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Modern society is undergoing numerous rapid changes, which include both opportunities and challenges for individuals of all ages. In this environment, young people, particularly students, are frequently confronted with situations that need them to choose and make decisions. The primary goal of this study was to (1) investigate variations in students' attitudes toward decision-making processes based on gender and school year. (2) Students, administrators, and lecturers assess the students' own steps in putting decision-making into practice. A sample of 697 students and 120 administrators and lecturers were chosen from six school universities using the random sampling technique. Our research yielded the following results: (1) There is a statistically significant difference in male and female attitudes toward decision-making; and (2) there is a statistically significant difference in freshmen's and seniors' attitudes toward decision-making. Steps in student decision-making include: First, pupils decide to identify the issue. Next, they select the optimal solution. Step three is to make a list of potential possibilities. In the next stage, they collect the necessary information about the problem. Finally, students analyze each plan. This study implies that students, administrators, and lecturers rate students' decision-making processes equally.

Technology integration in second language acquisition (SLA) has become prevalent and prominent in the modern age. Quizlet has emerged as a vocabulary learning tool integrated not only into computers (CALL) but also into mobile phones (MALL), over the years; its effectiveness has already been proved via several quasi-experimental studies. However, such research is still limited; some did not even include a control group. Further, whether learners' individual differences may have any impact on Quizlet effectiveness in promoting lexical gains remains unknown. To address these gaps, this study was conducted with the participation of 68 Vietnamese undergraduates, following a pretest-posttest design together with semi-structured interviews. While the control group (N = 35) reviewed lexical items in a conventional way, the experimental group (N = 33) used Quizlet for vocabulary revision. Prior to the five-week treatment, all participants took the pretest, receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge tests, and three working memory tests. When all revision sessions were completed, all participants took the posttest. Then, five random learners in the experimental group were invited to join the semi-structured interviews. Results showed that while revision on Quizlet led to greater lexical gains, working memory and prior vocabulary knowledge did not play any significant role in predicting such improvements. Pedagogical implications for teachers and recommendations for future research were also provided to address vocabulary retention, individual differences, and the use of Quizlet more effectively.

Global higher education, including that of Asia, has been facing many challenges, notably declining government funding and simultaneously increased influences of neoliberalism on its outlook, aspirations, policies and practices. This reality has put the role and purpose of higher education (HE) under testament, particularly in unprecedented crisis-induced situations such as natural catastrophes and pandemics. This article, while focussing on an Asian context, is situated in the larger picture of HE's responses to crises and what transformations that may be enabled in the process. In unprecedented crisis-induced challenges, how does HE serve the interests of the public and society? Likewise, in this context, how can HE maintain equity and social justice as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda? These very questions are critical for many societies and invite serious scholarly examination. Engaged with the literature on HE as a public/private good, HE and neoliberalism, and HE in times of crisis, this article discusses the case of the University of Dhaka -- the leading university in Bangladesh -- in its responses to the COVID-19 crisis (2020-2022). We show how HE as a public good is utmost important as governments everywhere are finding ways to incorporate the SDGs into every aspect of their HE systems. We also posit that the COVID-induced transformations of higher education in the case of the University of Dhaka have proved HE as a public good to be a robust and resilient pillar for fulfilling various stakeholders' needs and aspirations. Such transformations have affirmed the values of humanity, access and equity in HE, and these values are here to stay.

Vocabulary plays a significant role in the learning process of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, especially undergraduates who need to read academic materials and listen to specialized lectures in English. However, retaining lexical items is still a challenging task for many EFL learners. The current study seeks to examine the effectiveness of a constructivist approach in improving EFL learners' vocabulary retention, mainly meaning recall, as well as investigate their attitude towards this learning method. To achieve this aim, a quasi-experimental design, including a pretest and a posttest, was employed with the participation of 75 EFL Vietnamese undergraduates. The participants were assigned into two groups: the control group (Group 1, N = 37) and the experimental group (Group 2, N = 38). While Group 1 was taught in a conventional way, Group 2 received vocabulary training following the constructivist approach. At the end of the eight-week treatment, a questionnaire was administered to the experimental group to gauge their view on vocabulary learning using constructivism. The results showed that Group 2 retained lexical items more effectively than Group 1. Furthermore, the experimental group had a favorable opinion of learning vocabulary in the constructivist approach. Recommendations for future studies as well as implications for teachers regarding vocabulary and constructivism, were presented in detail.

