The adaptation of East Asian masters students to western norms of critical thinking and argumentation in the UK

Abstract

The paper explores the adaptation experiences of East Asian masters students in the UK in dealing with western academic norms of critical thinking and debate. Through in-depth interviewing, students' perceptions of their learning experiences were explored, and stages in this adaptation process were identified, with various entry and exit routes. It was found that the majority of the students opt for a 'middle way' which synergizes their own cultural approach to critical thinking with those aspects of western-style critical thinking and debate that are culturally acceptable to them.

Challenges of university adjustment in the UK: a study of East Asian Master’s degree students

“…Within this culture there is a particular, but not exclusive, connection with students from the same or culturally similar backgrounds and a continuing interest in events in one's home country through the use of ICT (see also Xue, 2005). This international student culture has elements of the hybrid experience described by Durkin (2008) but it is not a marginalized experience as described by Wang (2004) in a study of Chinese students in USA. The idea of an 16 'international postgraduate culture' was one that these students could accept or 'buy into' (see also Yeh, 2001) and indeed some of the criticism which they made of teaching and learning was that the content was not international enough, it was too parochial and UK or USA based.…”

“…Some of the above assumptions of East Asian culture have become challenged in more recent research. Durkin (2008), for example, in examining East Asian students in the UK, does indeed report a divide between more 'conciliatory' approaches to study followed by East Asian students and the 'wrestling' orientation to study in the western academic tradition. However, students were seeking, and could find, a middle way between these approaches in which they could meet academic demands while not seeking full acculturation.…”

Exploring cultural differences in critical thinking: Is it about my thinking style or the language I speak?

“…Lee and Carrasquillo (2006) found that college professors perceived their Korean students as having "difficulty in openly expressing critical thinking" (p. 451). The perceptions of Asian students being less overt or less expressive in classrooms are often interpreted as lack of critical thinking, especially when Western academic standards of critical thinking involving overt argumentation and debate are applied (Durkin, 2008).…”

Debating the Capabilities of “Chinese Students” for Thinking Critically in Anglophone Universities

“…Egege and Kutieleh argue that teaching critical thinking to Chinese students means "teaching foreign notions to foreign students" [39] (p. 75). The claim is that Western Anglophone students are considered as "experienced students [who] are already enculturated into Western style of [critical thinking]" [40] (p. 18). Rather naively, here critical thinking is constructed as a supposedly unique "Western" mode of expression.…”

“…Durkin says that China's education system takes knowledge as "absolute, defined by an authority as right or wrong [and] expects expository teaching with the focus on content and reproduction of material in their assignments" [40] (p. 18). Likewise, Liu and Hu (2005) report that academics in China use textbooks and examinations to "measure the mere apparent achievements of students .…”