Revisiting The Chinese Learner

It is seventeen years since I first formulated ‘The paradox of the Chinese learner’ in a conference in Kathmandu, Nepal. My original formulation of the paradox was that westerners saw Chinese students as rote learning massive amounts of information in fierce exam-dominated classrooms – yet in international comparisons, students in the Confucian heritage cla- rooms greatly outperformed western students learning in ‘progressive’ western classrooms. This seeming paradox raised all sorts of questions to which many others have contributed important answers, especially that by Ference Marton on how Chinese learners construed the roles of memory and understanding in ways that were foreign to typical western educators. Much of this work was brought together in The Chinese Learner (1996), edited by David Watkins and myself. That work raised more questions still, especially about educational contexts, beliefs and practices, which were investigated in contributions to Teaching the Chinese Learner (2001). And now we have Revisiting the Chinese Learner, which is a very timely collection of excellent contributions that take into account the many changes that have taken place since 2001, changes such as: 1. The globalisation of education especially through educational technology, and enormous socio-economic changes, especially in China itself. 2. Changes in educational policy, aims, curriculum and organi- tion, and decentralisation of educational decision-making in many Confucian heritage cultures. 3.

Paints a clear, research-based picture of how Chinese students and their teachers see the context of their learning both in Hong Kong and abroad. The focus of much of this research is the question, How can Chinese learners be so successful academically'.

This book examines Chinese tertiary students' experiences of learning English in Sino-Australian programs in China. Using an institutional ethnography, the book examines one well-established Sino-Australian program based at a Chinese university. The book explores the ways that participant students used the Chinese words, tropes and their meanings to describe their English learning experiences with both local Chinese and foreign English teachers. This book introduces an innovative theoretical framework, “representation theory with a multilingual perspective”, to analyse how Chinese students' everyday experiences are constructed and mediated through language, discourse and identity. This framework also highlights graphic examples of how concepts are created in both Chinese and English, and thus serves as a powerful tool for deconstructing dichotomies between China and the West. The aim of this book is, then, two-fold: to show how a novel theoretical lens can help us to develop more nuanced understandings of Chinese students, and to propose a new methodological and theoretical framework through which one can challenge the monolingual subjectivity and parochial views of both Chinese and Western conceptions.

International Education and the Chinese Learner is one of the first full-length studies in the relatively new field of transnational pedagogy to explore the role of the Chinese learner in international schools and universities across the globe. It describes the unprecedented growth of international schools and university exchange programs during the past decade together with the way in which Chinese learners at all levels have taken advantage of these opportunities and have been scrutinized in the process. The results of this internationalization have in some cases solidified stereotypes about Chinese learners and in other instances have helped to overcome those prejudices. Teachers within the international schools comment about the challenges of integrating students from different ethnic and national backgrounds in their schools and about the rewards of developing intercultural programs that will give the students the most substantial, diverse, and ethical education and encourage cross-cultural understanding, build academic skills, and develop character. University teachers ù both Chinese and Western ù describe the opportunities and challenges for cross-cultural teaching and learning within the classrooms of their own countries and in global classrooms where local and international teachers together advance new perspectives based on team teaching, interdisciplinarity, and intercultural enquiry. Teachers within international schools and university and school teachers who teach exchange students and other international students will find the understanding, experiences, and practical advice to be of help in their own teaching, but those within international business communities may well find the research helpful in understanding their own intercultural environments. Janette Ryan is a lecturer in education at Monash University. She specializes in cross-cultural teaching and teaching for international students. She is a Mandarin Chinese speaker and works with a network of schools and universities across China on curriculum reform and professional learning communities. Gordon Slethaug is a visiting professor in English studies and communications at the University of Southern Denmark and has previously been professor of English at the University of Waterloo, Canada and director of American Studies at the University of Hong Kong. He has recently been visiting Lingnan professor at the University of Hong Kong and Sun Yat-sen University in China and senior Fulbright professor at the University of Southern Denmark.

This book presents strategies and practices for facilitating effective learning for mainland Chinese students in western based education – regarding e.g. the choice of instructional techniques, attention to students’ cultural dislocation aspects, comfort, familiarity, and ease of knowledge transfer. It embeds innovativeness at a conceptual level, and argues for a holistic and “engaged” approach to learning effectiveness for mainland Chinese students.

This book celebrates the scholarly achievements of Prof. David A. Watkins, who has pioneered research on the psychology of Asian learners, and helps readers grasp the cognitive, motivational, developmental, and socio-cultural aspects of Asian learners learning experiences. A wide range of empirical and review papers, which examine the characteristics of these experiences as they are shaped by both the particularities of diverse educational systems/cultural milieus and universal principles of human learning and development, are showcased. The individual chapters, which explore learners from fourteen Asian countries, autonomous regions, and/or economies, build on research themes and approaches from Prof. Watkins’ research work, and are proof of the broad importance and enduring relevance of his seminal psychological research on learners and the learning process.

This book examines issues that have emerged as higher education systems and individual institutions across East Asia confront and adapt to the changing economic, social, and educational environments in which they now operate. The book’s focus is on how higher education systems learn from each other and on the ways in which they collaborate to address new challenges. The sub-theme that runs through this volume concerns the changing nature of cross-border sharing. In particular, the provision of technical assistance by more industrialized countries to lower and middle income countries has given way to collaborations that place the latter’s participating institutions on a more equal footing.