UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK (UNIMAS)

FACULTY OF COGNITIVE SCIENCES AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (FCSHD)

COGNITIVE SCIENCE FOUNDATIONS OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
SUBJECT CODE (KML 6013)

MASTER OF SCIENCE (LEARNING SCIENCES)

Assignment 2 - 15%
Short Paper 1

Question 3
How does membership in a culture affect how and what one learns?
People are members of and are exposed to many cultures, often simultaneously. Sometimes,
these cultures differ dramatically. For example, cultures experienced in ones home may
differ from those experienced at school or in the workplace. Likewise, the new cultures
encountered by immigrants will likely differ from those of their home countries. How does
membership in one culture affect what or how a person learns when they are
functioning in a different one?

Prepared by:
Norashikin Khalid (16030379)

Lecturer:
Dr Philip Nuli Anding
 Culture influences peoples lives in many ways, including where they decide to stay,
what they do, their perception of education, what employment they consider suitable, their
behaviors, their accent, what they read or what they do for entertainment. In addition, culture
has a huge impact on human lives in regard to what people wear, say or find humorous.
However, what is culture? Culture has a very difficult term to define. Different group of
human define culture differently. To a group of businessman, their culture is to gain as much
profit as possible in their transaction activity. To a group of teachers and educators, culture
may refer to cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes,
meanings. It can also refer to systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of
people. To some others culture means communication or communication is culture.

Culture also refers to the characteristics of a particular group of people, including

their language, cuisine, social habits, religion, music and arts. Culture also affects how the
human brain responds to different stimuli. It can also be referred as a learned behavior of a
group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are
transmitted from generation to generation. Therefore, culture can be defined based on how
we view it, from different context. It is subjective.

Matthew Arnolds in Culture and Anarchy (1867), stated that culture refers to special
intellectual or artistic endeavors or products, what today is called today as high culture.
From this definition, only a portion or typically a small one or social group has culture. The
rest are potential sources of anarchy. If this definition is true, perhaps that is why some
students does not care whether they learn something or not in school. Because, to them as
long as they go to school, it is good already and it does not change anything. Or perhaps that
is why to some people they could not care to jump queue when they are at the payment
counter or to enter the monorail. Why? Because they culture only a portion or a small group
of people has culture.

I found that this definition is very interesting and I would like to relate it with
learning. What about learning? For learning, there is no very specific term for learning
because learning is also very subjective. To a group of students, when they read something, it
does not matter whether they comprehend what they are reading or not, they consider
themselves as learning something. However, to a group of teachers or educators, learning can
only happen when they can construct their own knowledge based on what they comprehend
by the mind. Therefore, learning and culture are very much related and to an extent, culture
affect how an individuals learn.

When we say culture and learning are connected we can relate it to early life
experiences and the values of a person's culture affect both ones growth and the processes of
learning. A primary key for learning environment is the family because home environment is
where learners start to learn about the language, their belief and respect to other people,
attitudes, motivation and skills as well as values of schooling. I do believe that parents
education also influence on students motivation to learn because parents is the closest model
to their children. For instance, the culture of reading among family members especially

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parents could influence children to like reading. A family where gaining knowledge is their
culture, can transmit that sense to the rest of the family members without the parents need to
tell. They see sibling with high education will gain status in the family and the community.
People who has high education for instance will be respected in the family or in their society.
Here, the struggle to gain knowledge until the higher level become the culture in the family
or in the society. This culture is important because it helps learner intrinsically and
extrinsically to succeed in learning, and a deep understanding of the learning no matter how
hard it takes.

In Master of Learning Science students in UNIMAS for instance, we come from

different background and different culture. The first few lectures are the transition or
assimilation period to all master students. This is because we are learning in a new
environment and at first it was a problem to a number of students where they need to adjust to
a new learning style. They are students who wanted to quit after a few weeks of lecture. This
is because our previous or undergraduate learning culture and current learning culture are so
different. In addition, our peers way of thinking are also different compared to adult learners.
In this regard, acculturation where culture modification of an individual or people is an issue
at the beginning. Then, we eventually find that there are also differences in the education
systems or learning style that we have to deal with. Hence, assimilation is important in order
to achieve success in learning. We are unaware that problems ww face are a result of cultural
differences. Instead, they think that their course mates are being evasive or unhelpful. These
misunderstandings can eventually lead to students feel they are unsupported which then
affects their academic performance.

