The mission of the University – to educate professionals capable of solving global issues, understanding these issues in the context of other sciences, actively participating in social life, and creating intellectual products relevant for the society – directly depends on the effectiveness of educational environments created at the University, i.e. on how these environments meet students’ concrete learning needs and motivate the students for successful learning activity. This is especially relevant when the educational environment involves students with different cultural backgrounds – i.e. foreign students. The educational environment where students’ approach to learning is affected by their own cultural differences should be especially flexible and should involve unorthodox pedagogical solutions.  

People with different cultural background have different spiritual values, language, and thinking, which is marked by their different cultural experience and formed by the factors that since childhood had critical influence on each individual’s behavior. Different values result in different social rules, behavioral peculiarities, and attitudes to certain situations and to the studying process and learning. Different cultures create intercultural barriers that prevent people from understanding the representatives of another culture. These barriers frequently cause various issues in the studying process, when the student and the teacher find themselves on “different sides of a barricade”

Research question:

This paper aims at answering the following question: what peculiarities of their activity do teachers who create the environment for students with different cultural background identify? The participants of the study were teachers from University X who work with foreign students.

Objective: to identify the peculiarities of the creation of the educational environment for students with different cultural background, using the teachers’ approach as the basis. 

Purpose:

1. To discuss the theoretical aspects of the creation of the educational environment for students with different cultural background;
2. To reveal the teachers’ approach to their activity when creating the educational environment for students with different cultural background;
3. To identify the peculiarities of the creation of the educational environment for students with different cultural background. 

Conceptual or theoretical framework

This paper is based on theoretical positions that emphasize constructivist principles, the preconditions for the emergence of deep learning, educational environments favorable for problem-based learning, and the specificity of modern learning and higher education (Nussbaum, 2003; 2009; Ramsden, 2000; Petty, 2006; 2008; Barnett, 1990; 1999; 2003; Jucevičienė, Lipinskienė, 2001; Jucevičienė, Stanikūnienė, 2002; Jucevičienė, Gudaitytė et al., 2010; Šveikauskas et al., 2008.

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