Overview of the Situation:
Indian students are less motivated when they come to UK
The Indian students whom Mr Stephens had interacted in India were bright and brilliant and they were eager to study in UK. The same students after facing the British environment have changed a lot. There motivational levels are at low which in turn affecting their education. The performance of these Indian students was not at its par. They were lagging in all aspects. The number of application which CAAS has got shows that there is a problem with the change in environment. There might be many reasons for this it might be due to the teaching methods, stress level cultural shock etc. In order to find out the root cause a thorough analysis should be done and depending on it action should be taken to overcome it. This problem might not only be for Indian students but also other international students who come here to study.
Analysis of the situation:
As we know that the motivational levels of Indian students are at low which in turn affecting their performance. From the number of application which CAAS has got indicates that there is a problem with the change in environment. The change in environment might be due to the teaching methods, stress level, cultural shock etc. In order to find out the root cause, a thorough analysis should be done Also this problem might not only be for Indian students but also other international students who come here to study. In order to identify the problem with Indian students studying in University of Bedfordshire a SWOT analysis on Indian students is recommended and will be useful to understand the cause and to find solutions.
SWOT Analysis.
According to SWOT analysis on Indian students it can be found that their strengths are good. Indian students are used to English language teaching. They are also intelligent, dedicated and have good knowledge about their respective field. They are fast in understanding new concepts. Indian students are also known for their creativity.
Indian students have lots of opportunities in becoming a global leader if they overcome their weakness. Indian students also have an opportunity to study the similar education under the twinning program of University of Bedfordshire and NCAS India way back in India. They can join this program and understand the British standards of teaching and British culture.
Indian student’s major weakness is their adaptability of various cultures is not so good. They are following one of the oldest traditions. Despite so many diversities in India they are adjusted to other types of culture. The India students studying abroad will take time to change in their cultural behaviour. The other weakness Indian students have is the UK teaching pattern which is entirely different with the Indian teaching methods. Also, Indians are more emotional and bonded which is mainly due to their culture.
There are very few threats to Indian students as compared to the strengths. The threat might come from Racism and culture. But these two threats cannot be find to be a great problem as of now in the British environment.
By understanding the weakness of Indian students, the major problem they are facing is Cultural difference. The change in culture is actually de-motivating the students, resulting in bringing down their interest level. Generally, students in dissimilar cultures have noticeably dissimilar understanding of their own, of others, and of the interdependence of the two. These understandings can control, and in many situations conclude, the very personality of individual knowledge, including cognition, feeling, and motivation. The other weakness they have is difference in teaching pattern, but Indian students can tune themselves and adjust to this teaching pattern rapidly.
Indian student’s statistics in the first year of education and the last year of education was different. During their first year, Indian students normally reported some de-motivating culturally dissimilar experiences including using difficult books, new language, hard projects, presentation outlook superior than their level,
Motivation is a responsibility of internal and external versatile factors. The changes in the university framework as well as changes in Indian students’ levels of improvement show the way to changes in their motivational reactions. In general, the statistics seems to fit some extent to the models of student changeover into the university circumstance. Usually, these models portray three phases of university student changeover and progress. Schlossberg (1984) discussed the three intrapersonal phases of changeover which are ‘pervasiveness’, ‘disruption’, and ‘integration’. Tinto (1993) mainly paid attention on the institutional phases of changeover; namely ‘separation’, ‘transition’, and ‘incorporation’. Chickering (1969) explained that university students are generally in their late teenage years and early parenthood (17 to 22 years). He discussed students’ chronological psychosocial growth together with rising capability, supervision emotions, stirring from autonomy to independence, adult interpersonal interaction, developing rationale, developing individuality, and developing reliability.
Miriam (1997) stated that culture is frequently represented through its value system These Values articulate motivational goals. On the other hand, the meanings of some explicit values show a discrepancy across cultures. Cultural values decide what it means to be an individual in a particular culture, and they are represented in the personality.
In common any individual who live in the same cultural environment uses a criteria for evaluating the involvement of any specific behavior to the development of their sense of self-respect. But these criteria vary across cultures along with differences in cultural values, so they end up shaping different meanings of self-esteem. Western cultures such as UK are known for their eccentric ethics (self-governing), whereas Far East cultures such as Indian cultures are known for their cluster orientation ethics (i.e. inter-reliant). The different criteria for evaluation driven by the self-governing and the inter-reliant facets of the self resolve what kind of proceedings and situations will be alleged as fulfilling the self-derived motives: effectiveness, improvement, and uniformity.
