Foreign students as teachers: An untapped educational resource

This paper examines the idea of viewing the many foreign students studying in the colleges and universities of this country as educational resources. It is argued that foreign students have a unique educational perspective and specialized knowledge about their culture to offer to their American counterparts. An overall scheme for using foreign students in a teaching capacity is discussed. An experimental class at the University of Minnesota, which uses foreign students as teachers to illustrate the processes of development on the three countries of Nigeria, Thailand and Turkey, is examined in some detail. The results of a formative evaluation of this class are presented. Some implications of the widespread development and implementation of similar types of courses at other colleges and universities are suggested.