Last week, we explored some of the generally overlooked benefits of the teacher-centred learning model. This focused on the argument that a teacher-centred approach more accurately reflects the process of learning in the early stages of the faculty experience of students regardless of the national context.
Today, we will consider the additional argument that the teacher-led Confucian model of learning also provides an alternative route to the subsequent development of critical thinking. This will be informed by arguments drawn from Edwards and Ahsan (2019), Li (2012), and Christodoulou (2014).
The culturally based ‘bad news’ perception of teacher-centred learning
The primary reason why a more teacher-centred learning approach has received a ‘bad press’ in the learning environment, especially in the English-speaking nations, is that several often unquestioned culturally based assumptions have been fed into a commonly held narrative. Some of these cultural issues were introduced in the previous blog post. Put simply, a frequently repeated stereotype of East Asian students by some international educators is that they are inclined to be passive, silent, surface learners, focused on rote learning, while being deficient in argumentation and critical thinking abilities.
The alternative Confucian based teacher-centred learning approach to developing critical thinking
One key explanation for the negative perception of memorisation in the Western student-centred model stems from a limited awareness that there are three distinctly different levels to this learning approach.
Level 1
Memorisation as a mechanical process of rote learning initial new foundation knowledge
Level 2
Memorisation as an elementary link to meaningful understanding
Level 3
Memorisation as a critical foundation for other meaningful learning
In this context, Li (2012) argues that, given a more positive expectation towards the value of levels 1 and 2, Chinese and other East Asians are uniquely able to function at Level 3. This level focuses on the teacher-led acquisition of essential foundation knowledge in subjects such as mathematics, science, engineering, grammar, and reading. Once accomplished, this then later facilitates progress to more meaningful steps in the learning process. One positive example of the importance of developing foundation knowledge initially routed in memorisation is illustrated in cross-cultural research by the OECD, otherwise known as PISA (2012).
Following the testing of 15-year-olds, the top seven places in mathematics were taken by East Asian nations and regions. These top listed nations and regions were in the following order: Shanghai, Singapore (largely ethnic Chinese), Hong Kong, Taipei, South Korea, Macau, and Japan.
Consequently, a subsequent cause of concern arising from the PISA results is that, due to the rejection of the importance of memorisation in the initial stages of the learning process, learners within the student-centred model can fail to acquire essential foundation knowledge that underpins further development in key academic disciplines such as those listed above.
The learning steps in Confucian-based approach to the development of critical thinking as illustrated by Li (2012) is highlighted below.
Step1: Memorisation
When encountering new knowledge, the foundation material needs to be committed to memory.
Step 2: Meaning
Next, is the requirement to understand the intention, style, and meaning of the new material.
Step 3: Application
Then, it is necessary to apply this understanding to situations that require such knowledge.
Step 4: Questioning
Finally, at the deeper level, the new knowledge is questioned and modified.
In this teacher-led approach, students are guided from surface to deeper learning becoming increasingly more competent and willing to engage in independent critical argumentation. However, the process leading to this latter stage can be extended over weeks, months, or even years. Then, the early stage of this process requires students to focus on listening, note-taking, reading, and note-making that are essential early faculty requirements.
Furthermore, the Confucian-based learning approach also appears to support the argument of educators like Christodoulou that key skills such as critical thinking cannot be taught as abstract generic concepts but need to be intertwined with some specific academic domain or subject content.
Finally, this also explains why East Asian students are often initially disorientated when educators, once again especially in the English-speaking nations, typically require almost immediate active participation in discussion and argumentation prior to completing the preparatory learning stages. The extent to which this expectation is experienced as somewhat pointless, if not positively weird, is comically demonstrated in a quote from a highly informative book entitled Quiet by Cain (2012).
“The teaching back home is very different from here,” says Hung Wei Chien, . . . who came to the United States from Taiwan in 1979 to attend graduate school at UCLA. “There, you learn the subject, and they test you. . . . If you stand up and talk nonsense, you’ll be reprimanded. . . . So, it’s telling that even Hung recalls her culture shock upon entering her first American-style classroom. She considered it rude to participate in class because she didn’t want to waste her classmates’ time. And sure enough, she says, laughing, “I was the quiet person there. At UCLA, the professor would start class, saying, ‘Let’s discuss!’ I would look at my peers while they were talking nonsense, and the professors were so patient, just listening to everyone.” She nods her head comically, mimicking the overly respectful professors. (pp. 184–185)
Question 1
To what extent have you changed your mind about the value of a teacher-centred approach because of reading the blog posts over the past four weeks?
Question 2
To what extent should teacher- and student-centred learning be integrated in the learning process in terms of a continuum beginning with a more teacher-centred approach, including the memorisation of foundation knowledge, before later shifting to student-centred style?
Question 3
To what extent is it possible to prepare in advance before leaving home to anticipate the inevitable initial culture and learning shocks prior to studying overseas?
Question 3 will be the focus of our blog post next week as an introduction to a short new series on planning to study overseas.
References
Cain, S. (2012). Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking. Penguin Books.
Li, J. (2012). Cultural foundations of learning: East and West. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2012). PISA 2012 results in focus: what 15 year-olds know and what they can do with what they know. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pdf
Bibliography
Christodoulou, D. (2014). Seven myths about education. Routledge.
Edwards, R. A. & Ahsan, U. (2019). Why should we be so learner-centred? Modern English Teacher, 28(4), 39–43.
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