Classrooms Abroad—Vive la différence!
in the College Parent Advisor newsletter

By Linda Quinet

A class of American college students in Paris recently staged a walkout in protest of their French professor who was tardy 15 to 30 minutes daily and regularly expected the students to stay late to make up the lost time. The frustrated students had not been briefed properly that the French professor's daily routine and expections are an accepted practice.

In South America, students must wait for professors even if the majority of class time goes by without an appearance.

In the United States, however, college students usually are excused if the professor doesn't show in the first 10 or 15 minutes.

American students going abroad for a semester or more can expect many such differences in classroom practices. They should be prepared to adapt to teaching methods and academic environment's which differ from what they are accustomed in the States.

A well-run foreign study program alerts students to the different ways professors teach in a selected country or school, differences in ways of doing assignments an differences in expected levels of performance.

This information should be provided in the program advance materials and explained in depth during a through orientation.

Cultural differences outside the classroom also can impact classroom performance. In South American, for example, students eat dinner anywhere from 10 p.m. to midnight and continue conversation afterward. If there's an impromptu move to a coffeehouse or nightspot after that, unprepared students may find themselves with little sleep before morning classes. Without proper balance and planning, this lifestyle can affect academic success.

In any country the sudden burst of freedom and curiosity about one's new environment can lead, at least temporarily to academics taking a back seat. To a degree, this is justifiable. The cultural experience is part of the educational opportunity during study abroad. However, students need to be mature enough to balance academic demands with empirical social research of their own design.

A sobering counterforce for students is the recognition that study at schools abroad is equally, if not more, demanding as in the States. Students should expect classes to be academically challenging.

However, while students should seek to get the most of their classroom performance, a study abroad program should not be so academically demanding that it limits the cultural interchange possibilities. In no other type of program is the study so experiential in balancing the demands of the classroom and cultural experience.

The most serious students have been known to comment that in addition to book work there is so much else to absorb. This includes consideration of the differences in approach to academics from culture to culture.

European tradition has students specializing much earlier than U.S. students, studying one or two disciplines for there or four years. A degree may generally be offered for a three-year program of specialized study without introductory or "distribution" courses.

The mix of lectures and seminars accompanied with individual work in labs and libraries familiar to Americans may be part of Australian class structure, but so is the British tutorial system where classes are conducted within a small of groups taking a seminar with one professor.

The most often-cited classroom difference is the lack of intermittent testing that lets students know how they are doing as a semester progresses. Students are expected to do the reading, attend the lectures and make sure they are assimilating the information. Students may be entirely on their own up to the final exam.

Teachers abroad do not consider it their responsibility to remind students of their responsibilities. Professors abroad expect students to be independent and proactive when it comes to homework assignments. There won't be any follow-up quizzes to make sure the homework was actually done. Professors expect that if they assign it, it will be completed. Returning students admit that American students are often "coddled" compared to students in other countries.

U.S. students also comment on how foreign classes tend to be less interactive than those in the United States. U.S. professors encourage dialogue and discussion, and they encourage students to contribute verbally.

Foreign professors are more likely to lecture without offering as much opportunity for students to participate. Again, the professor is there to teach; the student is there to learn.

Foreign professors also tend to be considered less accessible than their U.S. counterparts. It isn't uncommon for U.S professors to put their home phone number on the syllabus and to encourage students to use it. Foreign professors typically don't do this. There's a clearer line between the foreign professor and their students, although they are approachable and helpful with students' questions at school.

Often it's too late (after an exam) when U.S. students realize much more was expected of them than they perceived was communicated at the start of the term.

Professors expect students to do more than the bare minimum. The students should read and study more than simply what is listed on the syllabus. "Suggested readings" are more than just a suggestion.

Testing may consist totally of an extended essay, especially in the social studies and humanities. Students generally will not find short answer or multiple choice selections.

Oral exams and defense of papers are more common abroad than in the United States. There may be continuous evaluation as well as mid-semester tests and concluding examination, but students should not be purposed if a final exam is the only fading opportunity for their course work.

Grading scales vary widely from country to country. Students should be prepared to understand the equivalents for the foreign grades. In an Australian school, a Bamboo include the A- range, and a C only means a C+ by U.S. standards. Students may end up with a CQ, a passing grade with a warning that work at the next level will have to improve.

The grading system in France is based on a numerical scale of 20, interpreted to American letter grades as 16-20 being in the A range, 15 B+, 14 B, 13 B- and so on. Grading in France usually is rather severe.

Students also should determine in advance how the grading system and class credit transfers to their home school or university. The transcript from a university abroad may include details such as course name, class hours and grades, but not indicate recommended units of credit. The home institution must approve the amount of credit to transfer. A school offering its own study abroad program(s) should be able to guarantee the number of credits to be earned.

If going through a private agency, the student should make sure the credits and transfer process is cleared before leaving the United States. Students should have their advisor or other officer as required by their school sign an approval.

Universities abroad may be slow to send grades back to home schools. This practice likely will not be a problem unless the student absolutely must ha a grade within a certain time frame, such as for graduation. Leeway for the reporting mechanism should be cleared in advance as well.

Students also should seek advance information on the destination university's add-drop policy. If there is no available policy or no changes are allowed, then students must consider themselves forewarned.

A one-week time frame for drop/add is minimal. This may amount to a one-time visit to a class, since classes abroad may meet less frequently, but for longer times.

Ideally, policies allow at least two weeks to change classes.

While much information can be ascertained in advance, other classroom factors may come as a surprise. Some South American schools tolerate cell phones and beepers going off in the classroom. Rather than grounds for removal from class or at least professorial scorn as in the more discipline-oriented British and American schools, students there are allowed to keep them on and disrupt 10-20 fellow students on their way to continue a conversation in the hallway.

Similar tolerance may apply to nicotine cravings. Students sometimes are allowed to leave the classroom to smoke. While schools abroad increasingly are limiting smoking to designated areas, expect smoking to be more evident than what one is used to in the United States.

One of the best ways for students to prepare for classroom differences is to talk with other students who have studied abroad. They either can speak with students on campus who have just returned from their school's foreign study program or contact via the internet recently returned students willing to answer e-mailed questions.

The classroom experience is just one of the areas where students abroad will be comparing and contrasting cultural differences with what they are accustomed to back home.

Being alert to the likely differences to be encountered will provide a head start in making the most of the study abroad experience, both in and outside the classroom

Linda Quinet is Editorial Director at the American Institute For Foreign Study.

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