Culture and cooperation: cooperative learning in Asian Confucian heritage cultures. The case of Viet Nam

Abstract

The study is concerned with the influence of western educational approaches upon non-western societies and cultural groups. In applying western educational approaches, often a detailed consideration of its consequences to the culture and heritage of a non-western civilization is neglected. This is both the case of a multicultural classroom where students come from different backgrounds and the case of homogeneous classroom in non-western countries where the western teaching and learning approaches are encouraged because they seem to bring higher academic achievement. The research further draws upon a case study that illustrates the application of Cooperative Learning, an educational method that was developed in a western context. Cautions have been raised, concerning diverse influential factors, one of them identified in this study as the cultural factor which refers to norms and values deeply embedded in the cultural niche and everyday’s life pattern of teachers and students, and to a certain extent may exert influence in how they perceive and practice CL. While we may agree that the roots of CL are extant in all cultures, because cooperation is essential to the functioning of human groups, we should acknowledge that different forms of CL are more likely to thrive in different cultures. This study is dedicated to explore the impact of a specific culture on CL process and outcomes by means of experimental research. The particular cultural reference in the study is focused on Asian Confucian Heritage Cultures, which are the cultures historically under the influence of Confucianism in the following countries: Viet Nam, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Theoretical analyses conducted to examine what aspect of Asian-CHC specifically may influence CL and in what way reveal a number of domains where cultural conflicts and mismatch are likely to happen when the mainstream CL approaches are applied in Asian context without a rigorous adaptation to improve compatibility with the host culture in the following domains: Leadership; Face; Reward allocation; Group composition; Teacher-Student dyad; Gender; Learning style; and Attitude towards time. Two experimental settings were formed by randomisation. Vietnamese students in one setting received a series of lessons in which CL principles applied in domains of focus are associated with the mainstream CL theories and practice. Students in the other setting received similar lessons but CL in these lessons were modified so as to be more culturally appropriate. Findings show that there is likely to be a discrepancy in how Vietnamese students and the mainstream CL researchers perceive the impact of leadership, the justification of reward allocation, and the effectiveness of group composition based on affect-based trust and social shared identity. When CL was organised in ways that were considered to be culturally appropriate, students reported higher work rates than those who followed a traditional programme. This study links theory directly to practice by formulating nine concrete CL instructional design principles to be considered in curriculum and task design with Vietnamese students in particular, and Asian-CHC learners in general, as target group. Arguing that CL is not value-free, the study points out a challenge for educational leaders to balance the changing demands put on learners and teachers as a consequence of globalisation, while being sensitive to the equally important task of addressing the need to value the cultural context of learners and teachers.