Ask an American parent why their child should learn, and you often hear about curiosity and understanding the world. Ask a Chinese parent, and you often hear about hard work, humility and becoming a better person. Jin Li, a professor of education at Brown University, built her research career on that difference.
In Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West, Li brings together decades of research, including her own studies with children, students and parents. She describes two models. In the Western model, learning trains the mind so it can understand the world. In the East Asian model, rooted in the teachings of Confucius, learning helps people grow as persons, morally and socially.
In the Confucian tradition, loving to learn is a personal commitment. It grows over time with qualities such as seriousness, perseverance, the patience to get through hard stretches and humility.
Li shows where both traditions come from and how each shapes the way people learn: how they feel about it, how they see their classmates, how they show what they know and how parents guide them. When she listened to mothers talking with their children, for example, Western mothers were eager to protect their child's natural curiosity, while Asian mothers taught the value of effort and going the extra mile. One chapter follows how curiosity grows into real inquiry.
Her conclusion: even as cultures mix more and more, both models remain strong.
Sources
Li, J. (2012). Cultural foundations of learning: East and West. Cambridge University Press.