Being an international student can often be challenging as flexibility and adaptability are fundamental in order to survive in a whole new environment that could affect the growth and performance of a student. From my point of view as an international student, it is indeed true that flexibility is crucial as I am in the phase of my life where lots of changes are happening hence I need to respond to these changes rationally as it will shape me as a learner. For instances, the transition from formal education to higher education or much simpler, how people communicate among them are also changing. However, flexibility and agility are one of the interpersonal skills so they cannot be built overnight. They need to be developed through learning and experiences. Through Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory, learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world which affect overall functioning of a person from the way one thinks, feels, perceives and reacts. Different people have different learning styles which are influenced by personal experiences and environments that made them either diverging, converging, assimilating or accommodating. These styles are determined by the combination of grasping and transforming experiences that results in one’s knowledge. Grasping experience can be divided into two modes, Concrete Experience (CE) and Abstract Conceptualization (AC) while transforming experience modes consist of Reflective Observation (RO) and Active Experimentation (AE). However, the transition from formal to higher education can be overwhelming since the learning in higher education is different because the learning spaces promote growth-producing experiences which refers to direct experience and total experiential life of learners. This can be beneficial to the students as they get to know and conquer their learning style but it can be bad as well since direct experience can lead to mis-educative experiences that could obstruct their performances. In addition to that, I will stress on some positive impacts as well as few challenges based on my learning experiences in trying to adapt to this new environment.
Back in school, I preferred to study and work alone because I do not have to deal with other people’s issues and I like to solve problems and make decisions on my own rather than hearing other people’s theories and opinions which sometimes can be disrupting. I enjoyed experimenting with new ideas and practically applied them in assignments. I can say back then that I have converging learning style as AC and AE are the dominants because individual with converging learning style has the ability to deal with technical tasks and problems but not with social and interpersonal issues. However, as I entered higher education, most of the times I have to work in groups rather than working alone. I realized that working in bigger groups can be more impactful compared to working alone. It can be divided into three major impact to every person in a group which the first one is, it provides greater room for brainstorming ideas. In CORE practice module, I had an opportunity to work in a group for an assignment where group of five or six students need to prepare for presentation on the value of human capabilities. In my group, we certainly exchanged ideas between us and it amazed me that every single one of us came up with completely different ideas but we successfully combined our ideas to one main point that we agreed to present. From that particular experience, I realized that it is so refreshing to hear other people’s views and thinking because to be fair, most of them are different from my own views. In CORE, we are taught that nothing is wrong, it is just how we see things differently from others because of things that influenced our personal development like educational background, cultures and beliefs.
Next, working in groups allow the process of exchanging cultural values and beliefs which increase self-awareness. Warwick is known for its diversity where people come across the world to learn and to teach, therefore language barrier can be the biggest challenge to the students. However, from my point of view, I am now in such a great platform to expand my view and make connections globally. There was one time in CORE seminar, the tutor asked the students including myself to make a big circle and the circle started from student who traveled the shortest to Warwick from our home country and the last student would be the student who traveled the furthest. From that session, I just knew that even though the Chinese from China live in the same country, they have multiple languages due to their different zones and regions. Therefore, they have their own dialects that are completely different from one another. All this while I thought that they speak the same language but actually they are not. For most Asians, food and cultures are the strength of most of the countries because based from where I came from, my country itself is so diverse that consists of Malay, Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Baba and Nyonya and so much more. Other than that, one of the most important values in life of the Indians is the family. Families tend to be very close and the Indians would definitely work everything out for the benefit of their families. The differences between each and every one of the students keep the students engage more and this process increases the empathy and understanding in the students which both are vital components in creating future transformational leaders.
Last but not least, this way of learning creates a more positive atmosphere where feedback is encouraged and it is the essential part of a learning process. Feedback sustain the communication process thus in learning, it can be concluded that gain in knowledge is directly proportional to the amount of feedback. Moreover, feedback can increase one’s maturity, creativity and not to forget, allow one to reflect. Experience and reflection are the emphasis of learning in Kolb’s Learning Theory as it increases the effectiveness of their learning. According to a philosopher, George Santayana, “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. This quote can be related to learning in general as feedback enables one to reflect and reflection provides room for improvement. During week 8’s CORE seminar, the tutor assigned the whole class to get into partners and started to navigate each other to certain places without having to look to one another. We then being asked to do the same task but stood further from each other and shouting was the only way to pass the information to the other person. At that particular moment, I realized that non-verbal communication such as body language is really important even in day-to-day interactions. It helps us to understand the other parties even more and one of the students did mention that the first task was so hard for her since she is a visual learner so she could not do that task well because she cannot see the other person’s actions while navigating her. For me personally, I did bad for the second task as I got distracted too easily because of the noises. Thus, as I reflect back, I really need to set goals in my life to keep me straight in the right path or else I might end up stuck in the corner. Other than that, the tutor asked us to reflect back on our previous times before we got into university, current situations and what we want to see in the future after we graduated. At first, I had nothing much to talk about to my partner because most of the times I was struggling with my studies back then but when I thought of it again, I realized that time has flies so fast and I was not enjoying most of the times I had because I was so focused on my problems and that problems hinder me from achieving more. From that session, I can conclude that reflection is a must in learning as I can improve on things that I am lacking at and I can also polish on things that I am good at.
From these experiences, I learnt that each of us have different ways of learning and everyone should be respectful of one another. Stepping out of the comfort zone is the biggest challenge for me but it really changed the way I see the world. All this while I thought no one wants to hear my opinions but surprisingly, everyone wants to hear what other people have to say about certain things. Active involvement and engagement in class discussions are one of the best ways of learning as it enables the students to undergo the process of brainstorming ideas, exchanging cultural values and reflection. These processes create productive students thus facilitate them to adapt to the situations. From all the points I have mentioned earlier, I can say that I adapt well to the changes thus indicates that I have developed flexibility and agility throughout the process of learning in Warwick. I believe that these experiences have shaped me into a learner with diverging style which CE and RO as dominants learning abilities. I perform better in situations such as brainstorming session and I prefer to work in group because I get to listen with an open mind and be able to receive personalized feedback. According to Experiential Learning Theory of Kolb’s, the researcher found that people with diverging style have broad cultural interests and like to gather information. Thus, it suits my current learning style that has shaped the way I learn.
As I reflect back, I believe that no matter how one learns, it is important to have a balance learning style which integrates all learning modes, AC, CE, AE and RO. It is difficult but it can be developed if we truly learn the right way. As we live in a very pervasive and progressive world where the demand of good quality leaders is increasing and it should be fulfilled, therefore the students should prepare for the future or we will have to face the risks of descending growth of the country that eventually affect the world. I for one, hope that as I graduated from Warwick, I should have balanced my learning style so that wherever life puts me into, I should be able to survive and adapt to the changes with less difficulties.
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