Are we uncritical, unfocussed, plagiarising rote learners? : forming and informing argumentative Chinese students through quality university teaching

This chapter explores the proposition that a concern for quality university teaching in Australia opens the space for forming and informing the capabilities of students from China for scholarly argumentation. The literature debating stereotypes of "the Chinese learner" and students from elsewhere in Asia might be dismissed as false or incorrect. Instead, this literature is read as enabling pedagogical moves away from a focus on the deficits to enhancing their argumentative capabilities and agency. Cooperative research between a Chinese higher degree research (HDR) student and her Australian supervisor has been used to generate the evidence presented in this chapter. Potentially this approach to the positioning of Chinese students as uncritical, unfocused, plagiarising rote learners enables this extension and deepening their capabilities for scholarly argumentation and using multiple languages. The evidence shows that stereotypes of Asian students can enable the development of critical, focused writing with due acknowledgement of sources. Enhancing Chinese HDR students' argumentative and bilingual capabilities challenges what it means to internationalise Australian university education.