This article responds to scholarly calls to engage with diaspora in the context of transnational educational mobilities in global higher education. It maintains that transnational academic mobilities produce a particular kind of academic diaspora, that is often valued by both home and host countries but in ways that vary and serve different interests and aspirations. While the contrasting perspectives on brain circulation and brain drain persist, what this article argues is that systemic inequalities are (re)produced through the processes of transnational academic mobilities, which privilege the mobility of some and not others, and at the same time under-value the home-grown academics and overseas-trained academics that return home. The current diaspora politics is located within this complex, hierarchical, and dynamic cultural, political and economic space. In particular, it pinpoints how the promoted desirability of diasporic brains and talents in policy and practice has continued to reproduce and consolidate academic inequalities. The article then argues for place-based/at home transnationality, seeing it as productive counter position to help reduce inequalities. The article employs self-study research and is informed by a bricolage of data on Vietnam and its Vietnamese transnational academic diasporas gathered at different points in time and in different contexts.

Achieving a sufficient IELTS band score for academic purposes has been a major goal of many L2 learners around the world, especially those in Asia. However, IELTS writing scores were consistently reported to be the lowest when compared to the scores in speaking, reading, and listening. Despite a growing body of research in IELTS writing, little focused on the role of model essays and noticing hypotheses. The present study aimed to fill in this gap by examining whether or not the implementation of both noticing hypothesis and model essays had a discernible influence on learners' IELTS task 2 writing. To reach this goal, a quasi-experimental design including a pretest and a posttest was conducted with the voluntary participation of 52 undergraduates. These participants were divided into two groups: control group (CG, n = 25), learning in the conventional method (peer feedback and teacher feedback), and experimental group (EG, n = 27), using the noticing-model essays method. Following this, semi-structured interviews were performed to gain insights into the quantitative data. The results from this mixed-methods approach showed that there were significant gains in the overall performance and in the lexical resources subscale in the EG while no considerable changes were observed in the CG. Additionally, the other subscales (task response, grammatical range and accuracy, and cohesion-coherence) did not witness any significant differences between the two groups. Several pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research, especially in the Asian context, were also discussed.

This article is concerned with the internationalisation of higher education and student mobility for society and community engagement purposes. Drawing on the specific case study of Universiti Brunei Darussalam's Community Outreach Programme overseas, it examines the programme's operation in Vietnam as well as investigates Bruneian students' experiences during their programme activities in this Asian country. The article also explores the impacts of such experiences on the students' growth and transformations. The reported growth and transformations, on the one hand, demonstrate the importance of social engagement beyond campus and correspond to the internationalisation in higher education for society agenda recently advocated by international education scholars and practitioners. They also offer rich insights into (inter-Asian) student mobility for non-academic purposes, which remain largely under-researched. On the other hand, underlying the students' transformative experiences are many issues associated with student safety and wellbeing that require ethical responses and appropriate adaptive pedagogies.

This paper draws on a small-scale qualitative study with international students enrolled in various English- and Chinese-medium instruction programs in Chinese universities. It seeks to explore these students' educational experiences and their perceptions of China and China's higher education. Our study provides ample evidence about the irrelevance of Chinese language in the current policies and practices of Chinese universities regarding internationalization and international students. It also counters earlier studies that show how deeply rooted the discourses of native speaker and native-speaking varieties of English are in English-medium-instruction programs around the world. All in all, the paper makes theoretical and empirical contributions to the emerging literature on international students' education and academic experiences in China. Through accounts obtained from international students of varied backgrounds, the paper also sheds light on nuances of internationalization, medium of instruction, and academic mobilities.

Informed by an ethnographic qualitative research study conducted with expatriate teachers of English in Saudi Arabia, we examine emotion(al) labor in the context of transnational mobilities with regards to cultural and institutional tensions. Engaged with wide-ranging interdisciplinary literature on emotion and affect, we discuss the place of transnational emotion(al) labor in four inter-related manifestations: (a) struggles and efforts to interact and communicate with students; (b) internalization and resentment of privilege and deficiency underlying discourses of native speakers; (c) responses to challenges from social, religious, and cultural difference; and (d) prolonged endurance, frustration, helplessness, and resistance to prescribed curriculum, testing, and top-down policy and practice. We also incorporate our reflections and emotion(al) labor as transnationally trained academics as we engage with the participants' accounts. We show how our study could inspire dialogues with the self and conversations among researchers for support and solidarity beyond constructed boundaries of race, language, religion, ethnicity, and nationality.

