There is a common perception that Asian students relyupon rote learning and prefer passive forms oflearning, though, this appears to be incompatible withevidence of their high levels of achievement. Thisapparent dichotomy is explained by showing thatmemorisation can occur in conjunction with theintention to understand. It could also result fromstudents learning material by heart because theyperceive that is what the course and assessmentrequire. Evidence from over 90 action researchprojects is used to disprove the common assertionsthat Asian students prefer passive learning and resistteaching innovations. It is argued that motivationdisplayed by Asian students is not well described byconventional definitions in psychology textbooks.Courses which provide good career preparation are asource of motivation but it is not an extrinsic formof motivation which depresses intrinsic motivation.There are high levels of achieving motive, but itfrequently has a collective nature rather than beingindividual and competitive.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Education
Research Group:	Specialist studies in education
Research Field:	Comparative and cross-cultural education
Objective Division:	Education and Training
Objective Group:	Teaching and curriculum
Objective Field:	Pedagogy
UTAS Author:	Kember, D (Professor David Kember)
ID Code:	129408
Year Published:	2000
Web of Science® Times Cited:	224
Deposited By:	Education
Deposited On:	2018-11-28
Last Modified:	2018-12-14
Downloads:	0