The Indispensable Role of Culture in Shaping Children’s Learning Beliefs

Abstract

David Watkins’ pioneering work on Chinese learners has had a profound influence on my own thinking and research. The articulation of the paradoxical Chinese learner by him and John Biggs ushered in a significant new research direction that enabled me to explore fundamental differences in learning between the East and West. Inspired by their thinking, I began my research by collecting the learning lexicons in Chinese and English that are used in daily life and written images of ideal learners in both cultures, resulting in two distinct cultural learning models. Accordingly, the Chinese model is more virtue oriented whereas the European American model more mind oriented. Subsequently, I studied preschool children’s learning beliefs by asking them to complete stories that depicted routine learning scenarios. As expected, children’s learning beliefs resemble their respective cultures’ learning models. To understand the process by which children construct their learning beliefs, Heidi Fung and I recorded European American and Taiwanese mother–child conversations about learning. The results confirmed that these mothers socialize their children according to their respective cultural learning models. Finally, I describe my current comparative research focusing on European American children and children of Chinese immigrants. This research sheds light on the persisting strength of the Chinese learning model but also reveals challenges that may take a toll on Chinese children’s intellectual development. A new line of research is suggested to account for the possibly stunted development of culturally based learning beliefs among Chinese immigrant children. Implications for research, childrearing, and education are discussed.