This article, through autoethnographic narrative and reflection, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions, explores how the transnational academic mobility experiences of a Muslim scholar of Islam based in Brunei may influence his identity, research, and teaching. It pinpoints how transnational academic mobilities could (re)produce, sustain and endorse East/West, local/global, and religious/secular dichotomies and binary thinking. Likewise, it shows that transnational academic mobilities often generate ambiguous and divided spaces concerning knowledge production, pedagogy, and identity formation. The article also maintains that contextualizing and engaging (with) the specificity and particularity of place and academic discipline are pivotal in studying transnational academic mobilities. Methodologically, it highlights the role of autoethnographic reflection in bringing out complex experiences and accounts that academics undergo but rarely acknowledge and conceptualize in scholarly work. Such accounts and experiences serve as reminders of the importance of humility, trust, ethics, and reflexivity in academia. Transnational academic mobilities, after all, must not be privileged.

This article is about 'global south' actors and global south--global south interactions in the context of the internationalization of higher education (IHE), with a focus on a Vietnamese university and the mobilities of students moving through this educational space. It discusses in what ways this university sees its multi-layered association with the Philippines as a bridge, a catalyst that could fulfill its aspirations for internationalization which is largely attached to English, 'the West', the idea of 'the West', and becoming global. The article shows how the participation in and consumption of such aspirations/desires by new IHE players could reproduce and widen social inequalities between and within 'global south' actors but also bring about (unexpected) possibilities and transformations in a context of considerable educational mediocrity. It points to the contradictions inherent in these developments and the ways in which these developments may feed into uneven access to and experiences of IHE.

While the educational literature mentions several obstacles affecting the effectiveness of collaborative learning (CL), they have often been investigated through the perceptions of only one actor, either teachers or students. Therefore, some sources of obstacles that teachers and students encounter may not have been revealed. In this study, 19 teachers and 23 students in different disciplines at a pre-service teacher education faculty at a university in Vietnam were interviewed. In total, 47% of the teachers taught science subjects and 53% taught social subjects; 35% of the students majored in science subjects, 57% in social subjects, and 8% in primary education. With regard to study cohorts, 22% of the students were in the first and second year while 78% were in the third and fourth year of their four-year bachelor's programme. These programmes produce qualified teachers for primary and secondary schools nationwide. Based on grounded theory analysis, four common obstacles to collaboration were identified: students' lack of collaborative skills, free-riding, competence status, and friendship. Furthermore, the results showed three interrelated antecedents that contribute to these obstacles. Central to the antecedents is the strong focus of the teachers on the cognitive aspects of CL, which led the participating teachers to neglect the collaborative aspects of CL. These antecedents were demonstrated in the ways teachers set CL goals, provided instruction, and assessed student collaboration. This study may be useful for educators, designers, and researchers to foster the quality of student collaboration.

This article is about the struggles to sustain identity as writers while accommodating the demands of the university experienced by Arianto and his thesis supervisor, myself. It shows how critical EAP was the on-going conversation between us about how to negotiate norms, voice and creativity in our writing and in the negotiations Arianto had to make when writing his own essays and thesis in English and assessing his students' written works. The article also discusses how my positioning as a writer of two languages and having a passion for my own voice and identity in writing has influenced the ways I have analysed and interpreted Arianto's tensions, contradictions and justifications in his negotiation processes. The findings showcase the ways in which power is shared and shifted among EAP teachers, supervisors and students and the tendency to recognise and respect different ways of practising EAP among readers, such as journal reviewers and thesis examiners. They also reveal how Arianto's readiness and confidence to share the ownership of and appropriate English as an international language has been exercised in the negotiation processes involving my support, encouragement as well as critical comments and high expectation of his writing.

