Instructional design principles for cooperative learning in Asia

Abstract

Social sciences possess a plethora of studies about cooperative learning. However, most of these researches have been conducted mainly by and on Westerners with fundamental assumptions based on Western values. Many recent intercultural studies proved that people cooperate with each other differently across cultures. This suggests a need of different model and different design principles for Cooperative Learning(CL) in non-Western cultures. Particular focus of this paper is on Confucian Heritage Cultures in Asia (China, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia). Imported from the West, applied in the East, the ‘cloning’ of theory and practice is likely to be culturally inappropriate, acknowledging that the Western fundamental values are at the grassroots different from Eastern Confucian Heritage Cultures. In this paper, we propose a series of instructional design principles for CL to be applied in Asian Confucian Heritage Cultures, taking into account their distinguished cultural norms and values. Our major research question is: ‘What are the instructional design principles for CL which are culturally appropriate to apply in Asian Confucian Heritage Cultures?”. The paper also reports initial research finding of experiments executed in a upper secondary school in Vietnam. The control group involved in CL tasks using Western CL principles whilst the experimental groups were with the tasks using culturally adapted principles (CoOL-VN principles).