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 diligence, humility and becoming a better person. Jin Li, a professor of education and human development at Brown University, built a research career on that difference.
In Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West, Li reviews decades of research, including her own studies with children, students and parents. She distinguishes two models. The Western mind model aims to cultivate the mind so it can understand the world. The East Asian virtue model, rooted in Confucian thought, puts the self first: learning is the way to perfect oneself morally and socially.
In the Confucian tradition Li describes, a love of learning is a moral commitment. It grows over time through virtues such as earnestness, perseverance, endurance of hardship and humility.
Li traces the cultural origins of both traditions and shows how each shapes the learning process, the emotions around learning, how learners regard their peers, how they express what they know and how parents guide them. In conversations between mothers and children, for example, she finds Western parents keen to protect their child's natural curiosity, and Asian parents teaching the value of diligence and extra effort. A chapter traces how curiosity turns into inquiry.
Her conclusion: despite accelerating cultural exchange, both models endure.
Sources
Li, J. (2012). Cultural foundations of learning: East and West. Cambridge University Press.
