Chinese Students, Learning Cultures and Overseas Study

Lihong Wang

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781137496591
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

This book focuses on the phenomenon of Chinese postgraduate students studying abroad and depicts their learning trajectory as they adjust to a new culture of teaching and learning in a new environment. It uses an example from a British university to draw together intercultural learning theories to explore the impact that studying abroad has.

1

Introduction

This book is based on an ethnographic study of the learning experience of a group of Chinese postgraduate students during their overseas study in a British university at the beginning of the 21st century. It depicts their learning trajectory as they adjusted to the teaching and learning culture in their new environment. Starting with the Chinese students’ initial perceptions of British teaching and learning practices compared to their inherited culture of learning, the book focuses on how they adjust emotionally, cognitively, and behaviourally, in order to make their learning successful, resulting in changes and developments in their conceptions and beliefs about knowing and learning and the creation of new forms of learning culture.

1.1 Background

Student mobility seems to have become a new norm in this increasingly connected world and highlights the cultural issues of teaching and learning, providing both new challenges and new resources for teaching international students (Palfreyman, 2007: 1). This is aptly described by Doherty and Singh (2007), who emphasize the changes in the students and the challenge to teachers: ‘Under the conditions of liquid modernity, ... , a more nuanced understanding of who internationally mobile students are, and more importantly, who they are in the process of becoming, could disrupt educators’ preconceptions about what this group need’ (Doherty & Singh, 2007: 131).

China has the largest student population studying abroad (CSC, 2014) and has been seen as a major market for student supply by universities worldwide (Du, 2015). According to the Center for China & Globalization (2013, cited in Dervin, 2014: 298), ‘Chinese overseas students account for 14% of all international students in the world ... In 2012, a total of 399,600 Chinese students went to study abroad, which represents an increase of 17.65% from 2011’. Chinese students pursuing overseas study aim for a high quality educational experience, widely recognized degrees, and to improve their English skills – an important factor in choosing overseas universities. Therefore, NABAN (North American countries, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand), or anglophone, countries are their main destinations (Byram & Devin, 2008). With the continuing strength of China’s economy, there is reason to believe this trend in Chinese students’ mobility will continue. Therefore, to examine closely this cultural group’s overseas learning will help any person or institution who is interested in international and intercultural education and understanding Chinese students in a deeper or more principled way.

This book uncovers the problems Chinese sojourning students have in their academic adjustment when they encounter and interact with ‘cultures of learning’ – a term attributed to Cortazzi and Jin (1996). The interdisciplinary nature of this study requires three strands of scholarship to investigate students conceptions of learning, cultures of learning, and their intercultural adaptation. We draw upon theories of cultural adaptation and intercultural learning theories.

1.1.1 Learning beliefs

The initial impetus for research into student beliefs about learning came from William Perry’s (1970) study of US university students’ intellectual and ethical development, summarized as four stances: dualism, multiplicity, contextual relativism, and commitment in relativism. Perry’s seminal work has inspired several strands of research into students’ learning. One school of scholarship investigates students’ conceptions of and approaches to learning, represented by Marton and Säljö (1976), Säljö (1979; 1982), Ramsden (1979; 1981) and Entwistle and Ramsden (1983). Another perspective focuses on students’ epistemological beliefs about knowledge, as in Ryan (1984) and Schommer (1990; 1993; 1994). The former employs phenomenographic qualitative methodology, the results of which fuel the design of inventories to investigate how students approach and orchestrate their learning. The latter is metacognition-oriented, using quantitative research to investigate the student’s attitude towards knowledge and ways of knowing. Recent research efforts have reconceptualized these two trends of research into students’ learning into one holistic conceptual framework via integrating core beliefs (about knowing) and peripheral beliefs (about learning) (Brownlee, Boulton-Lewis, & Purdie, 2002). If a student’s core beliefs about knowing are becoming more sophisticated we have good reason to believe that their peripheral beliefs about learning are changing as well. This holistic framework is expected to account for students’ changes in their beliefs about learning during their overseas study.

