Asian-American educational achievements: A phenomenon in search of an explanation.

Abstract

Considerable attention has been paid to the academic achievements of Asian Americans because there is convergent evidence that this population has attained high educational mobility. In trying to explain the achievement patterns, researchers have largely limited their investigations to one of two contrasting hypotheses involving (a) hereditary differences in intelligence between Asians and Whites and (b) Asian cultural values that promote educational endeavors. Research findings have cast serious doubt over the validity of the genetic hypothesis. Yet, there has been a failure to find strong empirical support for alternative hypothesis concerning cultural values. It is proposed, under the concept of relative functionalism, that Asian Americans perceive, and have experienced, restrictions in upward mobility in careers or jobs that are unrelated to education. Consequently, education assumes importance, above and beyond what can be predicted from cultural values. Research and policy implications of this view are noted.

Reliability and validity of the short Hong Kong Chinese Self-Regulation of Learning Self-Report Scale (SRL-SRS-C)

“…Steinberg, Dornbusch, & Brown, 1992). However, it is important to consider the social context in the country of origin (Rao, Moely, & Sachs, 2000;Stanley & Okazaki, 1990), as it is understood that important cultural differences can be obscured by research using English language questionnaires with people from different cultures who may share English as a common language (Harzing, 2005). "Cultural accommodation" occurs when respondents subconsciously adjust their responses to reflect the cultural values associated with the language the questionnaire is presented in (Harzing, 2005).…”

The Impact of Demographic and Academic Characteristics on Academic Performance

“…According to the study by Sue and Okazaki (1990) who investigates the Asian students' performance in USA and why they have higher performance. The results show that there is a significant positive correlation between students' performance and their origin countries.…”

International Student’s Academic Achievement: Contribution of Gender, Self-efficacy and Socio-cultural Adjustment

“…Asians valued academic achievement highly as it is perceived as one of the few avenues for upward mobility (Gloria & Ho, 2003;Sue & Okazaki, 1990). Not meeting one's own expectations and encouragement is a serious matter which could potentially leads to loss of confidence and support from one's family (Khan, 2012;Yeh & Huang, 1996).…”