In the dynamic academic landscape of the 21st century, the imperative to equip engineering students with robust critical reading skills, in tandem with their technical expertise, has come to the forefront. Recognizing the intrinsic value of critical thinking and reading in cultivating an ethos of lifelong learning among future engineers, this study endeavors to shed light on efficacious methodologies for augmenting critical reading competencies, grounded in the lived experiences of students. Utilizing a phenomenographic methodology, this research aims to explore the mechanisms through which engineering students from Malaysia and Vietnam develop their critical reading skills. The study engaged eight engineering students from both Malaysia and Vietnam, selected based on their demonstrated proficiency in critical reading, as evidenced by scores from a critical reading assessment aligned with the PISA Reading Framework. Through in-depth, phenomenographic semi-structured interviews, the research sought to uncover the strategies and practices these students employ to bolster their critical reading abilities. The findings illuminate a diverse array of approaches to enhancing critical reading skills, including the adoption of specific reading strategies, engagement in extensive and collaborative reading practices, and the maintenance of a positive reading disposition. Notably, the study also identifies that variations in the application and effectiveness of these strategies are influenced by factors such as students' academic progression, cultural contexts, and educational backgrounds. These insights contribute to a nuanced understanding of the multifaceted nature of critical reading skill development among engineering students, offering valuable perspectives for educators, curriculum designers, and policymakers aiming to foster critical analytical skills in STEM education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the critical reading proficiency of engineering students from two private institutions in Malaysia and Vietnam. It examines the degree to which PISAbased critical reading test scores of first- and final-year students vary. 182 engineering students, including 86 Malaysian and 96 Vietnamese undergraduates, were involved in this project. Descriptive and quantitative analyses were performed on the data. According to the findings, most students at two universities exhibited moderate critical reading skills. Moreover, the study's outcomes revealed no substantial disparities between the critical reading levels of the final year Malaysian and Vietnamese students. By contrast, the performance of first-year students at two universities varied significantly on some test items. Some considerations regarding the selection of Western-based texts and the use of open-ended questions in the PISA reading test that might cause difficulties for Eastern students are also demonstrated in this study. This study compares the critical reading proficiency of engineering students from two private institutions in Malaysia and Vietnam. It examines the degree to which PISAbased critical reading test scores of first- and final-year students vary. 182 engineering students, including 86 Malaysian and 96 Vietnamese undergraduates, were involved in this project. Descriptive and quantitative analyses were performed on the data. According to the findings, most students at two universities exhibited moderate critical reading skills. Moreover, the study's outcomes revealed no substantial disparities between the critical reading levels of the final year Malaysian and Vietnamese students. By contrast, the performance of first-year students at two universities varied significantly on some test items. Some considerations regarding the selection of Western-based texts and the use of open-ended questions in the PISA reading test that might cause difficulties for Eastern students are also demonstrated in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cross-Cultural Exploration: The study delves into the perceptions of critical thinking skills among Malaysian and Vietnamese undergraduate students, offering a unique cross-cultural perspective. • Diverse Participants: In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 participants, including first-year and final-year undergraduates, presenting a wide spectrum of high-order thinking skills. • Phenomenographic Approach: Employing the phenomenographic approach, the research uncovers three fundamental conceptions of critical thinking skills, nested within three overarching domains: cognitive, dispositional, and spoken discourse. • Cognitive Dimensions: Within the cognitive domain, the study reveals two distinct approaches: the idealistic and the realistic. These approaches emphasize the theoretical and practical dimensions of critical thinking, offering insights into students' ability to analyze complex concepts and solve intricate problems. • Dispositional Insights: The dispositional domain uncovers the dichotomy of collectivist and individualist perspectives. It highlights how students approach critical thinking within group dynamics and as independent thinkers, shedding light on their motivations and attitudes. • Spoken Discourse: In the spoken discourse domain, two distinct approaches emerge: the product-oriented and the process-oriented. These approaches emphasize the tangible outcomes and cognitive processes of critical thinking, respectively. • Tailoring Pedagogy: The study's findings underscore the importance of customizing pedagogical instruction to accommodate the diverse perspectives and methodologies employed by students in their approach to critical thinking skills. Educators are encouraged to adapt their teaching strategies to align with students' multifaceted modes of critical thinking across various academic levels. This research endeavors to delve into the nuanced perceptions of critical thinking skills held by undergraduate students in Malaysia and Vietnam. The study employs a robust research methodology, involving in-depth interviews with a cohort of 16 participants, drawn from both first-year and final-year undergraduates. Through the rigorous application of the phenomenographic approach, the investigation uncovers three fundamental conceptions of critical thinking skills, categorized within three overarching domains: cognitive, dispositional, and spoken discourse. Within the cognitive domain, two distinctive approaches surface: the idealistic and the realistic. The idealistic perspective underscores the theoretical and aspirational dimensions of critical thinking, spotlighting students' capacity to dissect intricate concepts, establish interconnections between seemingly disparate ideas, and generate innovative solutions to multifaceted problems. Conversely, the realistic approach recognizes the evolution of critical thinking skills over time, emphasizing deliberate practice and reflection on real-world challenges and experiences. The dispositional domain illuminates the dichotomy between collectivist and individualist perspectives, unveiling the diverse manners in which students engage with critical thinking within the framework of group dynamics or as autonomous thinkers. In the spoken discourse domain, two discernible approaches emerge: the product-oriented and the process-oriented. The product-oriented stance accentuates tangible outcomes of critical thinking, such as persuasive arguments, articulate and coherent written expression, and adept problem-solving. In contrast, the process-oriented approach underscores the intricate cognitive and metacognitive processes intrinsic to critical thinking, encompassing activities like information analysis, evaluation, idea integration, and the cultivation of innovative insights. This study's findings underscore the necessity of customizing pedagogical instruction to harmonize with the diverse perspectives and methodologies embraced by students in their approach to critical thinking skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a seminar on multilingualism in higher education in English-dominant and English-medium instructional contexts hosted by Languages in Education Research Centre at the University of London Institute of Education on July 4, 2014. Topics include language and identity in British higher education; medium of instruction in English-dominant settings; and role of identity of bilingual subject lecturers in use of English as a third language on English-medium instructional programs.

