Edited by David A. Watkins and John B. Biggs
published by Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC) & Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER)
In August 1996 CERC's first book, The Chinese Learner: Cultural, Psychological and Contextual Influences was in print. This is the first book to paint a clear, research based picture of how Chinese students and their teachers see the context and content of their learning both in Hong Kong and abroad. The focus of much of this research is the question 'How can Chinese learners be so successful academically (often out-performing their Western peers) when their teaching and learning seems to be so oriented to rote memorization?'. It is concluded that at the heart of this paradox are cross-cultural differences in the very processes of teaching and learning, particularly concerning the relationship between memorizing and understanding and the nature of motivation. Widely held Western stereotypes and misconceptions of Chinese learners are shown to be largely without foundation.
Chapter Highlights:
Learning Theories and Approaches to Research: a Cross-cultural Perspective
David Watkins
This chapter has three main aims: (1) to explain the theoretical principles that underlay most of the investigations in this book; (2) to describe the research approaches most commonly adopted; and (3) to consider the cross-cultural validity of these Western theories and research approaches. The basic theoretical approach is known as the Student Approaches to Learning (SAL) position. It is a development of constructivist theory which argues that high quality learning outcomes are not a matter so much of the accumulation of knowledge but rather of the transformation and construction of meaning. However, unlike the Information Processing approach, SAL takes seriously the context and content of what is being learnt, from the perspective of the learner not the researcher. One of the strengths of the SAL approach is that it is supported by research findings from both quantitative research using structured questionnaires which assess motives and strategies for learning and qualitative methods, based on phenomenography, which probe conceptions of learning.
Coping with Second Language Texts: the Development of Lexically-Based Reading Strategies
Robert Keith Johnson and Agnes Yau So Ngor
This chapter presents and discusses the strategies that Hong Kong students use when dealing with English texts. It describes a particular approach to text processing, identified here as `lexical' processing. It is argued that this approach derives from the language teaching practices adopted in Hong Kong and has negative consequences for the students' overall English language development, as well as for their ability to establish the meaning of texts. While discussion and data are limited to the Hong Kong context, it seems likely that such approaches could be developed in any educational context in which reading in a second language is heavily emphasized within the teaching and learning programme, and where productive skills (speaking and writing) are neglected. This chapter reports research into the reading strategies developed by Hong Kong students, and attempts to link these findings to the general pattern of language acquisition amongst Hong Kong students. In so doing, we enter a major controversy within language acquisition theory regarding the roles and relative importance of input and output in language development.
Memorizing and Understanding: the Key to the Paradox?
Ference Marton, Gloria Dall'Alba and Tse Lai Kun
The point of departure for this research was the apparent "paradox of the Chinese learner". In general, learning means becoming more capable to do (to know, to understand) something due to some experience one has had (see Marton, Dall'Alba, Beaty 1993). So in spite of obvious differences in what we understand learning to be, an essential, core meaning can be identified. There are two aspects of this common meaning: you have to retain somehow that which you have experienced, you have to be able to remember, recollect, recall, on the one hand and you must be able to make use of what you have learned in new situations, in forms that differ from the one in which you have learnt, you must be able to transcend what was given from the beginning, on the other hand. These two aspects of learning are often seen as opposites in Western thinking. Retention is thought to be associated with memorization, a form of learning which is not supposed to yield high quality outcomes. The more creative aspects of learning are thought to be associated with understanding, a form of learning which is indeed assumed to lead to high quality outcomes. Now, Chinese learners are known for putting an emphasis on memorization and still they are doing very well. This is what was called "the paradox of the Chinese learner". The paradox is solved when we examine the Chinese learners' view of learning. They do not see memorization and understanding as opposites. They are then intertwined instead, presupposing each other.
Chinese Students at an Australian University: Adaptability and Continuity
Simone Volet
This chapter concentrates on Chinese learners studying in Australian universities. It is argued that adoption of a deficit model to describe Chinese students' learning in the Australian literature has contributed to creating a distorted view of these students' learning. Three salient aspects of the stereotyped view of Southeast Asian students are examined for evidence of accuracy, adaptability and continuity in the Australian context, rote vs deep learning, achievement orientation and participation in tutorial discussions. A number of studies, conducted with Singaporean students predominantly of Chinese origin, revealed that Chinese learners at university in Australia demonstrate a strategic adaptability in their attempts to meet the new educational requirements, and an advantageous and wise continuity in maintaining a high academic orientation.
Collaborative Learning: the Latent Dimension in Chinese Students' Learning
Catherine Tang
The Chinese culture with its non-individual collectivistic orientation encourages students to study in a group and put more efforts into achieving collective goals. In Hong Kong, despite the highly individualistic infrastructures of educational institutions, Chinese students readily collaborate in their learning. A study of physiotherapy students shows that these Chinese students spontaneously collaborate when preparing for assessment.
