Learning Patterns Of Czech And Romanian Students Within The Context Of An Crosscultural Comparison

Abstract

International comparison represents useful perspective on academic learning in todays globalized world. Eastern European countries however so far have not figured in international comparisons of higher education much. The aim of the study was to fill an empty space on an imaginary map of academic learning and add results of students from two countries of the former Communist bloc, to gain new understanding of the current state of learning of university students from different countries and indicate impulses for further development. The Inventory of Learning Styles (Vermunt, 1996), measuring student learning activities, regulation strategies, conceptions of learning, and learning orientations, had been used to measure learning patterns. Identified learning patterns of Czech and Romanian students were compared with each other as well as with the results of previous studies using the same instrument (e. g. Marambe et al., 2012; Vermunt et al., 2014). Both quantitative and qualitative differences between learning patterns of Czech and Romanian students were interpreted in the broader context of the environment using the Hofstedes cultural dimensions theory. Results indicate the need for caution when interpreting differences in learning patterns among countries as they can not only be the product of culture difference, but also a consequence of semantic changes in the meaning of the instrument items caused by translation. For a more reliable interpretation, there is a need to test models´ invariance using a CFA across all groups before comparing learning patterns internationally.