Crossing cultures: Teaching Confucian heritage students

Dr Phiona StanleyLearning and Teaching Unit

UniSA

Workshop Outline

• Cultures of learning– Socratic and Confucian learning cultures– Western teachers and CHC learners

• Dealing with learning cultures in contact– Our way? Their way? A third way?

• Implications

Cultures of learning

What do you know about Confucius and Socrates?

Why are they relevant to UniSA in 2010?

Confucian-heritage cultures (CHCs) • (PR) China • Hong Kong (SAR)• Taiwan• Vietnam• Korea• Japan• Malaysia• Singapore

• Most international students at UniSA are from CHCs

• Of course, not all learners are homogenous; • And things are changing, esp. in mainland China!

Socratic culture of learning

'The unexamined life is not worth living. ... Wisdom begins in wonder.' (Socrates, 470-399 BC)

• dialogic (dialectic) method of inquiry• teachers questions → construction of knowledge• hypothesis testing and elimination • forces students to examine own beliefs• students taught to question “knowledge” • Western rationalism / logic

Confucian culture of learning

'I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.' (Confucius, 551 - 479 BC)

• Centrality of five relationships: filial piety (parent/child)

• Role of teachers: students owe strong duties of reverence and service to their teachers

• Texts are revered; “correct” answers valued• “To study without thought is labor lost;

but thinking without study is dangerous indeed”

UniSA: learning cultures in contact

Cultures of learning

“taken-for-granted frameworks of expectations, attitudes, values and beliefs about how to teach or learn successfully … A culture of learning frames what teachers and students expect to happen in classrooms”

Jin and Cortazzi (2006, p. 9)

Confucian cultures of learning• Confucian heritage students stereotyped as:

– quiet, passive rote learners– respectful of teachers / teaching materials– unable or unwilling to think critically– reluctant to express opinions

(Atkinson, 1997; Ballard & Clanchy, 1991; Bodycott & Walker, 2000)

• Chinese learners are “not accustomed to actively participating in class … teachers ‘teach’ and students rarely speak out of turn” (Gibbs, 2005, p. 6)

• Some evidence that Chinese students’ cultures of learning are starting to change

(Biggs, 1996; Cheng, 2002; Curro & McTaggart, 2003; Gan, Humphreys & Hamp-Lyons, 2004; Gieve and Clark, 2005; Shi, 2006)

A quiz!

• Why might Confucian heritage (CH) students be reluctant to speak up in class?

• How might CH learners feel about copying ideas from textbooks, and why?

• How do CH students address their teachers and why might they feel uncomfortable with Australian ways of addressing teachers?

• How might CH students feel about Western educational norms & practices?

Cultures of Learning in

contact

Discussion: Spot the difference!

• Look at the pictures on the next two slides• What are some differences?• Why might there be problems if a learner

comes to context 1 from context 2?

CELTA training contextGroup work in Australia

Typical HE classroom in China

Case studies jigsaw reading: Cultures of learning in contact

• Two cases studies:– Jenny in Vietnam – Liu Hong in China

• Read your case study;• Find someone with the other case study; • Describe your case study and what the problem is;• Discuss the culture of learning assumptions being made by

the people in the case studies

Cases adapted from: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Zhenhui-TeachingStyles.html

What to do?

Our way?

Our way (Liao 2004)

– Methodological universalism– Educational research– Evidence-based research as context-blind– Cultural/educational assimilation model; becoming

part of global academic community

– Context specificity– Cultural resistance?– Assumptions about students’ needs/identities– Unclear expectations?

Students’ way?

Students’way (Yu, 2001; Zhang, 2004)

• People do successfully learn with all sorts of teaching methods– Issue of ‘methodological imperialism’?– Methodological relativism: “context approach” (Bax, 2003)

• Discredited model of learning – transmission; – constuctivism

• What about non-CHC students?• (Are we any good at Confucian-style teaching?)

A third way?

(Bjorning-Gyde & Doodgan, 2004; Hu, 2002; Senior & Xu, 2002)

– Cultural fusion models– Negotiated third space – between two cultures

– Lack of consistency in theoretical underpinning?– Teachers/students may lack adaptation skills– Expected graduate qualities of Australian

education, e.g. Participation in discussions – learned through Socratic-style teaching?

Discussion: Potential issues

• Can teachers adapt their practice? Do they? • Can students adapt? Do they?

– What does effective adaptation depend on?

