The learning experience of postgraduate students: matching methods to aims

Action research with international Masters in Business Administration students reported here builds on action research carried out at Anglia Polytechnic University to better enable international postgraduate students develop learning and research strategies and research methods to succeed in their study. The Reflection on Learning Inventory and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) examination, which tests competence in reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, identify student learning styles and language levels from which conclusions about teaching and learning needs are deduced. A programme of academic-oriented language support, including both the APU-originated CD-ROM Excel at Academic English and specific workshop sessions, has been developed. This programme is piloted with the 2000-2001 cohort, and accompanied by action research which includes focus group interviews and mid-year evaluation of the support and development programme. It has led to radical overhaul of elements of the course itself, with widespread implications for support and development for international postgraduates studying at APU.