The results from research on students’ learning also indicate that their approaches to learning are intimately related to their personal epistemology – their ways of knowing or the conceptions of knowledge they hold. It is predicted that students with a more dualistic way of thinking tend to use surface approaches to learning; whereas those who are more relativistic take a deeper approach. Unfortunately, little research has been done on this relationship (Zhang & Watkins, 2001).

Though Perry’s intellectual and ethical development theory was not initially produced for cultural or intercultural contexts, and a cross-cultural dimension of its validation seems to be lacking, it is not far-fetched to adapt it to the learning outcomes of general tertiary and intercultural education.

1.1.2 Change of learning beliefs

Despite the common belief that education promotes change and development in a student’s epistemological beliefs and conceptions of learning, the existing empirical research on conceptual development indicates that conceptions of learning are relatively stable and that the conceptual change process tends to be slow and difficult. The development and change in student conceptions of learning generally depend on a mismatch between existing ways of thinking and new learning experiences (Entwistle, 2004; Vosniadou & Kollias, 2002). Both ‘constructive friction’ (Vermunt & Verloop, 1999) and cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) will stimulate the change process. In Entwistle and Peterson’s words, it is necessary ‘to make students somewhat uncomfortable, while providing enough support to allow new strategies to be developed without undue anxiety’ to challenge their existing conceptions and preferences in order to bring about changes for quality learning (2004: 425).

In this respect, Reybold’s (2001; 2002) studies are important for our topic since they reveal the power of intercultural experiences and study abroad in the development of more inclusive and complex ways of knowing; individuals with considerable international experience are more likely to be relativistic thinkers and contextual knowers (Reybold, 2001: 426). Reybold (2002) indicated that cross-cultural experiences in an overseas programme caused a renegotiation of beliefs about knowing and learning and argued for encouraging the transformation of personal epistemology through negotiating the conflicts between cultural and personal models of self. Though his research, similar to Mezirow’s (1991) transformative learning approach, was more gender-oriented, it worked from a cultural perspective of epistemology, interfacing knowledge, learning, and culture – ‘Culture is a powerful determinant of epistemology’ (Reybold, 1996, cited in Reybold, 2001: 415). Since there is an established link between formal or informal educational experiences and intellectual development (Perry, 1970) and epistemological perspectives (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986; Goldberger, 1996), intercultural learning experiences should encourage the development and transformation of a student’s personal epistemological belief system, for an intense intercultural educational experience usually requires the student to explicitly reflect on his or her beliefs about learning through engaging in different teaching and learning practices. However, the variety of prior educational experiences and how the student values and interprets the new learning environment may mediate the change process.

1.1.3 Chinese learner

The phrase Chinese learner was used by Watkins and Biggs (1996) to refer to Chinese students from Confucian heritage cultures (Ho, 1991) – a term now widely used in the literature, as we shall see – who are influenced by Confucian educational values and believe in diligence in academic pursuits and personal improvement or self-cultivation. Lee’s (1996) article ‘The Cultural Context for Chinese Learners: Conceptions of Learning in the Confucian Tradition’ set the scene for studies on the Confucian, in contrast to a Socratic, culture of learning. The term enjoys much more currency in international education literature than others of a similar structure, such as British learner, Russian learner, or African learner (eChina-UK, 2006), which reveals the significance of studying the cultural characteristics of this group of learners. A trilogy of books, The Chinese Learner (Biggs & Watkins, 1996), Teaching the Chinese Learner (Watkins & Biggs, 2001), and Revisiting the Chinese Learner (Chan & Rao, 2009), have significantly contributed to the understanding of Chinese learners in Chinese contexts, but they do not answer the question of how Chinese learners learn when they study abroad. Do Chinese students carry their Confucian heritage culture of learning into an overseas learning setting? How do they adjust when experiencing unfamiliar academic requirements and expectations? What will happen to their inherited Confucian learning beliefs? Are any new forms of learning culture being created? These are the questions this book answers.

