Silence as autonomy: case studies of Australian and international students

The diversity of students’ learning styles and preferences is a sustainable and everlasting theme of scholarly interest. No matter how educational theory evolves, there will never be a time when it is agreed that all students must follow the same way of learning to survive and achieve the best. Considering students as individuals with differences in personality, strengths, and learning inclinations, teaching and learning need to vary to cover a wide range of needs. This chapter addresses one aspect of such diversity by focusing on silent learning as an autonomous choice. Based on a case study of international students (including 20 participants from Australia, China, Japan, and Korea) at an Australian university, the chapter explores the learning of less articulate but proactive students to understand their learning preferences and potential. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews, the study invites participants to reflect on how they benefit from silent learning as influenced by everyday changing classroom circumstances. From that knowledge, this chapter will develop scholarly insights to help teachers fine-tune their teaching strategies considering verbal and silent students whose learning strengths differ. Employing pro-verbal pedagogy that responds only to extroverted students would impede the learning of introverted students.