Solutions and recommendations
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Based on the analysis above we afford several optional solutions here “(it is noticeable that sometimes apparent solutions may generate more problems)”. Mr Stephens may well need to make the decisions with his view to the optimum solutions.
We know the major issue with the Indian student’s performance is lagging because of the change in culture which in turn is affecting their motivation. The fundamental path from values to goals and intentions is purposeful and self-regulated. The eventual reason of the whole certainty arrangement is to keep up and enhance the Indian student´s self-image.
Hofstede(1980) who distinguishes about this issue in the work situation, inter-reliant in opposition to self-governing and high in opposition to low control space seem to be the most applicable for evaluating the significance of a range of motivational practices depending on the cultural situation. Motivational practices aim at increasing individual’s involvement in their work.
In this case Motivation for Indian students can be brought in two aspects.
- Extrinsic Motivational
- Training the Indian students before coming to UK
- Training the Indian students after coming to UK
- Intrinsic Motivation
The concept of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are Intrinsic refers to a student’s inner aspiration to execute a job for no return apart from the individual fulfillment or pleasure. Suppose, when a student is aggravated by rewards outside to the student’s importance and fulfillment, than these factors can be called as extrinsic motivators. Undoubtedly, the most advantageous form of motivation is intrinsic. indeed, concern have to be taken with extrinsic rewards. In the fullness of time students who are intrinsically motivated, but rewarded extrinsically, can bring down their intrinsic interest in learning in favor of the extrinsic rewards (Husen & Postlethwaite, 1994)
- Extrinsic Motivational Practice
- Training Before Coming:
Indian students can be trained about the difference in Cultures and its impact. A set up training can be more useful. Since these programs are expensive and needs permission from both sides of government, as a consultant I feel it’s not feasible.
- Training After coming:
In order to boost the motivation of the Indian students after arriving to UK, then some of the following significant motivational practices should be taken care. They are: Prize allocation, involvement in different activities and goal setting, learning enhancement, and excellence management.
- Intrinsic Motivational Practice
The practice of self-evaluation requires the Indian student to use a set of guiding principles: the personal internal standards of the self-governing and the prevalent values of society of the inter-reliant.
Motivational Practice – Theories
The ARCS Model
ARCS model (Keller, 1987) is a method for methodically scheming motivation strategies into instructional resources. The model consists of three parts:
- A set of four categories for concepts of human motivation,
- A set of strategies for enhancing motivation in instruction, and
- A design model for motivational design.
The ARCS model works under the hypothesis that students will be motivated if they sense that they can be triumphant and that there is worth in their learning.
Forecasts and outcomes
International perspectives are widespread in today’s world of organizations. As company practices turn out to be more universal, many hypothetical constructs frequently used in domestic study are being functional in innovative cross-cultural arenas.
Students coming from self-governing or individualistic cultures have a propensity to have sturdy self-governing -understanding and focusing on themselves as a distinct and only one of its kind individual (Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999); (Markus & Kitayama, 1991); (Triandis, 1989). They are motivated to position out from their cluster as a person who is outstanding and triumphant (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). These students tend to focal point on their individual achievements and aspirations and show signs of an acknowledgment bias designed at enhancing their sense of worth (Heine & Lehman, 1997). They view information about achievements as more significant to their sense of worth than information about failures (Kitayama, Markus, Matsumoto, & Norasakkunkit, 1997).
Similar students who come from an inter-reliant culture have a propensity to have strong mutually dependent, self understanding. They focus themselves as a part of network of interpersonal associations (Heine et al 1999) (Markus & Kitayama 1991) (Triandis 1989).
These students should be motivated to cope up with their cluster and preserve social harmony (Markus & Kitayama 1991).As a result, they have a propensity to spotlight on their responsibilities and obligations to others and attempt to stay away from behaviors that may cause group disruptions or disappoint others in their lives (Heine et al 1999). These students are more than ever prone to condemn themselves, seeking details about errors that need to be corrected (Heine, Takata, & Lehman 2000). Certainly, these students view information about errors or their failures as more related to their sense of worth than information about successes
Hence it is more important to encourage the Indian students by providing different kind of Motivational practices. Motivational practice can be given to the students before arriving to UK or after arriving. Intrinsic motivation is the best in compared with extrinsic motivation. To large extent Indian students should be trained to be motivated intrinsically. Several Motivational theories can also be used to Motivate students. A pre-session to these students briefing about the situation in UK and the British culture might reduce the impact.
From the entire paper, one can agree that motivation is inter related to various culture. Any change in culture will have an impact on that individual. The individual might be a student as in this case or working individual will always go through the cultural shock which has an impact on their level of motivation.
Reference Section
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