思维风格对中美大学生课堂学习行为的影响研究

The Influence of Thinking Style on Classroom Learning Behaviour:A Cross-cultural Study Between Chinese and American Students

对长期以来具有争议的中美学生存在课堂学习行为差异的现象,研究者推测中美学生由于具有思维风格的差异,造成他们对课堂内容的处理方式的区别,从而影响他们不同的课堂行为反应。研究对来自于中国学生、中国留美学生和美国学生三组样本的数据进行分析。结果表明在控制了文化组别和学习动机因素后,思维风格仍能显著预测课堂学习行为,并能部分地解释中美学生之间存在的课堂学习行为差异。

Chinese students and American students were often portrayed as two different learning groups with the former being more passive in the classroom, and the latter more active. The authors speculated that thinking style might have an influence on the classroom behaviors of students, and at least partly explain the different learning styles of the two student groups. An existing thinking style measure and a self-developed learning behavior measure were implemented to three sample groups： American students, Chinese students in China, and Chinese students in the U.S. These samples were recruited from universities located in northeastern USA and Southeastern China. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean differences of the cultural groups in the learning behavior measure. It was found that American students were generally more active in the classroom while Chinese students, both in China and in the U. S., were less active However, American students and Chinese students did not differ in such variables as appearance of participation and independent thinking, which challenges the biased view considering Chinese students as ＂passive knowledge receivers＂. Hierarchical regression was then used to investigate the relationship between thinking style and learning behavior. It was found that thinking style significantly predicted classroom learning behavior after cultural groups and academic motivation were controlled. However, the effect size was relatively small with thinking style accounting for 4 % of variance in learning behavior. It was also found that motivation moderated the relationship between thinking style and learning behavior. Finally, the Baron ＆ Kenny criteria and bootstrapping method were used to test the mediation effect of thinking style. The results revealed that thinking style mediated the relationship between cultural group and classroom learning behavior. It was suggested that thinking style at least partially explains the classroom behavioral differences presented by Chinese and American students. The results of this study have the potential to contribute to the field of educational psychology by illuminating the relationship between thinking style and classroom learning behavior. Nevertheless, the results should be interpreted with caution since only selfreport measures were used in this study, and the sample groups should not be considered representative of the populations in either country.