New Arrival Students: Mitigating Factors on the Culture of the Computing Learning Environment

Over the past decade Australian and New Zealand educational institutions have experienced a rapid increase in the numbers of "New Arrivals" - immigrant and international students who leave their home country and study abroad. Studies have found that many of these students encounter problems adjusting to living and studying in their host country as well as experiencing difficulties in their learning environment. A significant number of New Arrival students enrol in computing programmes and have traditionally formed a minority subgroup in their learning milieu. Females are another minority subgroup in computing and research shows that the culture of the computing learning environment has been influential in many of them feeling alienated and contributing to the disproportionate female representation and retention in tertiary computing programmes compared with males. At the same time that New Arrival students are coping with living and studying in a new culture, they will also ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: ACE
• Authors: Barbara J. Crump
• Keywords: ACE 2004, Computing Learning Environment, Computing Programmes, Education, Learning Milieu