Proceedings of The 7th World Conference on Teaching and Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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In the tradition of Socrates and Confucius: A cross-cultural examination of college students’ learning styles
Ginny Zhan, Douglas Moddie
ABSTRACT:
Research has shown cognitive style differences between Western and East Asian college students (Masuda & Nisbett, 2006; Nisbett, 2003). Socrates, whose influence dominates western thinking, encouraged students to engage in critical thinking and questioning common knowledge. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher and educator whose ideology has strongly influenced east Asian cultures, promoted acquiring knowledge based on respect and accepting what is taught without questioning (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). How do these two major cultural tradition thoughts influence college students’ way of learning and thinking today? The current project explores learning styles of college students in the US and China. The Grasha-Reichmann Student Learning Style Scale (1996), designed to measure how college students view their learning, was used as the main instrument. The scale has 60 statements, encompassing six identified learning styles: independent, dependent, competitive, collaborative, participant, and avoidant. 511 college students, 274 American and 237 Chinese, participated in this study. Results indicate significant differences between the American and Chinese college students in their self- reported learning styles, but not necessarily in the direction of conventional prediction. For example, the Chinese participants scored higher on the independent and competitive subscales than the American counterparts, reflecting a more individualistic tendency by the Chinese students than previously thought. Conversely, the American participants scored higher on the dependent subscale than the Chinese students. Gender differences are also observed. These results will be presented and discussed in the context of traditional cultural orientations as well as the current educational systems and environment of the two countries.
keywords: Comparison, American, Chinese, independent, competitive