 seem chaotic and the authority of the teacher appeared undermined. The amount of freedom of choice could also lead to a loss of direction. When life felt too free, one started to miss the old and the familiar.
This suddenly left a blank space in my new life. It is hilarious that in Finland, you can freely do whatever you want and learn whatever you think is necessary but you feel empty and you miss your education back home. Very comfortable learning atmosphere sometimes lead to disrespectful to the teachers as the students can leave or do whatever they want during the lectures. Language is the toughest challenge that I have to overcome. The Finnish accent of some teachers makes overseas students like me hard to understand and follow the lecture.
c) Experiences about studying at TAMK
Based on the identified positive and negative features of studying at TAMK three different types of reaction to a new learning culture were identified.
Confusion. Adapting to a new learning culture takes time and seldom comes easily. A sense of confusion and uncertainty may affect students without adequate preparation.
For the first two months, I had absolutely no goals at all, which meant I did not have any motivation to study and learn new things. The teacher did not push me to achieve anything. If I failed a course, I could take the retake exams. I could skip the class without being punished by any rule.
Many students came from educational systems that emphasized considerable instructor guidance and supervision. They were embarrassed or did not know which way to go when confronted with TAMK’s learning culture which involves independent learning, working in teams and active classroom participation. Each student adjusts at a different pace to new habits and expectations (Brown and Holloway, 2008; Wang 2012). According to Gudykunst (2005) culture shock is not a problem to be cured but a certain amount of uncertainty and anxiety is seen as positive and as a necessary step towards intercultural communicative competence.
Transformation. Some students found the learner centred approach in TAMK liberating and became critical of the teacher centred approach.
This four-month-period of time changed myself completely. Learning, now that I have found my motivation, has become surprisingly enjoyable. I’ve overcome my insecurities, my social anxieties and my feeling of unworthiness. It feels like my whole school experience has changed. My learning methods have changed from passive to active. This lead to amazing changes in my learning attitudes from pessimistic to optimistic. What is more, I can use the positive attitude to deal with every problem relating to learning.
In other words, learning in another culture has made it possible to evolve from the ways learnt in the past, from learning because you are told to do so to learning because you want to do so.. Students have acquired in their own culture a coherent body of experience – associations, concepts, values, feelings – frames of reference that shape their expectations, perceptions, cognition, and feelings in new culture. Transformation is the process of change in student’s frame of reference (Mezirow 1991).
Combination of familiar and new. Some students were critical of the suggestion that they should completely assume a new approach to learning and give up approaches and practices learnt in their culture. They were striving to create a merger of the old and the new.
Looking back and reflecting how my learning style has changed I realized that my current learning style is a modified combination of collective and individual system. Students should flexibly combine both passive and active way to achieve the highest efficiency in learning. They can benefit from a combination instead of getting distract in a Teacher-Centered education or losing their goals with a completely Learning-Centered class.
Learning about the host cultures’ values, customs and social codes can aid a positive psychological behavioural adaptation, while maintaining the individual’s own cultural values (Calvez 2008). Adaptation i