The internationalization of higher education globally continues to grow more and more towards commercialization and neoliberalism paths, despite growing concerns about the underlying consequences. Building further on our work and using Saudi Arabia as a national case, this article critically investigates how and in what ways the Saudi government's desire to internationalize its higher education system has overlooked the many problems associated with its English-only policy, and the neoliberal shaping of social and economic pressures. The article also demonstrates the paradoxical messages concerning internationalization success, strategies, and visions conveyed by the Saudi government and by several institutions from English-speaking countries in response to Saudi Arabia's aspiration for internationalization of its higher education. We draw on several data sources in this article, specifically: (1) the Colleges of Excellence (CoE) project documents – a major Saudi government's initiative to restructure the technical and vocational education system; (2) Several publicly available news items released by technical and vocational colleges from Canada and the UK as well as by the UK government in relation to their participation in Saudi Arabia's CoE project; and (3) publicly available news items published in a number of key local Saudi newspapers regarding various aspects of the CoE project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is believed that together with critical thinking, critical reading has emerged as a fundamental skill that university graduates are expected to possess in an increasingly modern and digitally connected world (Bråten & Braasch, 2017). With the advancement of technology, young adults have been increasingly submerged in a sea of information available at their fingertips. Hence, they must learn how to select, analyze, evaluate, and assess the information they encounter in their academic or professional lives (Siemens, 2004). However, it is observed that critical reading skills in higher education seem to be neglected in the research field compared to an interest in critical thinking studies. This study systematically evaluates 75 papers published between 2001 and 2021 and indexed in the Web of Science and Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) databases. The findings indicate that scholars in Turkey and the United States place a higher premium on critical research than researchers in other parts of the world. Most papers focus on investigating feasible approaches to develop critical reading skills amongst undergraduates and proposing critical reading pedagogy in higher education institutions. However, there has been a deficiency in research of critical reading in STEM education, especially in the Asian tertiary context. This study highlights the significance of conducting additional in-depth research into the effects of integrating critical reading classrooms and teaching-and-learning activities into STEM education, as well as the impact of using science topics with the goal of cultivating this crucial skill for young people's academic and professional development in the era of the digital revolution. Moreover, research on a conceptual framework to develop critical reading abilities amongst Asian undergraduates could be considered as a potential topic for novice researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English language is significant to the internationalisation of higher education worldwide. Countries in Asia are proactive in appropriating English for their national interests, while paying attention to associated national cultural identity issues. This article examines the ways in which the role of English is interpreted and justified in different countries in Asia, with a particular focus on Japan, as these nations attempt to internationalise their higher education within the broader processes of regionalisation and globalisation and their own nationalist discourse. Through critical analyses and discussions of Japan's two major government initiatives, the Action Plan 2003 to ‘Cultivate Japanese with English Abilities’ and the ‘Global 30’ Project 2008, the article investigates how cultural national identities are shaped, are altered and are put ‘at risk’ in policies and practices for the internationalisation of higher education and the overemphasis on English. It argues for the importance of understanding the intersections of English language policy, the internationalisation of higher education and national cultural identity and also considers how the over-promotion of English in the case of Japan has been energetically driven by the nation building agenda that tends to undermine local languages and what this might mean for internationalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]