Is the learning approach of students from the Confucian heritage culture problematic?

Abstract

This article is concerned with the learning style adopted by Asian students who come from a Confucian heritage culture (CHC) such countries as China, Vietnam, Singapore, Korea and Japan are considered countries with Confucian heritage culture (Phuong-Mai et al. 2005). These students are generally viewed as typically passive, unwilling to ask questions or speak up in class and often based on memorising rather than understanding knowledge delivered by teachers. This learning style is claimed to be shaped by the CHC in Asian countries and receives massive criticism in the literature. This article aims to challenge this criticism of the passive learning style adopted by Asian students who come from the CHC. By conducting in-depth interviews with 10 Asian students from the CHC currently studying tertiary education in Australia, this article addresses the confusion between passive learning style and CHC, between memorising and understanding and between quietness and passiveness. Finally, if passiveness of Asian students is indeed observed in both Asian CHC countries and English-speaking countries, it is more because of situation-specific factors of teaching methodologies, learning requirements, learning habits and language proficiency rather than cultural factors.