Cultural heritage preservation has become a much-debated topic in recent decades. This paper contributes to the call for educational approaches that take a society's cultural diversity into account. It also attempts to draw attention to non-Western societies, where educational theories and practices from elsewhere (the West) have been imported and applied without proper consideration for the host culture's heritage. To illustrate the intricacy of developing such a culturally appropriate pedagogy, a case study of using group learning strategies in a Confucian Heritage Cultural context is introduced, which closely examines both educational and cultural issues. The results of this examination reveal a complex web of cultural conflicts and mismatches that are likely to happen when a Western educational methodology is applied in another context without rigorous adaptation to improve compatibility with the host culture. The WHY in culturally appropriate pedagogy Key challenges for educatorsThe two factors that have recently generated concern regarding culturally appropriate pedagogy are globalization and multiculturalism. Beginning in the 1990s, the process of globalization very quickly occupied centre stage for political, economic and cultural debates, with critical consequences for both educational policy and practice. Owing to globalization pressures, various educators have become concerned about making education more sensitive to global developments, helping to prepare new generations for a new international reality by providing them with the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will enable them to cope with rapid societal changes. In addition, student populations have become increasingly and undeniably

CHC countries, Confucian, Collectivism, Group learning, Cooperative learning, Culturally appropriate pedagogy,

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Many recent intercultural studies have shown that people cooperate with each other differently across cultures. We argue that cooperative learning (CL), an educational method originating in the USA and with fundamental psychological assumptions based on Western values, should be adjusted to be culturally appropriate for any non‐Western cultures in which it is applied. In the light of this assertion, this paper reports a series of experiments conducted in Vietnamese upper‐secondary schools. One group was provided with a series of lessons designed according to mainstream CL practice. Another group was provided with similar lessons but these were modified so as to be more culturally appropriate in terms of leadership, reward allocation and group composition. Findings show that (1) the role and the type of leadership, although not a key element of mainstream CL theories and practice, proved to be influential; (2) groupings based upon existing friendships, rather than upon cognitive ability, appeared to be important. A key finding was that the group receiving a culturally modified programme appeared to work harder during, and gain more satisfaction from, collaborative learning activities.