Learning and Motivation: An Asian Perspective

Abstract

The paper examines the learning style and achievement orientation of Asian people focusing on the role of social and cultural factors including attitudes totuards learning and education. The strong collectivistic orientation of Asian people influences their achievement behaviour and success is defined in terms of recognition and smooth social relationships. Asian students are socialised to value education and consider it a filial duty. The learning context in Asian countries is characterised as being highly authoritarian, teaching methods are expository and praise is seldom used. McClelland's achievement motivation approach was found to be ethnocentric, as it ignored situational and contextual factors. Studies are presented that reveal that the meaning of success is different for Asian people and is mediated by affiliative concerns. Achieuement attributions are different in that Asian students attribute both success and failure to more internal and controllable factors. The paper concludes that the attribution style of Asian students and cooperative reward structure encourages task orientation and a deep approach to learning.Teacbers and parents are aware that achievement is not just a function of competence, opportunity, or good fortune. Somehow, where there is a will, there is a way (Maehr, 1978, p.205).Variations in learning style and achievement patterns across cultures have been of great interest to social scientists and educators. There is a strong belief that cultural values mediate achievement behaviour. Thus, poor school performance of some ethnic minorities in the US such as the blacks is thought to be related to membership of those cultural groups. Such observations are supported by social science research (Maehr, 1978).

The Effects of Person Versus Performance Praise on Children’s Motivation: Gender and age as moderating factors

“…At a broader level, the findings of the present research may be specific to children from the United States or other Western cultures. In Japanese and Chinese classrooms, for example, children may respond differently to praise because of the cultural belief that achievement hinges primarily on effort (e.g., Lewis, 1995;Salili, 1996;cf. Henderlong & Lepper, 2002).…”

Value orientations and motivational interference in school-leisure conflict: The case of Vietnam

“…Results such as these usually are explained by highlighting cultural values (Li, 2003(Li, , 2004Salili, 1996;Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). Owing to their philosophical tradition, in East Asian countries a very strong Confucian value system has endured that is relevant to attitudes toward academic and leisure pursuits.…”

“…Results from studies that contrasted Western countries with countries such as China, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea portrayed East Asians as pupils who enjoy learning (Stevenson & Lee, 1990), regard work for school as a right rather than a duty (Hoppe-Graf & Kim, 2004), value studying more highly than enjoying leisure time, and prefer rote learning and repetition as a path to deeper understanding (see, e.g., Salili, 1996). As a consequence, these pupils invest large amounts of time in learning and studying.…”

“…In Confucian countries, pupils mostly learn less for themselves than for their parents (''filial piety'', see, e.g., Hoppe-Graf & Kim, 2004). Therefore, our measure of modern value orientation may not have adequately grasped the social meaning of academic orientation among Vietnamese pupils (see also Salili, 1996). Possibly also the tremendous changes Vietnam is currently undergoing have contributed to a decline in modern values, as globalisation and the free-market economy alter the worth of recreation and street life such that hard work is not valued as highly as before (Stritikus & Nguyen, 2007).…”

The conflict between on-task and off-task actions in the classroom and its consequences for motivation and achievement

“…Rather, values are a fruitful concept for research on learning motivation, not only for comparisons between cultures (Salili 1996) but also on an individual level within one culture. Additionally, our approach of focusing on the conflict between on-task and off-task actions and the relations we found to motivation and achievement highlights that for research on classroom management (Emmer and Stough 2001), it is not enough to look at why learning is or is not interesting.…”