Impact of culture on students study behavior and perception - Dissertation Example

Pibulsilp, T. investigated the cultural influence on using Academic Library by the International Medical from Asian Countries. He conducted a case study of students at the University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand. He conducted semi-structured interviews from fifteen students having Asian backgrounds and the responses were analyzed using narrative and discourse analysis. By endorsing Hofstede’s work, he concluded that Asian cultural background is significantly related to students’ ability to use academic library services and recommended that academic libraries should work on highlighting the impact of cultural background in use of library.

Barker, K., Yeung, A., Dobia, B. and Mooney, M. (2009) examined the effectiveness of a behavior management approach adapted from the United States, Positive Behavior for Learning (PBL) into the New South Wales Department of Education and Training Western Sydney Region. They carried out two types of studies – Study 1 examined the attitudes to the implementation of PBL whereas Study 2 examined the impact of PBL on students’ motivation and self-concept. For Study 1, surveys were conducted in 24 PBL selected government schools while fieldwork analysis was conducted within 3 of these schools.

Variables taken were: training and participation, Fieldwork staff and parent participants and Fieldwork student participants and Satisfaction survey participants For Study 2, 2,723 primary and secondary school students participated. Variables considered were: Self-belief, Value of schooling, Learning focus, Planning and monitoring, Study management, Persistence, Anxiety, Low control, Failure avoidance, Self-sabotage and Disengagement. Findings of Study 1 revealed that PBL has an influence on student behavior & learning and changes to school culture.

Study 2 concluded that student’s motivation was generally positively related to PBL schools. Keller, B., Perez-Quinones, M. and Vatrapu, R. (2006) argued the importance of inclusion of culture in Computing studies, particularly in terms of database/software designing. They referred various cultural issues of nationalism, language, social context, time, and currency, units of measure, cultural values, body positions, symbols and esthetics that need to be addressed during global interface design.

To support their argument they mentioned, for example, representation of names of people. In the United States there is an assumption that everyone has a first, last and middle name, which is not the case in many other countries. They concluded with an argument that incorporating cultural issues in computing education is a core to the students’ success. Tsui, L. (2000) empirically examined the role of campus culture in developing students’ ability to think critically. Questionnaire surveys were used gathering data from four (4) strategically chosen case study institutions.

Regression analysis was conducted on the responses received. Dependent variable taken was “student’s self-assessed growth in critical thinking” while the Independent variables taken were related to institutional characteristics, campus culture, disciplinary major, classroom experiences, and out-of-class experiences. The study showed varied results based on the campus cultures and illustrated how campus culture is critically linked to the development of students’ cognitive skills. In conclusion, both quantitative and qualitative research on the topic was recommended.

Well, we can conclude that cultural background significantly contributes towards students’ study & learning behavior. Therefore, teachers must also understand and keep it in mind when teaching students’ having multi-cultural background. I have personally experienced the impact of students’ culture in the shape of standard of education and students’ cognitive skills when I visited the Main Campus and other City Campuses of the same University. Reference Pibulsilp, T. (2010). An investigation of cultural influence on academic library usage and experience of international medical students from Asian countries: a case study of students at the Christchurch School of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch [Internet], Available from: http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.

nz/bitstream/handle/10063/1273/thesis.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed 28 March 2011]. Barker, K., Yeung, A., Dobia, B. and Mooney, M. (2009). Positive behaviour for learning: Aiming to implement a workable, positive and sustainable approach to managing student behaviour[Internet]. Available from: http://www.aare.edu.au/09pap/bar09080.pdf [Accessed 30 March 2011]. Tsui, L. (2000). Effects of Campus Culture on Students’ Critical Thinking [Internet]. The Johns Hopkins University Press, USA. Available from: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/review_of_higher_education/v023/23.4tsui.pdf [Accessed 30 March 2011].

Keller, B., Perez-Quinones, M. and Vatrapu, R. (2006). Cultural Issues and Opportunities in Computing Education [Internet]. Eastern Michigan University, USA. Available from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.92.1330&rep=rep1&type=pdf [Accessed 28 March 2011].