Use of Instructing Strategies in Teaching Content Subject to Different Types of Learners: Regular Program and International Programs

Abstract

A huge increase in the numbers of international programs offered in Thai universities seems to be a common trend in Thailand. Presumably, the way in which international classes are conducted would be different from that in regular Thai classes. However, there seems to be very little knowledge of what really happens in those international classrooms compared to the Thai ones. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the use of teaching strategies of a Computer Engineering teacher in teaching a content subject in a regular and an international program to see the similarities and differences of teaching strategies used. The subject of this study was a Computer Engineering teacher who taught Computer Architectures and Systems to third-year students in both regular and international programs at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. The research instruments were video recordings and observation checklists. The results of the study indicate that there were five teaching strategies used in both classes: Lecture, Questioning, Discussion, Review, and Using Media. Using Media and Lecture were used as the main teaching strategies in both classes. Nevertheless, the proportion of the use of all strategies in both classes was not remarkably different. When considering the data from the video recordings, it is found that there are two factors that cause no difference in the use of the teaching strategies in both classes: (1) the nature of the two classes; (2) the content of the lectures.