‘Cultures of learning’ preferences among Chinese graduate students studying in the US and their impacts on learning

This study revolved around the concept of cultures of learning originally developed by Cortazzi and Jin (1996) as a way to counter the negative stereotypes that were developing around the idea of a passive Chinese learner. This mixed methods research study used an intervention to teach the concept of cultures of learning to international graduate students in the social sciences followed by a quantitative survey using the cultural dimensions learning preferences framework and key informant interviews with three students. The target population was roughly 25 master’s level Chinese students in the social sciences at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. As a control group, roughly 25 American graduate students in the social sciences were also surveyed at the same institution. The intervention was conducted during the on-site orientation, which the international students attended before classes started, during which the construct of cultures of learning was explained, the difference between American and Chinese preferences, and especially why each culture has those preferences. Finally, after one semester all of the students were surveyed again to see if the intervention had an effect. The interviews added depth and understanding to this construct and went into more detail about the experience of the Chinese students in an American higher education classroom as well as the barriers and challenges that they faced in their transition. The results of the interviews reinforced what has been written in the literature, but the results of the survey were surprising as no significance was found between the cultural learning preferences of each group of students. This may be due to the instrument itself as well as the population surveyed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Orahood, Tammy

Contributors dc:contributor

• Witt, Allison
• Lindgren, Samantha
• Burbules, Nicholas
• Huang, Wenhao D

• Culture
• Learning
• International Students

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Tammy Orahood

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122119

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F122119