The impact of an Australian study tour on the innovative practice of Chinese lecturers

Vocational teaching and learning systems are usually circumscribed by national boundaries. While driving concepts may be borrowed from other nations, national systems develop to reflect unique cultural and political patterns, with the training and development of teachers almost exclusively under strong national control. However, as nations increasingly prepare students for global employment experiences, the development of vocational teachers is also reflecting a similar pattern. This paper reports on a recent international training scheme for a diverse group of 66 Chinese lecturers over a 12-week period in Western Australia. The paper explores the impact of the experience on the participants and their reflections on their pedagogic and academic learning through multiple participative data collection processes. This paper focuses on the contrasts between the focus of learning, interactivity and flexible delivery emerging from the interim analysis, and explores these themes through Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The study illuminates what was learned from Australian practice and what will mediate subsequent pedagogic translation.