Another example I would like to view is from the context of Hierarchy versus
equality. Lecturers from hierarchical cultures tend to expect students to behave in certain
ways so that they show respect for their lecturers. Students expect lecturers to be the experts
and to give them the information they need. For Malaysian students, debate and open
discussion between students and lecturers are not our culture here. People thought that it
may not be encouraged as much as can be seen as a lack of respect for the lecturers to
question/challenge what they are saying. This may result in a tendency towards rote
learning. However, when studying abroad for instance in United States, their learning
cultures is different which favour equality, lecturers function as facilitators and expect
discussion and debate from students. Students learn more by questioning and discussing.

Learning may also be influenced by individualism versus communitarianism. The

education system in western countries is generally influenced by individualism. Teachers or
lecturers mostly expect their students to be as independent as possible and will only provide
essential guidance and information to get them started in their assignments and study.
Students are also expected to work independently and not be seen to be collaborating with
other students to copy their work or their ideas. Students who come from community-
oriented cultures where group collaboration is normal may struggle in western institutions.
They are unaware that their teachers/lecturers generally may not be as accessible or
supportive as they would normally expect. Some students may also not understand the way

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tutorial classes run and may be hesitant to speak up and participate if they are not used to
doing so in their home country. However, students may be marked down due to lack of
participation in tutorial groups as they may not have the courage or skills to put their opinion
forward boldly in a group.

Learning styles can also be influenced by culture. Students from certain cultures may
learn best by observing and then doing. For instance, students whos parents are dealing with
buying and selling, may have experience in purchasing and trading goods and acquiring the
business skills through every day observation and that skills and culture have run in their
family. Other students prefer verbal instructions. Some others prefer visual/written
instructions. This can be seen, for example, when lab assistants complain that some
international students expect them to demonstrate the experiment for them, and they wrongly
assume that the students are expecting the lab assistants to do the work for them. However, it
could be that these students come from cultures where they learn by watching their parents or
teachers do the task first before they try it themselves.

Hofstede (1980) extracted from https://geert-hofstede.com/national-culture.html

designated a cultural factor termed Masculinity versus Femininity that focuses on the degree
to which traditional gender roles are assigned in a culture. An example of this may be a
cultural tradition where men are considered aggressive and competitive, while women are
expected to be docile and oriented towards home and family. This is true and we still see this
culture universal, where women are seen as a group of people who should stay at home and
look after the needs of her family. In the Middle East especially in the Saudis and other Arab
countries who still uphold this culture, women have very less opportunities to expose
themselves, drive a car or even go to the university. Therefore, those who wanted to upgrade
themselves and fight for womens right would migrate to other parts of the world where they
are accepted equally.

Another Hofstede (1980) dimensions on how culture influence learning is

Individualism and collectivism. People from individualistic cultural tradition view the
individual person as her or his rights are more important than any responsibility to a specific
group to which they may belong. On the other hand, people from collectivistic cultural
traditions spring from strong extended families or communities. In this case, group loyalty
always precedes individual loyalty. The valued pronoun for individualistic individual is I,
while the pronoun that best fits collectivistic culture tradition is We. This apparently show
that when students have this culture in them, they are willing to work collaboratively with
other students in group. They can work as a group and they have the same learning goals to
achieve. Students could engage in the collaborative learning classroom without any problem.
When working in group, they will have a collective total conclusion which is reached by all
of the participants in the group, which would impossible for them to reach independently.
They also share ideas, work collaboratively as a team and this eventually help them engage in
their learning. On the other hand, students with individualistic culture speak up in response to

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general invitation by the teacher. They might face problem working with other student
because they might see working independently is better.

In conclusion, culture refers to the characteristics of a particular group of people,

including their language, social habits which affects how the human brain responds to
different stimuli. Family culture, learning culture, cultural differences, hierarchy vs equality,
individualism vs communitarianism, masculinity vs femininity and individualism and
collectivism are the cultural factors which are essential in teaching and learning. A primary
key for learning environment is the family because home environment is where learners start
to learn about the language, belief and respect to other people, skills as well as values of
schooling. A deep understanding of both culture and learning style is important for all
educators. The relationship of the values of the culture in which a child is currently living or
from which a child has roots, and the learning expectations as well as experiences in the
classroom is directly related to the child's school success academically.

Reference

1. https://geert-hofstede.com/national-culture.html