Cross-cultural differences in university students' goals and perceptions of study settings for achieving their own goals

Abstract

Abstract. International education and university study exchange programs are now widely established around the world. Yet little is known about possible cultural differences in international and local students' goals and perceptions, and about how international students adapt to the specific academic requirements of the host country. The mediating role of student's goals and perceptions, as well as the dynamic and adaptive nature of those cognitions have been emphasised in theories of self-regulation of learning and empirical research on student learning. The present study examined the extent to which international students' ways of thinking about learning, learning goals and perceptions of the usefulness of typical university study contexts differ from local students at the beginning of their study in the host university, and then become similar to that of local students after a period of time. Comparisons of matched groups of international students (from South-east Asia) and local (Australian) students revealed evidence of cultural/educational differences between their conceptualisation of goals at the beginning of their university study but this difference disappeared after one semester. At the start of their university study, South-east Asian students displayed higher levels of goals than local students, but neither group was certain yet which study settings would be most useful for achieving their personal goals. After one semester, South-east Asian students had become more like local students but the two groups' overall patterns of change over time were similar, providing further support for the view that the specific characteristics of study environments have a strong impact on students' learning, South-east Asian students' clear differentiation of the usefulness of typical study settings for the achievement of high vs low level goals however, contrasted with local students' undifferentiated view that individual study is the most useful form of learning.

Cultural and Multicultural Perspectives on Learning and Motivation

“…They report some universal as well as some context-specific patterns of relationships between learning and motivation. Their findings agree with Biggs' (1996) and Volet & Renshaw's (1995) research, stressing the deep learning orientation of Chineseethnic Hong Kong and Singaporean students. It also supports the view that memorization strategies have different meanings and purposes across Western and Eastern contexts (Lee, 1996).…”

The Effects of College Students’ Personal Values on Changes in Learning Approaches

“…This finding emphasized the importance of taking into account student background factors that capture their home countries' context (Schwartz and Bardi 1997;Schwartz et al 2000) in order to understand differences in learning approaches among sojourner students (Biggs 1996;Ong and Ward 2005;Volet and Renshaw 1995).…”

“…The increase of international or 'sojourner students' (Ward and Kennedy 1993) who leave their home country to study in a different country has given rise to research into the way in which students who previously were exposed to different teaching approaches adapt to the new learning context (Biggs 1996;Matthews 2004;Salili and Hoosain 2003;Volet and Renshaw 1995).…”

What are effective schools? Lessons from east and west

“…'Always aim to get the correct answer' and 'Learn lecture material by heart' were seen to be next in importance in Singaporean, and by the same students of little importance in Australian institutions, but that reflected the demands of and short-term adjustment to the respective assessment systems rather than what might be called a cross-cultural difference. Volet and Renshaw (1993) report that Singaporean students, as compared with local Australian students, had higher cognitive goals, were more realistically able to match higher level goals with compatible learning contexts, had more extensive help-seeking strategies and support systems, and contrary to stereotype did not participate any less in tutorial discussions.…”