Learning in Foreign Cultures: Self-Reports Learning Effectiveness Across Different Instructional Techniques

Abstract

Substantial numbers of Chinese mainland students are enrolled in overseas Western-based business courses but aredislocated from their home cultures. Business education curriculum and course designers need to understand howthese students are best trained in western style education programs. Four-hundred students in Singaporean businesstraining programs provided differential ratings of perceived learning effectiveness, plus dislocation measures offamiliarity, comfort and ease of knowledge transfer for each of ten commonly used instructional strategies previouslyinvestigated by Rodrigues, four of which he termed “active” and six “passive”. In terms of perceived learningeffectiveness alone, Mainland Chinese students reported clear differences. In order of decreasing effectiveness, theyreported lectures by instructors, case-studies, group projects, videos, guest speakers, classroom presentations,individual research projects, classroom discussions, computerized learning and lastly, reading textbooks. The studypresents strategies and practices for facilitating effective learning for mainland Chinese students in western basededucation – choice of instructional techniques and mixtures, attention to students’ cultural dislocation, comfort,familiarity, and ease of knowledge transfer.