Journal of Research & Scholarly Output 2006 - Grimsby Institute of ...

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doing so we could then fall into the trap of ignoring the powerful influence of the student cohort’s home country’s ‘deep’ culture. It is necessary to recognise that the epistemological development of educational processes, curricula, teaching methods and learning styles in the developed societies of the so called ‘first-world’ are the products of centuries of influence, evolvement, progress and specific refinement. For example, the United Kingdom’s educational evolution can easily be traced back as a series of ‘building block’ stages from modern history to Roman Britain. If we look even further back we can see that what the Romans taught us is based on their accumulated knowledge drawn from the Greeks, Egyptians and other earlier Mediterranean centred civilisations. It is argued that our knowledge and way of thinking owes much to the learned scholars from the ancient classical world. Fink (2001) contends: “educational systems in most Western countries have delivered what society has historically wanted them to deliver”. However, historical development of an educational system and way of learning in one part of the world does not guarantee appropriateness in another part of the world. To assume that it does, ignores, or at best, pays little regard to the epistemological development of learning and education in other countries. In China for example, education and sophisticated learning has also developed over several millennia but in a totally different way from the western world. Chinese knowledge and ways of learning are not derived from the same base - point as in the UK. A dissimilar set of factors and influences shaped the thinking and development of education and learning in China. Chinese learning draws from Confucius, Taoism, Buddha and Chinese scholars such as Lao Tzu, not from Aristotle and Archimedes. Early Chinese scholars did not have much interest in pure abstract thinking. When they came across abstract ideas, they expressed them in concrete or visual objectives. For example, instead of saying fast, they would say a thousand mile horse. For the concept of old, Chinese had three different ways of expression: one was aged sixty years, another was seventy years, and a third was aged eighty or ninety years. Kam-Cheung Wong (2004) points out: “Both in subject content and in the method of thinking in philosophy, the ancient Chinese were at great distance from the ancient Greeks, who developed early interest in the universe and in logic which laid the foundations for the development of Western worldview”. Logic remains essential in Western philosophical training to this day (Russell, 1961). Not so for the Chinese! Perhaps even more relevant, Chinese learning and societal perspectives in recent history have been greatly influenced by Marxism and Maoism; philosophies which are poles apart from the predominant ways of thinking in the so called west. Hofstede (1996) adds: “In attempting to understand differences, one needs history and in understanding history, one needs culture………….Thinking is affected by the kind of family they grew up in, the kind of school they went to, the kind of authority and legal system they are accustomed to. The causality between FOCUS Page Page 25
institutions and culture is circular; they cannot be separated”. Societal culture is a significant theoretical construct. Moloi (2003) refers to culture at three levels - surface, middle and deep. In her opinion, it is the deep culture i.e. the culture that develops through the language and life of the people, informed by time, traditions and history, that is difficult to change. Moloi (ibid) contends “that insufficient attention to the local culture results in only shallow surface comparison”. Within this concept of deep culture it is prudent to question whether the Chinese ‘thousand mile horse’ lack of abstract type of thinking still prevails and consider the impact would it have on learning transfer. The exploration by Morgan (1986) of the concept of psychic prisons by using the allegory of Plato’s cave, suggests “People can get trapped by illusions hence the way they understand reality is limited and flawed”. Whilst Fink, (2001) observes: “we get caught up in ones own mindset that we become unwilling or unable to see the perspective of others”. Consequently we could reject alternative viewpoints because they do not sit comfortably within our paradigm. Lumby, J. (2004) argues “an international perspective consequently leads to a critical attitude of existing theory which is based largely on western values and also of the dominant group within the west – white middle class men”. The point that Lumby makes is crucial as it encourages reflection on the influence of personal values. We often develop ideas about other people’s values by observing their behaviour, rather than through detailed discussion. Such observations may well be biased towards the support or confirmation of the personal values and viewpoints that we already hold. It is important that we acknowledge what may be accepted as fact or truth in one culture may not be in another. The denial of the existence of Nepal as a country previously referred to emphasises this point. Developing the ability to see things from a different perspective from other parts of the world is needed to change our embedded thinking to ensure the successful transfer of learning to an international student cohort. Lumby (2004) provides a useful definition: “An international perspective can therefore be defined as viewing values and practices in locations across the world including one’s own with sufficient openness to reach insights about similarities, differences and their scale and translating such insights into renewed commitment and ideas for developing one’s own practice. Such a stance offers vibrant learning to leaders (and educators) wherever they are based”. Within the framework of indicative content and learning outcomes, educational programme planning in the UK is quite straight forward – define what the students must learn, divide the learning into convenient chunks, produce schemes of work and lesson plans, establish timeframes, develop an assessment/ testing regime, organise learning resources, then tell the teachers how to achieve predetermined targets. The Higher Education programmes for delivery at Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education are planned and organised in Page 26 FOCUS
Page 1 and 2: Journal of research & scholarly out
Page 3 and 4: Editor’s Comments by the Director
Page 5 and 6: Contents The Collegiate and Transfe
Page 7 and 8: y a minority, their location in a d
Page 9 and 10: A number of colleges were also cent
Page 11 and 12: The reasons for this are historical
Page 13 and 14: contribution made, first, to the sh
Page 15 and 16: Except in relation to the franchisi
Page 17 and 18: education levels, higher education
Page 19 and 20: of the conclusions of an independen
Page 21 and 22: About the author Professor Gareth P
Page 23 and 24: values, educational background, sys
Page 25: whether our metaphors, stories and
Page 29 and 30: and used material from literature a
Page 31 and 32: their understanding of issues with
Page 33 and 34: Tutors need to be prepared and be a
Page 35 and 36: Reference Papers Dimmock, C. (2004)
Page 37 and 38: WISHful Thinking? By Rob Cooling -
Page 39 and 40: the growing trends of contractorisa
Page 41 and 42: These mechanisms can range from the
Page 43 and 44: References: HSE (2005) Obstacles pr
Page 45 and 46: Critical Circuits and Textual Const
Page 47 and 48: ‘The thing’ exists as a negativ
Page 49 and 50: offered for interpretation, the ‘
Page 51 and 52: Notes 1. All subsequent unattribute
Page 53 and 54: Vocational Excellence in Seafood Pr
Page 55 and 56: contrast to national projections, h
Page 57 and 58: ensuring that the approaches used b
Page 59 and 60: Software Tools Produce Plus is a Un
Page 61 and 62: Although some factories were happy
Page 63 and 64: Conclusions So far a target group o
Page 65 and 66: About the author Dr Mike Dillon has
Page 67 and 68: continues to persist within this co
Page 69 and 70: From the beginnings of Christianity
Page 71 and 72: While Hogarth resisted the increasi
Page 73 and 74: tragedy, he nevertheless single-han
Page 75 and 76: References Collins, Max Allen, Road
Page 77 and 78:
Error Analysis and Interlanguage By
Page 79 and 80:
way the learner has of testing his
Page 81 and 82:
sentence has to be analyzed in erro
Page 83 and 84:
tongue of the learner. The implicat
Page 85 and 86:
of different mother tongues learnin
Page 87 and 88:
Information for Contributors The pr
Page 89:
Nuns Corner, Grimsby, North East Li
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