• Who should adapt, when teachers in Australia teach students from Confucian-heritage cultures?– Does it depend on where classroom is physically?– Does it depend on students’ future needs, e.g. Australian uni study?– Does it depend on the proportion of CHC/other students?

• How might adaptation (teacher or student) take place?– In at the deep end?– Gradual accommodation of teaching/learning cultures?

Bridging the gap

• Starts with teacher / learner awareness– Principled eclecticism– Examination of own and students’ practices– Make expectations explicit, with rationale– Find out students’ (perceptions of) future needs– Have this discussion with students (.ppt available!)

– What else?

References & Further ReadingAtkinson, D. (1997). A critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 31(1), 9-37.Ballard, B., & Clanchy, J. (1991). Teaching students from overseas: A brief guide for lecturers and

supervisors. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire.Bax, S. (2003). The end of CLT: a context approach t language teaching. ELT Journal, 57(3), 278-

287.Biggs, J. B. (1996). Western mis-conceptions of the Confucian-heritage learning culture. In D. A.

Watkins & J. B. Biggs (Eds.), The Chinese learner: Cultural, psychological and contrextaul influences. (pp. 45-67). Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong.

Bjorning-Gyde, M., & Doogan, F. (2004). TEFL practice and reform in China: Learning, adapting, succeeding, creating. Paper presented at the The 2nd International Conference of IATEFL China.

Bodycott, P., & Walker, A. (2000). Teaching abroad: Lessons learned about intercultural understanding for teachers in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 5(1), 79-94.

Cheng, X. (2002). Chinese EFL students' cultures of learning. In C. Lee & W. Littlewood (Eds.), Culture, communication and language pedagogy (pp. 103-116). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Baptist University Press.

Curro, G., & McTaggart, R. (2003). Supporting the Pedagogy of Internationalisation. Paper presented at the 17thIDP Australian International Education Conference. Retrieved 3 March 2008, from http://www.jcu.edu.au/teaching/idc/groups/public/documents/staff_publications/jcuprd_016763.pdf

Dooley, K. (2001). Re-envisioning teacher preparation: Lessons from China. Journal of Education for teaching, 27(3), 241-251.

Gan, Z., Humphreys, G., & Hamp-Lyons, L. (2004). Understanding successful and unsuccessful EFL students in Chinese universities. The Modern Language Journal, 88(ii), 229-244.

Gibbs, M. (2005, July). Proceed with caution. EL Prospects.Gieve, S., & Clark, R. (2005). 'The Chinese approach to learning': Cultural trait or

situated response? The case of a self-directed learning program. System, 33, 261-276.

Hiep, P. H. (2007). Communicative language teaching: Unity within diversity. ELT Journal, 61(3), 193-201. Holliday, A. (1994). Appropriate methodology and social context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Holliday, A. (2007). Response to ‘ELT and “the spirit of the times”’. ELT Journal, 61(4), 360-366.

Hu, G. (2002). Potential cultural resistance to pedagogical imports: The case of communicative language teaching in China. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 15(2), 93-105.

Hu, G. (2005a). Contextual influences on instructional practices: A Chinese case for an ecological approach to ELT. TESOL Quarterly, 39(4), 635-660.

Hu, G. (2005b). Professional Development of Secondary EFL Teachers: Lessons From China [Electronic Version]. Teachers College Record. Retrieved 4 June 2007, from http://www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=11816

Jin, L., & Cortazzi, M. (2006). Changing practices in Chinese cultures of learning. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 19(1), 5-20.

Liao, X. (2004). Readers Respond (2): The need for communicative language teaching in China. ELT Journal, 58(3), 270-273.

Senior, R., & Xu, Z. (2002). East meets West: Language teachers from different contexts discover similar goals. English Australia Journal, 19(1), 65-74.

Shi, L. (2006). The successors to Confucianism or a new generation? A questionnaire study of Chinese students' culture of learning English. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 19(1), 122-147.

Wu, Y. (2001). English language teaching in China: Trends and challenges. TESOL Quarterly, 35(1), 191-194.

Xinmin, Z., & Adamson, B. (2003). The pedagogy of a secondary school teacher of English in the People's Republic of China: Challenging the stereotypes. RELC Journal, 34(3), 323-337.

Yu, L. (2001). Communicative language teaching in China: Progress and resistance. TESOL Quarterly, 35(1), 194-198.

Zhang, L. (2004). CLT in China: Frustrations, misconceptions and frustrations. Hwa Kang Journal of TEFL, 10, 101-114.