Cooperative learning vs confucian heritage culture's collectivism. The analysis in Viet Nam

Abstract

Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHC) such as Viet Nam, China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore are proven to share characteristics of Collectivist society. Researchers agree that this collectivist mentality supports cooperation, that CHC’s learners/workers best perform in groups. Not satisfied with the assumed credo, which most easily concur, Phuong-Mai, Terlouw & Pilot (2005) made an effort to explore the other side of the medal, questioned the fixed assumption that cooperative learning is culturally appropriate in collectivist Asian countries. The confrontation between these two sets of values/principles (Cooperative Learning & CHC) reveals a number of cultural mismatch. Following this theoretical analysis, in this paper, we examine in the empirical data how practice goes in alignment with or cast doubt on the findings of our theoretical analysis. Outcomes are based on related literatures, specifically related to Viet Nam and a questionnaire with 647 participants. This paper also gives an overview of the on-going education reform in Viet Nam and analyses at three levels: administration, curriculum and lesson how Cooperative learning is being applied as a new and modern methodology.