Group discussion is one of the key activities of collaborative learning during which students develop effective cognitive learning strategies through social interactions. These social study strategies encourage the adoption of a deep learning approach and have been shown to be effective in enhancing student achievements. This learning method is also perceived as a mutual support system especially for students who are learning in a second language and do not have previous experience with the assessment task. From longstanding cultural reasons, collaboration is very much a latent dimension in Chinese students' learning.
The Cultural Context for Chinese Learners: Conceptions of Learning in the Confucian Tradition
Lee Wing On
This chapter attempts to trace the cultural background which can help to explain the motivation and behaviour of the Chinese learner. It particularly focuses on exploring Confucian conceptions of learning that touch upon learning motivation, attitudes and approaches. The author argues that education has been an emphasis in the Confucian tradition. This tradtition provides an aspiration of human educability and perfectibility which is by and large attainable to everybody. Despite the presence of diverse philosophical stands in the Confucian tradition, there is an overall belief in the possibility of attaining perfectibility through will power and effort. This explains how effort has become a distinctive concept of learning among Chinese learners. As far as motivation is concerned, the pursuit of human perfectibility and the belief in attainability have provided a basis for self-actualization and therefore intrinsic motivation in learning. As far as learning approach is concerned, the author argues that stresses on recitation, far from being restricted to rote, is actually a means of reflection and deep approach to learning.
Western Misperceptions of the Confucian-heritage Learning Culture
John Biggs
Many Western observers report the teaching/learning conditions in classrooms in Confucian heritage cultures as being unfavourable, and conducive to rote learning. Yet many studies have shown students from these East Asian countries outperform Westerners in international comparisons, and are more likely to use "deep" or meaning-oriented approaches to learning. The seeming incongruence between these teaching/learning conditions and the learning outcomes constitutes the "paradox of the Chinese learner". However, there are several values, deeply embedded in Confucian culture and socialization practices, that enhance students' receptiveness to school learning, and that are likely to mislead Western observers. Such would include the use of repetitive learning, motivation and attributions for success and failure, teacher-student relations, and other aspects of teaching. Teaching/learning practices have to be interpreted in their cultural context.
Accepting Personal Responsibility for Learning
Farideh Salili
This chapter represents an analysis of sociocultural and contextual influences on Chinese students' academic achievement. Research and literature reviewed shows that many aspects of Chinese cultural values and socialization practices influence students' achievement orientation. Chinese culture emphasizes interdependence and filial piety. This implies that Chinese achievement orientation is based more on collectivistic than individualistic values. Collectivistic values can have a highly motivating effect on students whose success and failure has important implications for the entire family or group.
Chinese cultural values also emphasize hard work and effort. Effort has a different significance for the Chinese than it does for the westerners. Chinese believe that almost anything can be achieved through hard work and effort. Ability, however, is de-emphasized and believed to be modifiable through effort to gain knowledge, hence, more controllable. Thus, there is less risk of learned helplessness and apathy in the face of failure. The individualistic conception of achievement in the west on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of fixed ability which is not so controllable. Failure attributed to ability in the west may lead to loss of self-esteem and a sense of helplessness.
Hong Kong Secondary School Learners: a Developmental Perspective
David Watkins
This chapter focuses on the 'paradox of the Chinese Learner' (how can Chinese students do so well when they are 'only rote learners'?) from a developmental perspective. An interview study of 20 junior and 24 senior Hong Kong secondary school students is reported. The questions were designed to probe not only how the students at that time thought about the nature of and their approach to learning but also how and why their conceptions and approach may have changed as they progressed through the school system. A tentative stage model is developed on the basis of these responses tracing how the students' intentions interact with changing workload, assessment requirements, and personal responsibility for learning to produce strategies of different meta-cognitive levels. While evidence is found to support the contention in Chapter 4 that more sophisticated Chinese learners often combine the processes of memorizing and understanding in ways seldom found in Western students, doubts are raised whether at secondary school level understanding is seen as the primary aim. Rather, the senior students in this study seemed to see understanding more as a tool to improve memorizing.
The Chinese Learner in Retrospect
John Biggs and David Watkins
This chapter is designed to provide an overview of the research reported in earlier chapters. In particular it is argued that Western educators often have misconceptions of the way students from Confucian heritage cultures, such as Hong Kong, China, Singapore (and probably Japan and Taiwan) think about and go about their studies. These findings also question the generalizability of some central notions of Western theories of learning. These misconceptions include the following: that Chinese students are not so prone to rote learning as often claimed and in fact often combine the processes of memorizing and understanding in ways not really appreciated in the West; that learning environments like Hong Kong with large class sizes, a strong emphasis on external assessment, and the use of an L2 teaching medium can actually produce high quality learning outcomes because the cultural beliefs about learning of teachers and students are similar to those required in the classroom; that achievement motivation is more of a social rather than an individual motivation as it is perceived in the West; and that Chinese students are likely to accept greater responsibility for learning than do Western students.