1.1.4 Learning culture/culture of learning

Both sociologists and cultural anthropologists have confirmed that culture guides socialization practices, among which education is an important aspect (Serpell & Hatano, 1997). In the 1990s there appeared a paradigmatic shift in theories on the interface of learning and culture. Säljö (1991) argues that culture should not be regarded simply as an outside or independent variable that influences learning, but that learning itself is a process of enculturation and transformation because our patterns of social interaction, our understanding of the world, and our cognitive capabilities are themselves culturally mediated and constituted. As for cultural influences on the development of personal epistemological beliefs, some research has supported that culture plays a prominent role in the process of personal epistemological development (see Reybold, 2002; Youn, 2000). Youn (2000) claims that student beliefs are shaped by the culture in which they are situated; individualistic cultural values, and other Western cultural characteristics, such as low power distance (Hofstede, 1984), were favourable to the development of sophisticated beliefs about knowledge and learning.

The cultural characteristics of the conceptions of learning have given rise to some terms, such as ‘cultural beliefs’ (Gardner, 1988) and ‘culture of learning’ (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996), that emphasize the concept that ‘learning is cultural: Members of different cultural communities may have different preferences, expectations, interpretations, values and beliefs about how to learn or how to teach’ (Cortazzi & Jin, 2013: 1). Learning culture is similarly defined by Riley (1997: 122) as ‘a set of representations, beliefs and values related to learning that directly influence (students’) learning behaviour’. This definition emphasizes that the cultural beliefs and values the learner has acquired are from formal and informal socialization processes, thus leaving room for further modifications and constructions as a result of new experiences or ‘tertiary socialization’ (Byram, 1989; 2008).

1.1.5 Changing Chinese cultures of learning

Like any form of culture, learning cultures are undergoing constant change in China and worldwide, as in Anglophone countries with a large population of international students in their higher education sectors. Over the past two decades, the Chinese Ministry of Education has been calling for educational reforms at all levels, from elementary to higher education, in order to produce the future workforce or qualified successors to meet the needs of the nation in a globalized and competitive world. These reforms aim for a systematic and comprehensive transformation of educational curricular, teaching and learning approaches, classroom practices, teacher–student relationships, testing and assessment, and so on. At least three volumes of books published in 2011 were focused on China’s educational reforms (see Morgan & Bin, 2011; Ryan, 2011a; 2011b) in all areas of education to bring about substantial and enduring changes to Chinese educational philosophies. They had a considerable impact on Chinese cultures of learning and on academics and students, for instance, Liu and Kang (2011, cited in Ryan, 2013a: 45) argue that ‘relationships between teachers and students are now more equal; the classroom atmosphere is more democratic; ... students are treated with more respect; knowledge is no longer the only goal of learning’. In the tertiary education sector, Hou, Montgomery, and McDowell (2011) studied Chinese students in a UK university and found that the ‘gap’ between the students’ expectations and experiences was narrowing; the differences between social and cultural conditions and academic norms in China and the UK were becoming less pronounced and were fewer than either students or lecturers had expected. Thus, Ryan (2013a: 46) claims that as Chinese change programmes continue to have an impact, Chinese international students are likely to display very different learning and teaching expectations and behaviours from their predecessors’. In other words, Chinese students will have similar learning experiences to their British counterparts. However, many authors reporting on the reforms going on in China also admit that they are fraught with tensions and challenges, especially in the context of the high-stakes national college entrance examination, which has been the yardstick for classroom practices in Chinese basic education. Reflecting on his teaching of critical thinking to Chinese students from a large number of Chinese universities, O’Sulliven’s conclusion is that the ‘Chinese educational system is characterized by its reliance on the passive transmission of knowledge and this is reflected in the years of preparation for the NCEE (National College Entrance Examination). The habits of mind developed as a result of this approach to teaching and learning do not prepare the students for critical thinking’ and he believes ‘that this characterisation is accurate whatever exceptions to the rule may exist’ (O’Sulliven & Guo, 2010: 65).

