AN INVESTIGATION OF HIGH DROPOUT RATES AMONG INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS STUDYING IN STEM MAJORS IN THE U.S. THROUGH ANALYSIS OF THE KOREAN GEOPHYSICS CLASSROOM

This project concerns a cross cultural analysis of scientific concepts and geoscience education across different language-cultures, as well as the teaching of subject-matter content, in this case geophysics, in foreign language contexts in particular to help students from the Korean context better acclimate to the American system of STEM education. As more Korean students become enrolled at American Universities, it is essential that educators in the United States have tools in order to understand the origins of scientific concepts of this student population. The specific Korean context and the location of a university in Seoul as a sample population is important given the large influx of international students from this area to the US. According to a report from the Bookings Institute, between 2008 and 2012, there were 56,503 international students from Seoul enrolled at universities in the US. Of these students 20% were in STEM fields (Ruiz, 2014) and half of those students have dropped out of STEM majors by the second year. This presentation focuses on the American conceptualizations of science in conjunction and juxtaposed against the Korean system. While there is a significant amount of linguistic and educational literature already in existence about the nature of science and the conceptualization of science in English language contexts, (see Duschl, 1990; Kelly, Chen, & Prothero, 2000; Peters, 2012; Lancor, 2014; and Roth, 2013) there is very little research on the differences and misunderstandings that occur between conceptions of science across different language culture groups. This issue consequentially can result in increased difficulties during global collaboration and participation for both students and professionals. Over the course of 8 weeks in the summer of 2015, the presenter conducted 29 interviews with students and instructors and 12 hours of classroom observation of a geophysics classroom at a large research university in Seoul, South Korea. Analysis suggests that there are two major factors limiting Korean students’ abilities to thrive in the American context: 1) Language issues, particularly the conceptual mistranslation of scientific terms and understandings and 2) the general transmissive nature of the Korean university setting as opposed to the more dialogic North American System.