Cooperative learning: Instructional principles for Asian learners

Cooperative Learning is one o f the most widespread and fruitful areas of theory,
research and practice in education. However, most of these researches have been conducted mainly by and on Westerners with fundamental assumptions based on Western values. Since people cooperate with each other differently across cultures, non-Western learners may need CL models that are culturally appropriate. Particular focus o f this paper is on Asian learners coming from Confucian Heritage Cultures (China, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia). We propose a series of CL instructional design principles to apply for Asian Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHC) learners, taking into account their distinguished cultural norms and values. Our major research question is: 'What are the CL instructional design principles which are culturally appropriate to apply for Asian CHC learners?". The paper also reports initial research finding o f experiments conducted in a upper secondary school in Vietnam. The control group was given CL tasks using Western CL principles whilst the experimental group was given CL tasks using culturally adapted principles. Initial result shows significant positive impact on student achievement and social support in the experimental group.