Critique of “ Supervising International Graduate Students in Sports Management: Perspective of Experienced Advisors ”
This critique essay were assigned in SRST 606 class in Fall 2016. The writing is about evaluation strength and weak according to what I have read from international students studied in Sports Management. It is a good way to improve my critical thinking skills. In addition, this project helped me understand what are problems that we might have when be a student in Sports Management. It provides me the information that how advisors help international students studied in this field. Since I already known what kind of challenges that I might have in future, it will help me prepare enough to continue my studies. Also, I feel more confident to be a student in Sports Management.
Introduction
The essay “ Supervising International Graduate Students in Sports Management: Perspective of Experienced Advisors ” was written by Danylchuk et al (2014). From my point of view, they successful in making their point. The essay not only provides sport management programs with information on key factors affecting the quality of program delivery but also benefit to international students to better involved in academic study. However, like each coin has two sides, this essay has its weakness. I will demonstrate the strengths and weakness of the essay according to what I have read.
Summary
Though a comprehensive review of the literature, Danylchuk (2014) found that no study has been shown on how to best integrate international students into sport management programs. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the experience and challenges faced by sport management academicians regarding their supervision of international sports management graduate students. Fifteen experts were interviewed and notes were taken by the interviewer throughout each interview. After that, specific information includes student identification, recruitment, acceptance, orientation, process, retention, and the inherent challenges and benefits have been discussed.
Evaluation
The first strengths of the article are sufficient evidence used by the author. Since the paper talked about the issue of international graduate students in sports management, the authors chose to interview experts who provided their perspectives on practices used in international students involvement. Besides, some of the participants had been international students themselves. It is no doubt that previous experience had influenced their thought. They may understand the situation better than people who don’t have too much experience. For example, “ The finding confirmed that there are both challenges and benefits to supervising international students, although the benefits seemingly outweigh the challenges.” (Danylchuk et al., 2014). As a reader, when I read a paper like this, I would like to continue to read it because I believe that there is no bias from the paper and individuals who had extensive experience with international sport management students could provide the richest form of data.
The second strengths of the article are credible evidence used by the author. On the one hand, the authors reviewed some literature which demonstrated the opportunities and challenges were faced in teaching and mentoring international students in sports management program. On the other hand, when the authors used sufficient data to support his point or cite other resources, they stated specific numbers, year, name. For instance, “ International students contribute more than $24 billion to the US economy annually. Two-thirds of the international students report that their personal or family funds pay for their studies.(Altbach, 2004).”
Admittedly, this paper has its weakness. As an international student, I’m from China. To be honest, we really have many challenges in the abroad study, such as language, culture and sense of belonging. However, it all depends on the situation. For example, consider the sports management program, our country has totally different sports system. So I asked my professor to recommend some books for me to read because I feel struggle when I was studying it. However, If students who come from Europe, they may have fewer adjustment issues than we have. Thus, I think the paper will be more comprehensive when it divides students into different parts. In addition, the whole paper talked about the professors’ perspective on teaching international students, I think there should have some information come from international students themselves. I am a personal trainer, I really understand that there have intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for clients or students. It is hard to motivate people who don’t want to be motivated. If you don’t understand what other people needs, how you can help them? Take an example like this. Even though professors plays an important role in students’ study, most of the time students will study by themselves. As a result, students learn time-manage skills also crucial. Consequently, If international students were interviewed in the research, it may help readers to understand challenge and benefits deeply. Also, the professors might find solutions to help international students according to different needs, which provide sport management programs with comprehensive information on key factors affecting the quality of program delivery.
Conclusion
This paper examines the experience and challenges faced by sport management academicians regarding their supervision of international sports management graduate students. Although the paper has weakness and strengths, it is clear that the author successful in making their point. Besides, I really appreciate that professors understand our challenges faced in studying and try to find ways to helps our academic success.