Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West

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.

Author: Jin Li
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 03/26/2012
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780521160629

Review Citation(s):
Choice 12/01/2012

About the Author
Li, Jin: - Dr Jin Li is tenured Associate Professor of Education and Human Development at Brown University. Her research examines different cultural learning models and how such culturally based models shape children's learning beliefs and achievement. She collaborates with researchers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, the UK, Germany, Israel and the United States. Dr Li has published in leading journals such as American Psychologist, the Journal of Educational Psychology, Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Ethos and Cognition and Emotion, among others.