Attitudes to Learning of the Asian Student Studying in the West

Abstract

An hypothesis that the Asian student has an attitude to learning that is markedly different from his Western counterpart is presented. He is more dependent on authority, less able to think independently, and more dependent on memorization. Such an attitude is an impediment to successful academic performance in a Western university. A questionnaire measuring various aspects of this attitude was administered to a group of Asian students and to a similar group of Australian students. The items were subjected to a components analysis and three factors were extracted. The first two factors described the attitudes as hypothesized, and both significantly discriminated Asian from Australian groups. The first factor was found to predict academic performance for the Asian group to a significant extent.