Learning across cultures: appropriateness of knowledge transfer

This chapter focuses on the issue of transfer of cognitions, motivations, and dispositions related to learning across di!erent cultural-educational contexts. Research with learners from Confucian Heritage Culture, mainly from Singapore and Hong Kong, studying in their home country and as international students in Australia is used to establish the usefulness of the concept of socio-cultural appropriateness to understand transfer. The examples discussed reveal how some aspects of students learning travel extremely well and are congruent with the characteristics of learning valued in the host context, while others re#ect ambivalent, di$cult, or inappropriate transfer. The signi"cance of mutual individual-context dynamic interactions, subjective nature of appropriateness, and emotional dimensions involved in transfer of learning is highlighted. Implications for educational practice in an international, multicultural perspective are outlined. ( 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. The literature on transfer of learning is replete with studies investigating the most e!ective ways to help learners transfer their knowledge and skills #exibly and appropriately across tasks and contexts. Overall, there is a general agreement that successful transfer of learning involves more than a cognitive match between the learner's mental baggage brought to the situation and the requirements of the transfer task or situation. The importance of the person-context mutual interactions, or the match between the individuals' e!ectivities and the a!ordances provided by the environment has been highlighted (Snow, 1994; Greeno, 1997). Recent transfer research has also stressed that attitudes (Resnick, 1987), dispositions (Bereiter, 1995), mindfulness (Salomon & Globerson, 1987), and motivation (McKeachie, 1987) are critical components of e!ective transfer alongside cognitive and metacognitive aspects. In addition *Tel.: #61-89-360-2119; fax: #61-89-360-6280. E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Volet) 0883-0355/99/$ see front matter ( 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 8 8 3 0 3 5 5 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 2 8 2 to person characteristics, Boekaerts' (1997) research suggests that situation-speci"c cognitive, motivational and emotional appraisals of tasks and contexts also have a signi"cant in#uence on learning and transfer. Without necessarily downplaying the importance of learners' e!ectivities and situation-speci"c appraisals, recent situated cognition research (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Resnick, 1987; Rogo!, 1990; Greeno, 1997,1998) has emphasized the critical impact of a!ordances that learning contexts and activities provide to participants (Gruber, Law, Mandl & Renkl, 1995; Gibson, 1979/1986). It has been claimed that regardless of whether the focus is theory development, applied research, or improvement of educational practice, the unit of analysis must be the person-incontext or the whole activity setting. Although some situationists (e.g., Lave, 1988) have argued that transfer of knowledge may not exist since knowledge cannot be decontextualized, most theorists recognize that transfer of learning can be socially mediated and that guided forms of learning have potential for enhancing the likelihood of transfer across tasks and contexts. This chapter examines the e!ectivities}a!ordances interface in individuals' transfer of cognitions, motivations, and dispositions related to learning across broad cultural-educational contexts. Research with learners from Confucian Heritage Culture, mainly from Singapore and Hong Kong, studying in their home country and as international students in Australia is used to establish the usefulness of the concept of socio-cultural appropriateness to understand transfer. 1. Transfer of learning across broad real-life learning settings For many educators, the nature, degree, and appropriateness of transfer of learning across real-life learning settings is related to the learners' cognitive, motivational, and emotional capacity to adapt their processes of learning to the characteristics of the new context. Each speci"c learning context appears to have its own unique culture of learning, with some explicit but also many tacit rules and expectations which provide subjective criteria for evaluating what are appropriate learning behaviors in that context. According to Marini and Genereux (1995), an instructional context refers to `the physical and social setting, including the instruction and support provided by the teacher, the behavior of other students, and the norms and expectations inherent in the settinga (p. 2). Their acknowledgement of social elements (other students) and cultural dimensions (norms and expectations) which form an integral part of any activity setting is to be noted. Peers are part of each other's social context (Voss & Valsiner, 1996). It is well established in the literature on cooperative and collaborative learning (Johnson, Maruyama, Johnson, Nelson & Skon, 1981; Dillenbourg, Baker, Blaye & O'Malley, 1995) and socialization in the workplace (Levine & Moreland, 1991) that individuals play a critical role in each other's learning. Cultural dimensions, i.e., the sets of beliefs, value systems, assumptions, and social expectations prevailing in a particular activity setting that are understood and shared by the individuals participating, are critical in determining what are appropriate forms of 626 S. Volet / Int. J. Educ. Res. 31 (1999) 625}643