rate reflected the nature of the population. Characteristics of non-response in overseas settings are discussed. Results were biased in favor of the politically interested/active parents. Frequencies and crosstabulations were used to describe responsiveness levels, relationships between responsiveness and demographic characteristics, levels of parent satisfaction, and relationships between satisfaction and respondent characteristics. The findings indicate that respondents were a demographically homogeneous group. Parents responding were satisfied with their schools and felt that the schools were responsive to their needs. No significant predictors of either satisfaction or responsiveness were found. / Ed. D.

The aim of this study was to explore communication between supervisors and international students in the context of master’s supervision meetings. Nine meetings between three lecturers and seven students were audio recorded and analysed using Conversation Analysis. The focus of the study is the supervisors’ use of Yeah?, Okay? and Right? after students’ minimal responses and silence, usually following supervisors’ informing and advising turns. The use of these tags in this position is distinctive, and throws some light on the practice of supervision and on the ways students and supervisors orient to their roles. The tags can be seen to function to underline the supervisors’ actions of informing or advising, to mark transitions in the supervisors’ talk, to express doubt about the students’ understanding or agreement, and to invite students to speak. The sequences of which these tags are a part highlight both the asymmetrical relationship between supervisors and students and the negotiation of understanding and agreement that is a central issue in this setting, particularly when supervisors and students do not share the same linguistic or cultural background. I conclude by outlining some implications for supervisors’ practice, and also some specific suggestions which might be considered by teachers of English for academic purposes.

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