Ryan (2013a: 46) also points out that these reforms are ‘unevenly enacted and unfinished’; ‘both continuity and change coexist ... as systems struggle to define what to retain and what to transform in the face of major challenges ... . apparently contradictory values and aspirations can be found amongst those working within these systems’. Jin and Cortazzi (2011) also argue that, despite the sweeping reforms of educational sectors, the individual’s ‘internal landscape’ of values and beliefs about teaching and learning, that is the Chinese inherited cultures of learning in the heads and hearts of students and teachers in China, will continue to exert a significant influence.

Moreover, researchers observed that an interesting feature of contemporary Chinese education is an attempt to reclaim China’s intellectual heritage through the rejuvenation of Confucian educational ideals and a ‘re-traditionalizing’ of education through the reintroduction of and renewed emphasis on ‘moral education’ (see Phan, McPherron, & Phan, 2011; Ryan, 2011b; 2013a). A recent address delivered by the Minister of Education at a forum on improving ideological work in universities and colleges supports this observation; the Minister warned against ‘western values’ in colleges and urged Chinese universities to reinforce ideological management, especially of textbooks, teaching materials and class lectures imported from the West, and called on teachers to stand firm and hold the ‘political, legal and moral bottom line’ and give students positive guidance through intensified work (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2015–01/30/c_133958419.htm). I don’t know what impact this address has on current educational reforms, but change in learning cultures cannot be as rapid or drastic as expected, or indicated, in some studies. Against the globalists’ or post modernists’ intuition, research findings have shown that the more the world is globalized, the more people strive to maintain and protect their cultural and ethnic identity (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010; Phinney & Baldelomar, 2011). The conclusion of Li’s recent study on Chinese cultural modes of learning reinforces the tenaciousness of the cultural characteristics of Chinese learning models: ‘[t]hese models and beliefs are likely to persist despite sweeping, dramatic changing currents in the world that are impinging upon long-held cultural values’ (Li, 2013: 280). This finding echoes the remarks made by Watkins and Biggs more than ten years ago: ‘the point is not which current beliefs about the raising and educating of children can be attributed to what ancient scholars, but the fact itself that these beliefs are current today, within the focus culture’ (2001: 4).

1.1.6 Dissonance and tensions in the field

A large body of literature has documented the learning experiences of Chinese students studying in Western learning cultures, mainly in English speaking countries (Ballard & Clanchy, 1984; 1991; 1997; Barker, Child, Gallois, Jones, & Callan, 1991; Bradley & Bradley, 1984; Burnapp, 2006; Chalmers & Volet, 1997; Durkin, 2004; Gu & Maley, 2008; Gram, Jᴂger, Liu, Qing, & Wu, 2013; Gu & Day, 2010; Jones, 2005; McMahon, 2011; Robinson-Pant, 2009; Samuelowicz, 1987; Skyrme, 2014; Turner, 2006; Zhang & Xu, 2007; Zhang & Patricia, 2011). Chinese students are presumed to bring their culturally different conceptions and attitudes toward learning to the Western learning setting, leading them into an intense state of ‘learning shock’ (Ballard & Clanchy, 1997: 28) or various dissonances, which are more often attributed to the differences between Confucian and Socratic cultures of learning. Scholars in the field of intercultural studies have criticized these essentialist ‘large culture’ approaches, as Holliday (2010: ix) claims, culture leads ‘easily and sometimes innocently to the reduction of the foreign Other as culturally deficient’. Dervin (2011) also notes that many of these studies on Chine...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1  Introduction
• 2  Chinese Inherited Beliefs about Learning
• 3  Initial Perceptions of British Learning Culture
• 4  Adjustment Resources and Initial Acculturative Methods
• 5  Changes in Learning Beliefs
• 6  Conclusions
• Appendix
• References
• Index