Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West

• Published in: Cambridge University Press
• Main Author: Li, Jin
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 01-03-2012
• Subjects: Asia; Asian Culture; Asians; Beliefs; Child Rearing; Comparative Analysis; Comparative Education; Concept Formation; Confucianism; Cultural Differences; Cultural Influences; Educational History; Educational Philosophy; Educational Psychology; Epistemology; Foreign Countries; Intellectual History; Learning Processes; Moral Values; Parent Child Relationship; Parent Role; Role of Education; Western Civilization; World Views; Asia
• ISBN: 0521768292; 9780521768290
• DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139028400

Western and East Asian people hold fundamentally different beliefs about learning that influence how they approach child rearing and education. Reviewing decades of research, Dr. Jin Li presents an important conceptual distinction between the Western mind model and the East Asian virtue model of learning. The former aims to cultivate the mind to understand the world, whereas the latter prioritizes the self to be perfected morally and socially. Tracing the cultural origins of the two large intellectual traditions, Li details how each model manifests itself in the psychology of the learning process, learning affect, regard of one's learning peers, expression of what one knows, and parents' guiding efforts. Despite today's accelerated cultural exchange, these learning models do not diminish but endure. (Contains 4 tables.)